The maddest Ferrari: Meet the Koenig Competition
The Ferrari Testarossa of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s has received a mixture of love and hate over its lifetime. In the timeline of Ferrari, they’re very much a product of the awkward and outlandish ‘80s phase that every manufacturer went through.
The old TR, in spite of the marmite nature of its appeal, has undergone a resurgence in intrigue these past couple of years. With automotive styling going intergalactically outlandish of late, all of a sudden the ‘Rossa has started to look quite conservative, and in an age where turbos and electric motors are taking over, its naturally aspirated V12 looks rather lusty and a bit quaint. Not to mention that it was the last semi-normal mid-engined V12 Ferrari before the limited-run halo models highjacked the formula for themselves.
All things considered, the TR as it stands is a pretty special car, and the market as aforementioned has been reflecting that for a while.
Then you get on to the fairly silly stuff. This is the Koenig Competition Testarossa. One visited Goodwood for a track day not long back (as pictured), and while its F40-infused styling is even more divisive than the already polarising standard machine, it’s certainly a rarity.
It’s not an aesthetics over substance item either. With a twin-turbo kit good for 1,000 horsepower should the customer request it, chassis and suspensions mods to handle the power, as well as other areas of customisation, it was an early insight into the then budding world of boutique supercars. The possibilities went as far as the customers taste.
The car to visit Goodwood seems to be a relatively conservative effort – retaining the Rosso hue, that is until you spy the cabin where the red has spilled in and enveloped everything…
What do you make of the Koenig Competition? A valiant effort to make the ultimate boutique playboy Ferrari, or a meaty chunk short of a dog’s dinner?
Photography by Tom Shaxson
Ferrari
Koenig
Testa Rossa
