With his eyes on the American market, Christian von Koenigsegg took to the stage at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show to unveil a mid-engined sports car that would be compliant with stringent U.S. safety and emissions standards.

The CCX shown to the world that day in March was the result of an audacious decades-long effort to defeat the odds and turn a fledgling company into a successful supercar builder with staying power.

The X in its name signified the 10th anniversary of the first trial of the Koenigsegg CC (short for Competition Coupe), about two years after Christian von Koenigsegg first founded his eponymous company.

The first production Koenigsegg arrived in 2002 as the C8S, a hand-built supercar with a chassis composed of Formula 1-grade carbon fiber-reinforced Kevlar and honeycomb aluminum.

The dihedral synchro-helix actuating doors that would become a Koenigsegg trademark were one of many technological standouts, though they did not overshadow its ferocious 4.6-liter twin-super...