If you had to be reincarnated into a car, you probably wouldn’t want to return to this earthly realm as an early prototype. Built rough, run hard, taken apart, studied, and usually ultimately crushed, these are the purpose-built torture subjects of a vehicle development program. As such, they usually don’t make it past the factory gates intact when their useful lifespan is up because they aren’t homologated, aren’t warranty-worthy, and most corporate lawyers would throw a Bill O’Reilly-tier fit if a customer got their hands on one. Maybe the lawyers at Ferrari were on vacation, because not only is this a real LaFerrari prototype, it’s one you can actually buy.
This particular prototype is officially called the “F150 Muletto M4.” While that might sound insensitive to anyone who knows English but doesn’t know Italian, it actually means it started life as a Ferrari 458 Italia before being cut and stretched and welded by mad craftspeople until it could accommodate a V12 and a hybrid system.
Obviously, this required unspeakable things to happen to the Pininfarina coachwork, so the engineers went to town with the rivets and plastics and sheetmetal until the end product looked like the four-wheeled equivalent of a baby moose. I mean, just look at the thing. It has a mouth like a bass on pills, each exhaust tip is about a foot longer than the car, the air intake on the engine cover is actually a cleaning attachment from the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man’s Hoover, and the brakes don’t match. However, all of this is okay, because this thing wasn’t made to look pretty. It was made to prove that the hybrid V12 concept behind the LaFerrari could indeed be functional.
Once this LaFerrari prototype was done experiencing the automotive equivalent of the Geneva Checklist, Ferrari had the information it needed, and this sort of vehicle would normally be considered a liability. However, Ferrari customers aren’t normal car customers. Sell a minivan buyer a prototype, and they’ll try to daily drive it. Sell a Ferrari collector a prototype, and they’ll put it in a museum. Looking to raise a little extra cash, Ferrari reportedly offered this and a few other LaFerrari prototypes to its closest, cosiest, most profitable customers, so long as they never touched the road again.
That brings us to today, because it seems that someone may have grown tired of having this LaFerrari mule simply sit around and collect dust. Maybe they’re downsizing, maybe they’re re-prioritizing, or maybe they’ve decided that it’s a bit pointless having a car like this that you can’t really use. Either way, this LaFerrari mule is crossing the RM Sotheby’s auction block at Pebble Beach Car Week, and it’s expected to fetch between $900,000 and $1.2 million. On the one hand, that’s a ludicrous amount of money to spend on a car you can’t drive on the road. On the other, it’s actually quite cheap for what is essentially a LaFerrari, considering production examples of that hypercar are worth more than $3.5 million on the low end.
So, if you want a blazing fast, face-meltingly gopping, rather interesting Ferrari, have seven figures to spend, and can sign your name, this LaFerrari mule crosses the auction block in Monterey on Aug. 15. Worst-case, you could score a fascinating part of the new car development process. Worst-case, you could be the reason a new rule gets invented. Either way, you’d be a legend.
Top graphic image: RM Sotheby’s
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I know it can never be legally registered or driven on a public road … but tracks are not public roads (except at least one in Germany…). So a courageous owner with deeeeep pockets could have some fun where the fun shoudl be had anyway.
I like this.
If you can afford the car, you can afford to build your own track.
Miata engine swap?
“Built rough, run hard, taken apart, studied, and usually ultimately crushed”
I didn’t know I was a prototype car re-incarnated into this corpereal form, but it all makes sense now…
Rather have the svx protype. A xt6 w svx drivetrain and box flares.
Would hoon