REVIEW: GT Spirit Koenig F48 • DiecastSociety.com

REVIEW: GT Spirit Koenig F48

We’re not the biggest fans of tuning a Ferrari.  In our opinion legends sometimes should be left alone.  A recent release from the GT Spirit team placed an exception to our comments, this is the Koenig F48 finished in Red with White interior.  A limited edition piece of 999.

If you’re not familiar with the tuner Koenig they are a German-based company.  They provided “tuned” cars and a massive array of parts for many popular brands.  In the eighties and nineties, many Ferraris crossed their path and one creation was the car we find here.  The Ferrari 348 is the base vehicle for the project.  A pair of turbos were bolted on to its 3.4-litre V8 engine to cover the power side.  As for exterior design, the car resembles a cross between a Ferrari 348 and an F40, clearly, there is a lot of F40 inspired styling here.  Whatever the ingredients were we think its uber cool.

The exterior paint looks grand on our example.  Zero flaws front to rear.  Overall body lines are good and mirror the original car will.  Multiple side intakes are nicely defined but capped with solid bits of plastic. As for panel gaps and shut lines they are on point too.  Maybe too good.  With the multitude of custom parts, you know fitment of Koenig produced elements wouldn’t be as refined as OEM Ferrari.  Case in point, but this might be more of resin limitations – rear wing shutlines and other areas are too perfect on the scale replica.  Is this necessarily a bad thing, absolutely not.

The front of Koenig F48 features the headlights in the closed position.  All three front intakes are nicely defined but all three feature solid plastic bits.  Lower running lights are behind tinted lenses, the lights them self are nicely defined as well.  There is an actual Ferrari badge in the centre.

The rear has much more in terms of detail than the front.  First off, we’re glad the team used a large perforated Black grille.  It definitely helps pump the realism factor.  Quality taillights help round-out the package.  Massive exhaust tips extrude from the lower bumper.  Not much in terms of exhaust detail, however, the underside does reveal some of the cars transmission and motor detail.  Not much though.

As you can see the rear engine cover is definitely F40 inspired once again.  We would assume it is crafted in Lexar as the original F40 was.  Note there are no rivets or finishing bolts around the perimeter of the cover.

Surprisingly the motor is quite detailed!  GT Spirit has used a good combination of colour, layers and decals to create an interesting representation.  Maybe the best we’ve seen from the brand.  However on closer inspection, you see the limitations of the design, it is basically a flat piece.

Wheels on the Koenig F48 are another great element on the car.  We believe these are an OZ Racing design.  Centres are Gold and the outer rim completed in Silver.  GT Spirit does a great job replicating the design.  They captured all the bolts and added a valve cap to boot!  Rotors are solid discs and calipers are painted in Silver at all four corners.

The interior as mentioned earlier is completed in White, well for the most parts.  Doors cards have a mix of White, Red and Black.  The theme continues into the dash and centre console.  Though there are seat-belts connection points in the seats there isn’t any upper section of the seat-belt apparatus available.  No flocking or leather in the footwells either, replaced with coloured plastic.  Even with these mises, we give the car high markets on overall interior reproduction.  I think the White helped shape the results.

We know the purists would say leave original alone, and for the most part, we would agree.  We’re not usually the biggest fans of Koenig designs, but in the case of Koenig F48, we kinda like it!

GT Spirit does a great job and making a 1:18 scale representation.  There is a lot of good with this piece as we noted above.  The design is cool and the retro White interior just fits perfectly with the period.  If you’re looking for something to complement your Ferrari or expand your tuner assortment you should definitely look into this one, she comes recommended.  In our opinion, this is the sexiest Koenig issue from GT Spirit to date.  Enjoy the pics!

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2 Responses to "REVIEW: GT Spirit Koenig F48"

  1. George K says:

    I have to disagree. This is just a 348 paneled up to look like an F40. The execution is not that great in itself- this looks like a 1/43 scale model. The wheels? Just one piece posing as two. Just no.

  2. spikyone says:

    Agree with George. GT Spirit have got the shape wrong again – both the nose and the rear are off and it looks like it has GT Spirit’s most common problem of a weird roofline. The fit and finish around the rear grille is horrible, the bumper sags in the middle!

    From the comment on shutlines, I also think you’ve (DS) misunderstood the resin vs diecast limitations. You can’t get sharp edges from diecast (unless you machine finish the diecast), but you can with a resin. However you can still make softer curves and edges with resin, there’s nothing about resin that would be a limitation there.
    IMO the shutlines really don’t look that good for a resin, not much better than a sealed diecast. GTS seem to get their “good” paint from making it very thick.

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