Yahoo Autos 1985 Ferrari Testarossa Koenig Specials Competition II Is Today's Bring a Trailer Pick
In the mid 1980s, the Ferrari Testarossa was an apex predator among supercars. For some buyers, though, it wasn't predatory enough.
For them, Germany's Koenig was a tuner that specialized in Ferraris, like this 1985 Testarossa.
Modified by that German outfit when new, the extensive makeover included the engine, the body, and the interior. This car is peak 1980s performance.
You'd think a mid-engine flat-12 supercar straight outta Maranello would be as exotic as it came during the 1980s, but not as far as Willy König was concerned. It was the 1980s after all, and König dealt in excess: He set up shop in Munich in 1977, and set about turning Ferraris into positively unhinged machines, fitted with wild body kits and surging with turbocharged boost. He called his creations Koenig Specials, changing the spelling from his last name to differentiate it from a local Ferrari dealership. Now, here's your chance to get your hands on what is surely his most unhinged creation.
Up for auction on Bring A Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos) is a 1985 Ferrari Testarossa Koenig Specials Competition Evolution II. When modifications were completed in 1986, this car's 4.9-liter twin-turbocharged engine was pumping out a colossal 1000 horsepower, more power than a factory Testarossa and a contemporary Porsche 959 put together.
Madness! And certainly Koenig Specials were never shy about matching crazy power levels with over-the-top looks. The kit on this Testarossa was drawn by Vittorio Strosek, who trained under Luigi Colani, one of the zaniest designers to ever pen a car. Strosek deleted the Testarossa's signature side strakes, replacing them with huge intakes to gulp air for the intercoolers of that overboosted flat-12.
A Testarossa is not a slim car, but the Koenig treatment makes it as wide as the USS Gerald R Ford. The 17inch multi-piece wheels wear 335-mm wide tires out back, steamroller rubber for the time but perhaps not quite equal to the full surge of all that turbocharged horsepower. A pair of twin polished center exhausts poke out from the rear, and you just know they crackle like an artillery barrage between shifts on a full-throttle run.
Inside, the excess continues with more leather than the trouser rack backstage at a Rod Stewart concert, and four-point racing harnesses. There's a rotary boost dial between the seats to control power outputs—from mild panic to outright terror?—as well as a gated shifter for the five-speed manual transmission.
Taken all together, it's hard to think of a more bonkers example of just how wild Euro-tuners got in the 1980s. Head on over to Bring A Trailer to check out the full intensity of a Koenig Specials modified Testarossa. They don't come any crazier than this.
The auction ends on July 16.
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