Wild 1,000 HP Ferrari Testarossa Is Equal Parts Thrilling and Terrifying
The wildest Ferrari Testarossa on earth is the Koenig Turbo Evolution, but it’s borderline scary to drive, it seems.
In its heyday, the Ferrari Testarossa was a simply incredible car not only to drive, but also, to look at. Today, this Italian classic is every bit as beautiful as it was back then, though by today’s standards, certainly not fast. However, there are a few that dare throw massive amounts of power at older cars like this, which, quite honestly, makes them a bit sketchy to drive. That’s certainly the case with this wild, custom Ferrari Testarossa recently featured in a video from The Smoking Tire, but it may just be the craziest version of that particular model we’ve ever laid eyes on.
Official known as the Koenig Competition Evolution, this particular ride was conceived by a German tuner known as Koenig Specials GmbH, which – for a time – churned out some seriously high-dollar, high-performance versions of various vehicles. That list started with the Berlinetta, but eventually moved to the Testarossa following its debut, and over the ensuing years, Koenig offered various configurations of that sports car, though pretty tame ones in the early days.
Eventually, one could opt for some pretty wild body kits such as the one seen here, but the wildest thing about the Koenig Turbo Evolution lies under its hood – a heavily fortified version of the car’s original 4.9-liter flat-12-cylinder engine. The Evolution was the ultimate upgrade available at the time, as it sported a pair of turbos, fortified internals, a remapped ECU, a new exhaust, and bigger intercoolers, all of which resulted in a cool 1,000 horsepower output.
While good old fashioned turbo lag meant that the Evo could only manage 0-60 in the higher three-second range, this particular package also topped out at a lofty 215 mph – for those that dare tried to reach that mark. We say that because these cars were all about looks and obscene performance, with little care for things like build quality, and as Matt Farah notes in this video, it may very well be the sketchiest car he’s ever driven – which says a lot for a guy that’s driven just about everything.
Given all of that – coupled with the car’s incredibly high for the time $600k price tag – which is $1.3 million in today’s money – it’s no surprise that only 21 examples of the Koenig Turbo Evolution were built in total. It’s neither pleasant nor comfortable to drive, but in all honesty, that’s by design – and it’s also what makes this niche ’80s product so darn cool, too.
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