eBay Find of the Day: 1992 Minardi-Lamborghini M191L

Wed, 16 Oct 2013

Think of Italian Formula One teams and Ferrari is first and foremost to come to mind. But the Prancing Horse team is not the only game in town. What is today known as Scuderia Toro Rosso was once, and for two decades, known as Minardi. And for one (unfortunately unsuccessful) season, it was powered by Lamborghini.

That season was 1992, when Christian Fittipaldi (Emerson's nephew) drove for the team, substituted by Alex Zanardi for a few races and teamed up with Gianni Morbidelli – the Italian driver who just took the Superstars championship this past weekend.

Alongside the Modena team it supplied the year before (to even less success), the Minardi partnership was one of only two Italian teams which the F1 division established at Lamborghini under Chrysler ownership would motivate power. It yielded a sixth-place finish at the Japanese Grand Prix as its best result, but the coupling of an Italian engine in an Italian chassis is what makes it stand out in history. Valentino Balboni drove it for demonstration events at Road Atlanta and Sebring, and now that car is up for auction on eBay Motors.

Said to be the only surviving example of three built, the Minardi-Lamborghini M191L packs a 3.5-liter V12 rated at 700 horsepower, revving to 13,800 rpm and pushing a car that weighs just 1,135 pounds. That ought to make for some serious fun on track days, even if it wasn't quite up to pace with Williams, McLaren, Benetton, Ferrari, Lotus or any of the other dozen teams that finished ahead of it in the standings that year. And as such, it won't cost you as much, either: with a buy-it-now price of under $200,000, it could be just the toy for some Italian playboy to lap endlessly around Mugello, Imola or Vallelunga.
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By Noah Joseph