The Koenig-Specials Porsche 928 might be one of the company's most painful projects and mainly because of the basecar; a Porsche. With the introduction of the Zuffenhausen brand in the Koenig catalog, Willy deliberatly crossed a line he had promised not to cross when he hired designer Vittorio Strosek in the early 80s.
The Koenig Porsche 928 S4 in full glory. Note that this car doesn't have the Koenig rear wing installed.
Using Strosek's design skills the Koenig-Specials line-up received it's iconic visual appearance; Ferraris and Benzes with Testarossa style streaks and ironically a Testarossa without them. Vittorio Strosek's early work for Koenig was less balanced and less modest than his later work done under his own name, but still within the realm of extreme eighties tuning designs his Ferrari and Mercedes designs are much better than those of many other extreme tuners of the day.
To keep Strosek happy Willy had a deal with Vittorio to stay clear of tuning any Porsche products, something Strosek wanted to do under his own brand "Auto Vittorio" and later "Strosek Auto Design". Well known is Strosek's succes of the conversions he created for various Porsche models, starting with the 928 and the 944 and the good old 911 soon after. Willy Koenig must have been annoyed by this clear succes and then came 1986.... the year Willy Koenig the businessman took charge and decided he wanted a piece of the action.... the Porsche Tuning Action that is....
With the 1986 introduction of the Koenig-Specials Porsche 930 "Road Runner", Koenig departed from the connection with Vittorio Strosek and started working with another Southern Germany based company named AutoExclusiv from Burkau. Visual appearance was created with the help of this company who actually did work with Strosek in the early 1980s (it's a small Tuningworld after all).
The Koenig-Specials version of the Porsche 928 S4 was up next in 1987. Just as they had done with the 930, Koenig-Specials used the Burkau company AutoExclusiv to co-develop this extreme version of the 928... extreme is what had to be, because that was Koenig-Specials way to go always and ever. The bodykit which was designed by AutoExclusiv was extreme in wideness and way less subtle than the Strosek 928 (Version III) which was actually beeing slowely developed into a creation more subtle during that same period in time. The Koenig /AutoExclusiv 928 used styling that seemed to draw heavily on earlier (Strosek) Koenig designs for the Ferrari Testarossa, basically squashing the Strosek designed streakless sideintakes of the Ferrari onto the 928's body. A Porsche 928TR maybe? The extra width created by this surgery had to be filled by Koenig's standard operation of mounting massive Koenig-Specials spec 15" BBS-RS in 345 width for the rear tires (225s for the front) that would look totally mad and meanacing. That the big tires would also make the car slower was only of minor importance. Front and rear sections of the car were not as extreme as the wide sides. The front-end of the Koenig 928 was treated with a new front bumper with two wide air intake slits. The front wings were widened to accomodate the 225 tires and at the rear a bumper with something that looks much like a diffuser, whether actually functional or not. The rear end was clompletely cladded in a plastic wrap, that would make the rear lights seem recessed. And then there's the double tier rear wing, the lower part borrowed from the 928S and the upper part a variation of the standard Koenig-wing, adapted to the 928. The wing Koenig used was actually slightly smaller than that of the initial Strosek 928, and comparable to the Strosek piece for the 928 S4.
Head-to-head with a Strosek 928 in HongKong.
To compensate for the ankerish drawbacks of the big wheels, Koenig offered a performance boost courtesy of Austria based home-subcontractor Franz Albert. Albert designed an Albrex volumetric supercharger for the 928's 5 liter V8 engine that upped the poweroutput from a stock 320bhp to 370 without an intercooler and 400 horsepower with the intercooler. Speeds of 300km/h became possible. Further improvements to the 928 were done by means of a stiffer and lower suspension setup. All this glory would cost about 200.000 Deutschmarks in 1987 for the complete car, of which 65.000 was the price of conversion. A 400 horsepower engine would ad another 25.000.
Now the story doesn't end there. In 1989 the Koenig design for the Porsche 928 was updated and introduced at the '89 Frankfurt Motorshow (IAA). The design had undergone drastic design changes and for a good reason; just as what happened with the relationship with Vittorio Strosek a few years before, the teaming up with Herbert Gruber's AutoExclusiv came to an end in 1988 or 89. Koenig had a new design made for the 928, most likely by new inhouse designer Thomas Neff. It seems to be an update of the original design, with a heavier front bumper, front wings that have openings at the rear end to exit the hot air of the brakes and which make the front end of the car look like a sperate piece. This all came with 17" BBS-RS wheels which looked quite the part. This conversion was dubbed the "928 Sport" by Koenig.
In the mean time AutoExclusiv started offering their own 928 S4 widebody, which was basically the car they made for Koenig but with a more pronounced front-bumper. The BBS wheels were swapped for Borbet Type-A wheels in 17" size and cars were distributed through Matthias Mück Automobile from Essen in Germany. Most cars ended up in Japan were several were found in period ads.
On the cover of RallyeRacing in 1987. Note the license plate which connects this Koenig to AutoExclusiv; the GZ first part shows the area where AutoExclusiv is from, the AE for AutoExclusiv.
From the front the Koenig 928 clearly shows its Koenig lineage; the large side airintakes being very similar to those on the Testarossa.
The rear end of Koenig's 928 shows wideness, a lot of it. The complete width of the car totalled 2,10 metres. The wing on this one is the standard one for the Porsche 928 S4.
Germany 1991: a 1987 Porsche 928 S4 based Koenig-Specials conversion in guards red.
France 1989: an advert by French tuning company Poly Tuning Design showing a Koenig 928 they built. This car was owned by a Frenchman who owned the 928 for 7 years before having it turned it into a Koenig by Poly Tuning Design, as an alternative to buying a newer model 928.
Late 1980s Japan: a Koenig 928 flexes his headlights..
Japan 1992; based on a 1990 Porsche 928 S4 is this Koenig-Specials Porsche 928 done by Japanese shop Segawa's. PLS wheels are an interesting addition, a cheaper alternative to real Koenig BBS-RS wheels....
Japan 1996: a Koenig 928 with Borbet type-A wheels.
Japan 1990s: a 928 by Koenig presented for sale at the Yoshikawa showroom.
Second generation Koenig-Specials Porsche 928
The second generation Koenig 928 "Sport" with much modified bodykit.
Japan 1991: a second generation Koenig 928 standing in front of the showroom of Japan's Koenig-Specials importer, CarCraft.
A second generation Koenig Porsche 928 for sale in Japan 1991.
Japan 1998: an interesting Koenig 928 with red interior and 17" OZ Futura wheels.
An open-top Koenig 928: made by a bodyshop from California who made at least two of these.
The Auto Exclusiv Porsche 928 S4, basically an evolution of the Koenig car by the company that actually designed the original.
Text: copyright Bram Corts
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