Where Would You Swap This Experimental Ferrari Twin-Turbo V8 Engine?

Only three of these were built.

byJames Gilboy|
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We run across a lot of odd stuff while trawling the net for all things automotive, but today's find stands out as one of the most interesting things we've seen in a long while. It's a rare prototype for a Ferrari V8 with a murky history, and it is, of course, for sale.

Ferrari F121, RM Sotheby's via Race Cars Direct

Currently posted on a racing classifieds website, this V8 was apparently christened the "F121" by Ferrari, and designed by Nicola Materazzi. Materazzi was a maestro of early turbo engines, influencing the design of those powering the Lancia Delta Turbo Group 5, Ferrari 288 GTO, Ferrari F40, and Bugatti EB110—all cars with small engines and a ton of turbocharging. Being a lowly 2.0-liter V8, then, the F121 fits in with the rest of Materazzi's portfolio, and with its estimated 400-horsepower output, it would've been a potent little power plant no matter what you put it in.

Which brings us to a question we'd like to ask our readers: Where would you swap this exceedingly rare Ferrari engine, of which only three are said to exist?

Ferrari F121, RM Sotheby's via Race Cars Direct

Personally, I've already toyed with the idea of cramming a 4.2-liter Ferrari F136 V8 into my 24 Hours of Lemons team's Toyota MR2—they make plenty of power and can be had for as little as $2,000. Stepping up (down?) to an even less-developed and poorly supported engine would no doubt be a hit with race organizers, and if it proved reliable enough to race with it would make my car easily the fastest in the field. It even comes with a five-speed transaxle that'd make the engine swap as straightforward as—admittedly complicated—one-off swaps go. Sure, I'd have to chop out the firewall, relocate the gas tank, and fabricate a shift linkage somehow, but people have completed far more difficult builds than this. Now to just scrounge up the $43,800 I'd need to buy this engine—if you have any nickels at the bottom of your toolbox, I could use them in this time of need want.

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