The Ferrari LaFerrari hypercar has always been a lovely car with a profoundly dumb name, but I often like to fantasize about which other cars would be improved by its 6.3-liter hybrid V12 engine. Would it fit under the hood of a Porsche 924? That’s worth finding out, because a LaFerrari engine with just 20 miles on it ended up for sale on eBay.
The listing’s description is woefully inadequate, blurting out only “2017 FERRARI LA FERRARI ENGINE with 20 miles” without any mention of why an ultra-low-mileage Ferrari engine is already up for sale. What happened to the car it used to be installed in? Was it the usual fate of more horsepower than talent, or something far more bizarre?
Seller Fiorano Sports Car is an actual shop in Florida that works on exotics, so whatever happened meant that they have the most glorious part-out ever going on. They have a number of other engines for sale on the site, including a 488 V8 and a Testarossa V12—but none as unobtainable to the common hoon as the LaFerrari V12.
You can have this LaFerrari engine for just $385,000—a fraction of the $1.3 million you’d pay a full LaFerrari. Even if you skip out on the fancy hybrid motors and kinetic energy recovery system that help power the LaFerrari alongside its V12, you’re still good for 789 horsepower from the V12 alone. Thus, stuffing a Ferrari V12 into a featherweight car like a Trabant would be more than enough on the Great Idea-O-Meter.
In fact, it would be a travesty if a spare LaFerrari engine just goes into another Ferrari. Ferrari themselves shoved a LaFerrari V12 into a Ferrari 458 for testing purposes, too, which is lovely but also means that a 458 swap has been done. Clearly, it’s time for someone to stuff this into an old mid-engine Toyota Previa for maximum sleeper laughs.
What car would you like to swap a LaFerrari V12 into?
[H/T Jim Griffin!]