10 Facts About Koenig Specials

Koenig Specials GmbH is a German tuning house based in Munich that specialised in modifications to European luxury cars but gained notability in the 1980s and 1990s for their performance modifications to Ferraris.

Koenig Specials entered into automobile production with its road-going version of the Porsche 962 known as the Koenig Specials C62, therefore becoming the first road-legal Group C-based car.

Koenig Specials originally became wealthy from publishing, and was able to afford race cars to race.

Koenig Specials began his racing career in 1961 with a Formula Junior Cooper that he acquired from the Formula One driver Wolfgang von Trips.

Koenig Specials retired from professional racing after 1969 to devote more time to his business; he then raced occasionally in club meetings and later sold his printing business to focus on his thriving car tuning business.

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Foundation of Koenig Specials began in 1974 when Willy Konig bought one of the first Ferrari 365 GT4 BBs in West Germany, but was dissatisfied with its performance in comparison to the sports car racers he was accustomed to.

Koenig Specials's hobby grew, and it eventually became a business in 1977 with an aim to make Ferrari a "proper sportscars [sic] again".

One of the early modifications offered consisted of a spoiler with crudely tacked on rear wheel arch extensions The company was named Koenig Specials because there was a large German Ferrari dealer known as Konig, in addition to avoiding Anglicization of the name.

Koenig Specials's reputation grew so much that it divided the opinion of Ferrari fans, disagreeing on even the removal of the side strakes on the modified cars.

Additionally, Koenig Specials angered Enzo Ferrari so much that he ordered Koenig Specials, via legal notice, to remove all prancing horse badging from its cars once it received the modifications, as they no longer considered it to be a Ferrari.