 christian erland harald von koenigsegg (born july 2, 1972) is the founder of the swedish high-performance automobile manufacturer koenigsegg automotive ab. when koenigsegg was five years old, he saw the norwegian animated film flÃ¥klypa grand prix; in the movie a local bicycle repairman makes his own racing car. this gave koenigsegg the dream of creating the perfect sports car.christian, 5: jag ska bygga en egen bil nÃ¤r jag blir stor, aftonbladet, 12 june 2009 (swedish) after several years of planning he launched the koenigsegg project in 1994. designer david craaford provided a design concept following koenigseggâs guidelines. the prototype enabled the foundation of koenigsegg automotive ab. koenigsegg and his wife, halldora von koenigsegg, are active in the company's management. ==early life== christian von koenigsegg is a descendant of the mediatized german house of kÃ¶nigsegg. koenigsegg showed an interest in cars from an early age, starting at the age of five when he watched a stop-motion film, flÃ¥klypa grand prix, about a bicycle builder who built a racing car, il tempo gigante. when he was six years old, he drove a go-kart for the first time in his life, and he vividly recalls this as "one of the best days of his life".http://www.koenigsegg.com/koenigsegg/timeline/ his first summer job was at a suzuki dealership outside of stockholm, sweden, cleaning cars. at around this time, his hobby was tuning mopeds and was well known in his area. ==innovations== one of his innovations was called the chip player. he believed that one day, computer memory chips would be able to store an entire cdâs worth of data and that it would probably be a cheaper way to buy and store music. he conducted some patent searches for a musical device that would play chips instead of discs. in the end, however, no one seemed interested in the idea, so, christian moved on.http://exoticcars.about.com/od/overviewsofmaker1/p/koenigsegghistory.htm in 1991 he invented a new solution for joining floor planks together without adhesive or nails. he called it click, as the profile enabled the planks to simply click together. christian presented this technology to his father-in-law, who ran a flooring factory at the time. he rejected the idea, saying that if it was viable someone would have come up with it a long time ago. christian then showed the concept to a few other floor manufacturers who also dismissed it. in 1995 a belgian and swedish company patented virtually the same solution as christianâs click floor.http://www.koenigsegg.com/koenigsegg/past-present-and-future/ most of the patents that koenigsegg hold today are christianâs brainchild, such as the ârocketâ catalytic converter and the superchar
1972_births Living_people Swedish_founders_of_automobile_manufacturers