On Tuesday, Alfa Romeo revealed their stunning contender for the 2023 F1 season, the C43. Now, it has been announced that you can buy a full-scale model of the car, used for the F1 team’s official 2023 launch and signed by drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
Typically, sales of these show vehicles don’t take place as early as this. Last year was the first time one had been sold to the public in the same season it competed in (and it was also from Alfa Romeo), but there’s never been a sale of one before it even hit the racetrack, making this C43 show car unique.
See Also: Michael Schumacher’s Victorious Ferrari F2003-GA Sold For Nearly $15 Million
The car itself, which is up for auction on F1 Authentics, is supposedly completely dimensionally accurate to the real C43 (at least the one presented at Tuesday’s launch), with all parts being based off of Alfa’s official 3D models. Those parts are also made of real carbon fiber, and are created using the same manufacturing processes as the real team’s.
At the time of writing, the highest bid is currently under £100,000 ($121,159). You might be wondering why that number is so low, considering the average cost of one of these cars is typically between $15 and $20 million (£12,380,425 to £16,507,234). That’s because this show car doesn’t feature an engine, or anything else that facilitates movement under its own power, so while the vehicle you would be getting is accurate to the real 2023 design, the car is non-running and intended for display purposes only.
Related: You Can Now Drive The Audi Show Car In The F1 2022 Video Game
Unfortunately, it was also made clear in the listing that you can’t just throw the nearest engine into this thing and make it functional, as the chassis is simply not up for the task. Nevertheless, the car at least comes with working electronics for the rear rain light and digital steering wheel, the latter of which is actually connected to the front wheels for genuine steering from the cockpit. Additionally, the model Alfa Romeo‘s wheels can be taken on and off for those who might want to hone their pit stop skills.
On top of the car itself, the winner of the auction will also receive signed race suits worn by Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu during the launch event.
