Hello all, Monitoring the Japanese auction scene at the moment, and have come across this monstrosity! It has 30K miles on it, and is failing to sell at SERIOUSLY cheap money (£12000 or so!) Just wondered if anyone could shed any light on it - the front and rear spoilers look to be Koenig, as is the rear badging, and the exhaust is obviously aftermarket. Remove all the awful graphics, LEDs etc and it could be an interesting car. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Very interesting, thanks for sharing! I always wondered how Koenig Testarossa were valued. Joe will enjoy the "monstrosity" term I agree, the body isn't much to fix, but the cool part is in the engine compartment! The Koenig Testarossa is a childhood hero of mine I admit...
Martin you have more info about this car? or a link ? the rear wing looks like koenig, but not the wheels, not the front flap under the front bumper. would be nice to have a look at the engine, because the turbocharged engines always had the two exhausts in the center, not one left and one right would be good to see what brakes are inside also what other modifications have been made??? if I could know more of this car I would enjoy much more and only asking 12.000 ( british pound?? ) are a X-mas-gift as two former koenig mechanics told me the most of the turbocharged TR where going to japan so if someone likes to buy a koenig I´m sure you will find one there. question is only if running fine or not also in what condition??? for sure is only that they all have only a very little mileage driven
Joe, Trying to get some more info at the moment - as you say, the exhaust doesnt look Koenig, so I wonder if its only the spoiler and badge. The only other clues I have are the interior, which is horrible, but has lots of extra wiring, so I wonder if that is all some kind of boost control system. The Japanese auction houses dont give engine bay photos, I may have to buy it, ship it and then work out what the hell it is!! But, as you say, at such a low price its a bit of a gift, and the parts will be worth more than that Image Unavailable, Please Login
Call me nuts but I like the Koenig cars. Just something different over a normal TR from a builder that has the most respect in the field. Like a Singer Porsche "Gone Wild"
FYI, here's their Facebook page (this car is the 10th one down): https://www.facebook.com/JDM.JPDJapan They've had other 'modified' TRs in past auctions.
Wow I`d love a Koenig - I like the styling too. I`ve got a magazine called "Redline" which I bought in 1987 - it was the September isssue - and it has a decent length article on Koenig (more actually on the UK agent "creative cars"). It`s got a couple of nice pics and a drive of a Koenig Testarossa (along with their Koenig Mercedes 500 SEC) Not sure if it`s ok for me to try to scan it and post it up? Dom.
this screen koenig never used also there are missing the boost gauge, the knob to adjust the boost may be there is a V 8 chevy engine inside??? in the facebook add there is standing: ON AUCTION! Ferrari Testarossa F113B MT5 LHD Grade: 4/B Km: 47.560 Year: 1991 Colour: Rossa Red Auction date: 6/2-2015 There is many good older Ferraris on auction these days! This F113 Testarossa is from the first series of the Testarossa family! Great car with some modification as shown on the pictures. Again as we say, these normally sells cheap! it is a 91 testarossa and the first seriestarted with single mirror in 84. so you see how far the seller has knowledge about what he tries to sell
The car actually made about £30000 when it went through. Odd because it was unsold for less on two previous occasions. Landed, with duty paid and UK registration, that will end up about £40K Would be interesting to see what it would make at a UK auction with the worst excesses removed?? I dont think the Japanese market has "got it" regarding these cars yet. I know that the car Ive just paid £72K for was landed in the UK about 8 months ago for £37K. I was happy to pay the price I did and the importer has turned a serious profit!
Hi - well as you can see once the image is cut down to 800x600 for the forum, the writing is almost impossible to read! If anyone wants me to email them the images of the pages in original format with readable text, just give me a shout. There`s only about 5 pages I think and size will be 1-2 meg each. Bear in mind though that the text for the drive of the Testarossa is only about half a page long - the rest of the text is about the company and also the Koenig Mercedes and Bentley. Had a quick flick through the mag and saw the Koni ad, so thought I had better post it up too! Dom. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I just got an answer from the dealer in japan: the car was on auction yesterday but they don´t tell me if it was sold or not also they have not answered my other questions because of modifications and so on. so again someone to forget
unfortunately there is no photo from the engine and also no photo from the rear to see the exhaust. but when I have a look at the second photo I see a little from the exhaust and this seems to me original, so no turbo charged car?
I heard in Japanese auto sales culture; when the cars are not sellable in the normal retail or wholesale market then they would be sent to the auto auction house... need someone to clarify that.
I lived in Japan for 2 years. Their culture is a little closed off. There are many middle man who can facilitate purchases from Yahoo auctionsJP, Ebay etc. It just takes a little bit of Googling and anything can be done. Once you find a middleman, they will make contact and facilitate the transaction. One of the biggest fear of the seller is a scam. So the Broker puts money into an escrow type of account. Ive purchased a couple of things from YahooJp (its the equivalent of Ebay), Paid up front and got the items a couple of weeks later. Its a cultural thing...they are guarded. But if you can find a trusted ally over there, there is a ton of neat stuff.
