Koenig F48, a 600 HP widebody 348

Saw this on BaT (they also have a nice white TS), that's for sale on eBay in the UK. I think it's amazing! Can't upload the eBay link (is that verboten?), so here's the BaT ad:

600 HP Twin Turbo Widebody: 1990 Ferrari 348/Koenig F48 | Bring a Trailer
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That one pops up here from time to time.

Awesome car.

 

Ahh, newbie mistake on my part. The comments on BaT are frustrating, though. I don't think they get it.

 

They don't, they should go look at a 288gto evoluzione and realize when this car was made. This was in a time where the most powerful cars in the world were making <500hp and Koenig was pumping TR's up over 1000hp and 348's to almost 700. I'd be looking hard at this if it were lhd.

 

Ah, but how often does it come up for sale? So thanks for the info.

 

Wish this thing was based off a tb and LHD so I could make an impulse purchase.

 

348 and F40 same wheelbase.

Wonder how durable that motor and the rest of it is.

 

Yuuup !!!

LHD I would be all over it

I have some 348 Koening parts in my collection to make a clone one day

 

It's been for sale on and off for a number of years now (and it's been for sale for around the last two years non-stop this time) - So the answer to your question is:

Plenty of times!

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355-sponsored-bradan/523122-ferrari-348-f48-koenig-twin-turbo.html

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355-sponsored-bradan/533627-koenig-348-f48-ebay-uk.html

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/united-kingdom/392335-keonig-f48-twin-turbo.html (The advert no longer exists but I'm pretty sure it was the same car)

 

Well, then it must be overpriced if it keeps getting listed by the same folks using the same photos. Or, their marketing skills are severely lacking (goes without saying, actually).

 

With a six-figure ask for a Serie Speciale, and generally appreciating market for the 348, I think the price for this Koenig beast is within reason. Maybe even a bargain, if it's all it's cracked up to be!

 

It may well have been an awesome piece of engineering in its day, but it looks like an F40 kit car, and not a very good one.

Having said that, it would be fun if you could bolt standard 348 panels back on. You'd surprise a lot of expensive metal in it. Not worth anywhere near the asking price though.

 

Totally agree!

The standard 348 is already a car that has Marmite looks (you either like it or you don't), and a general reputation in the motoring world for not being very good (cue yet more abuse from owners trying to claim that this is not true! Sorry people but the general view of non-owners/non-Ferrari enthusiasts is that the 348 is not one of Ferrari's best efforts. I'm not agreeing with them, I'm just pointing out that that is how the 348 is viewed!).

A 348 that has been modified to look like a poor quality F40 replica, had it's engine modified with turbo''s and given twice the power of the original car by a company that no longer supports the servicing or repair of it, is always going to have an even more limited market when it comes to finding a buyer.

The seller will think that because so few of these cars were made, it makes it worth more than the regular 348, hence the high asking price.

For buyers, the fact that so few of these modified cars were made is actually off putting because it means that certain parts will be incredibly hard to get hold of, if not impossible!

The 348 market in the UK is no longer appreciating, it is actually now declining, and there are plenty of standard cars on the market for less money that would be a lot less of a risk to own than this car.

If this car really was a bargain then it would have sold a couple of years ago when the UK market took off. But it hasn't sold! It keeps reappearing for sale (usually with a note in the advert stating that the price has been reduced despite the fact that the price is still the same as before!), and the vendor seems oblivious to the idea that if you advertise a car for a certain price, and it doesn't sell for a couple of years at that price, then chances are you've priced it too high!

To put this car back to standard would take more work than it would ever be worth - Koenig didn't just glue bits of plastic to a 348 to create this car.

 

Is it? (I sold mine exactly a year ago)

I agree though that a standard 348 is more valuable than a modified one.

 

I'm surprised there isn't more enthusiasm in general for over-the-top Ferrari tuning. Wide-bodies and big power are seem to be better received from other makes, especially Germans with Porsche (DP, Kremer, etc.) and Benz (AMG). But let a German tuner get a hold of a Ferrari, and all you get is backlash.

I've never seen one of these up close enough to have an opinion on the build quality. But from here, it looks awesomely wild, very much like an IMSA racer in the '90s. If Ferrari built this car (oh wait, they did, and it was called an F40), it would be a million dollars. Hey, just kidding. (Not.)

 

The 348 engine isn't really all that different from an F40 engine. It's like comparing an C6Z06 LS7 vette motor to an C6ZR1 LS9. The part numbers may be different but the base architecture is damn close. 348 is all forged internals. I'm guessing if the tune is right and the cooling adequate the motor can do 600 hp all day.

 

My guess is that you're spot-on. I'd be lots more worried about the input shaft and trans than the engine itself.

 

I've heard that the trans is the weak point on the 348, so you'd probably have to address that. The turbo 348 that was reviewed by Matt Farah a few years back had a 355 trans swapped in. It's worth noting that the 348 does use a completely different trans than the 288/F40, even though the engines are pretty similar. I don't know how different the 355 transmission is if you ignore the added gear.

 

The F40 transaxle is huge, so I doubt there's any commonality between it and the smaller 355 'box.

 

Especially in pictures!
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Really cool pictures, thanks for posting those!

 

Found the last two here:

Ferrari Past Models: More than 60 Years of Cars - Ferrari.com

 

Just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that the 288/F40 transmission are related to the F355 transmission in any way. I meant to imply that there may be some similarity between the 348 and F355 transmissions. Based on that pic above, the packaging looks very similar, which isn't surprising since the F355 chassis is very similar to the 348 chassis. I'm guessing the guts are beefier though, as I always heard that the F355 is strong trans/problem prone motor and the 348 is strong motor/problem prone trans. (I don't know how true that is once the valve guides/exhaust manifolds are fixed on the F355 motor...)

 

Something worth noting from those pics is the halfshaft input location. It appears that the 348/355 places the motor further back and a little lower in the chassis than the F40. I wonder if the overall weight bias front/rear is that different because of the change in longitudinal engine position, or if the higher relative weight of the forward bits in the 348/355 cancel this effect out in relocating the CG...