This Insane Porsche 962 Le Mans Race Car Is Road Legal

Sep. 27, 2021 2:24 PM ET by Gerhard Horn For Sale / 1 Comment

And you can own it.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to daily a Le Mans racing car? Wonder no longer, because now you can buy one of three Koenig Specials C62s, based on the Porsche 962 endurance racer. It can be yours for a cool $995,000. And, it's road legal.

That's not bad, considering somebody recently paid $2 million for a Porsche 928 Tom Cruise sat in once.

If you haven't heard about Koenig, don't sweat. Koenig, not the be confused with Koenigsegg, produced wild limited-number cars in the 80s and 90s. The company still exists but has been surpassed by tuning companies like Novitec, Mansory, and Brabus.

The Koenig Special C62 is based on the Porsche 956/962 endurance racing car. It was one of the most successful endurance racers ever made, but it was retired following a series of rule changes in the early 90s. Around 125 examples were built, and Koenig got hold of three.

The timing was right on the money. This was the era of the Ferrari F40, Porsche 959, and Lamborghini Diablo. Manufacturers were breaching the 200 mph barrier with no ABS, carbon-ceramic brakes, or forward collision warning. It was supercar nirvana.

Instead of building a supercar for scratch, Koenig purchased three of the surfeit Porsches. Having raced one of these cars before, the team at Koenig was familiar with the car. The headlights and fenders were raised to make it road legal, while the underfloor aerodynamics were enhanced to keep it on the road. As you might know, Le Mans cars were prone to taking off at the Mulsanne Straight.

The stiff suspension was also dropped in favor of a less excruciating street setup. Koenig retained the 962's brakes but with more street-oriented Brembo pads. Finally, it added an opening front compartment and a plexiglass engine lid to make servicing easier. Basically, it's still very much a racer, only lightly disguised under a generic edgy supercar body.

This particular unit has a twin-turbocharged flat-six engine that produces 550 horsepower with one bar of boost and an exhaust system with catalytic converters. This is a reasonably conservative setup, but probably for the best, considering it has no modern assistance features. If you look closely, you'll see it's running a tire with a tread up front, but the rear tires are full-on slicks. That's likely why it only has 1,566 miles on the clock.

Koenig planned on building 30 units but ended up producing only three. Why? Well, Ferrari only charged $400,000 for a brand-new F40, while Koenig demanded just over $1 million for the C62. This particular C62 is the second one made and was exported to Japan. It lived there under the custodianship of various collectors but found its way to the USA in 2019. It currently resides in California.

The current owner is selling it via Issimi and only wants $995,000 for it - roughly the price of five modern Porsche 911 Turbos. Considering F40s are going for well above a million these days, that price isn't bad for a lightly disguised Le Mans racer.

This Insane Porsche 962 Le Mans Race Car Is Road Legal

Join The Discussion

Gallery

This Insane Porsche 962 Le Mans Race Car Is Road Legal

Join The Discussion

Gallery

Related Cars