Breaking Down Koenigsegg’s “Freevalve” Camless Engine, And How It Works

If you’ve spent any amount of time in the world of supercars and hypercars, you know that Koenigsegg is a brand that definitely carries its own weight in terms of engineering prowess. Quite often, you may even hear that brand-name tossed around in the same sentence as “cutting edge.” Sure, the cars might cost quite the sum of cash, but the brand has proven over and over again that they have what it takes to justify spending the money over some of their competition in the same price bracket. It really can boggle the mind how the engineers behind it all create at such a high level.

This time, with the helping hand of an Engineering Explained video, we dive into another design process that the automaker has brought to life that is known as “Freevalve.” Essentially, the design flips internal combustion engines on their heads and removes the concept of the camshaft from the process entirely. When you take a look around the landscape of cars and trucks, you might see engines with one cam or potentially, even more, but the thought of removing the part entirely was a challenge which Koenigsegg stepped up to the plate and knocked way out of the park in a way that very few could.

If you see something like this, you might ask yourself why these guys wanted to head out there and essentially reinvent the wheel. Well, in addition to this video that lays out the entire design and explains to you how it all works, we’re told that this camshaft-less design will help to reduce emissions, squeeze more bang for your buck out of the fuel that you’re using, and even provide more torque and power in the lower RPM range. Let’s be honest, that last one is what we were hoping for with a car like this. Thinking forward, though, if the market could extend that technology to the average consumer, it could mean that big things could be coming.

Only time will tell if this design can have any sort of longevity in the world of wheels, but win or lose, in the long run, this concept certainly is a lot of fun to look at and will go down as a function of a great creative mind, in the history books.