If ever you were feeling that Lotus was losing its edge and making overly sensible cars, this rolling piece of science fiction may tickle your fancy. The basic recipe is this: take a Group C car, outfit it with some questionable trim pieces, raise it to the point that it doesn’t scrape, insulate the cabin somewhat, change certain body panels, revise the aero balance, then fit road-going necessities. This doesn’t do justice to the effort required to make something built around venturi tunnels into a road car, but it gets the basic process across. Well, road car is a bit generous—road legal is a fairer description of the Koenig C62.
That’s the most barebones description of what famed German tuner Koenig did to transform a late-series Porsche 962 into a road-going supercar. When Group C’s death knell was heard across the world at the beginning of the 1990s, Koenig must’ve taken the chance to carry a little ’80s excess into the new decade. What better way to do that than take a 230-mph Le Mans legend and make it just friendly enough to survive the public roads.
The revised ride height, body panels, and underbody were all diligently done to make this car work on roads rougher than your typical pool table.
Essentially, this is—pardon the hackneyed phrase, but it is appropriate here—a racing car for the road. Though far from cosseting, this leather-trimmed Group C rocket offered the eccentric millionaire the chance to experience thoroughbred racing performance on public roads with some semblance of comfort. Where its speed could be truly exploited outside of central Nevada or the Autobahn isn’t clear, since the performance was, even by today’s standards, absolutely nutty.
A naked carbon tub and silly accents—not for everyone, but there is an undeniable sense of occasion in this garish rocketship.
Minimal insulation and some questionable leather trim raised the weight to a still-impressive 2,425-pounds, and that lightweight frame was propelled by a mildly detuned 3.4-liter flat-six making 588 horsepower and 533 lb-ft of torque. That grunt, when sent through a five-speed synchromesh box and 335-section rear tires, propelled the C62 to 60 in 3.4 seconds, to 120 in 9.9 seconds, and supposedly onto a top speed of 230 mph.
This particular example had its output verified last year at 550 horsepower at a conservative 1.0 bar of boost.
This example, just one of three, is currently for sale at $1.25M. For the full listing and an amusing description of an outrageous car which “makes a Countach feel like a Golf,” click here.