How Did a Fire Give Koenigsegg a Fighter-jet Runway?

David Senra says Koenigsegg's early headquarters was a renovated farm building with a thatched roof, and the building burned down. The fire happened on a Saturday, while people were still working, so they saved most of the prototypes and the tooling. The Swedish government then offered space at a recently decommissioned air base, in an area with little employment, because it wanted companies to hire there. Senra calls the fire a blessing in disguise. What looked like the worst thing to happen to the company became the reason it could keep building.

Koenigsegg describes the factory as a former fighter-jet squadron hangar. The team can test whenever it wants, with very little planning, on the old runways. An idea for an engine tweak, a gearbox, brake pads, or aerodynamics can go straight out for a test. Senra says that freedom is unusual even for a large carmaker, and that it is one reason the cars can be as extreme as they are. In a smaller company run by its founder, an idea has no one above it to stop the attempt, including ideas that would be hard to try inside a bigger organization.