Discover the Lazzarino Sport Prototipo: Argentina's Forgotten Gem in Classic Sports Cars

So you've got a Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder gathering dust next to your Maserati Birdcage and a couple of Cobras? Big deal. What you don't have is a Lazzarino Sport Prototipo.

Never heard of it? Join the club.

Right now, tucked away in a dealership called Throttlestop in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin (practically spitting distance from Road America), sits what might be the last surviving example of Argentina's coolest forgotten sports car. And yes, it's for sale.

From Italy to Argentina with Love

The whole story starts back in 1927, when a teenager named Bautista "Tino" Lazzarino and his family packed up and left Italy for Argentina. Once they landed in Buenos Aires, Tino's dad Juan (who'd learned a thing or two about making car bodies back in Turin) opened up a shop and taught his son the family trade.

Tino's big break? He got to rebody a Packard for Cardinal Pacelli—yep, the guy who would later become Pope Pius XII—when he swung through Argentina for some big religious shindig in 1934. Talk about divine intervention for your career. Pretty soon, Tino was the go-to guy for transforming chunky American cars into something you could actually race without embarrassing yourself.

By 1952, he'd graduated from just slapping new bodies on existing cars to building complete machines from scratch. This red beauty currently for sale might be the pinnacle of what he created.

Ferrari? Nope, Just Looks Like One

First thing most people say when they see this car: "Nice Ferrari!" And honestly, who can blame them? The thing looks like a dead ringer for a Ferrari 375 MM or 500 Mondial. Except here's the kicker—according to Throttlestop, Lazzarino beat Ferrari to the punch with this design.

The president of Ford Argentina commissioned this particular car, which explains why it originally packed a Ford flathead V8 under the hood. Over the years, someone swapped in a Chrysler slant-six before some purist eventually put a flathead back in during restoration.

This wasn't just garage eye candy, either. The car raced all over South America during the '50s and '60s, often sharing track time with Argentina's racing hero Juan Manuel Fangio. It even won something called the Gran Jornada Automovilística "Presidente Perón" back in August 1954. Yes, that Perón.

From South America to North America

After hanging out with the same Argentine family for about 30 years, the car eventually made its way north. It's since competed in the 4,200-mile Pan-American Rally (Philly to San Francisco, no less), climbed Mount Washington in 2005, and hit the Bridgehampton Road Rally in 2006.

It's even had a brief brush with Hollywood—Gucci used it in some ads featuring James Franco. And it's made the rounds at fancy-pants car shows like Amelia Island, The Quail, and various Midwest concours events where people in straw hats and linen suits point at it and say impressive things.

Rare and Getting Pricier

Despite all this, the Lazzarino remains virtually unknown in collector circles. It doesn't even show up in auction guides between entries for LaSalle and Lexus. Previous sales recorded by the folks at Conceptcarz.com show the car sold for $130,200 in 2011 and $135,000 in 2014.

Today? Throttlestop wants $349,900 for it. That's quite a jump, but the car has apparently had a top-notch restoration to its original racing spec and comes with FIA certification as a historic racer, meaning you could actually enter it in something like the Mille Miglia if you're feeling brave.

Worth it? Well, consider this: You'll get all the looks of a vintage Ferrari at a fraction of the price, plus the smug satisfaction of owning something nobody else at the car meet has even heard of. When they ask "What is that?" you can casually drop, "Oh, just a little Argentine sports car. Built by an Italian immigrant. Raced against Fangio. No big deal."