A unique Lotus 81 is up for sale.

      A unique racing car with a rich history is for sale in the United Kingdom – a Lotus 81 that was raced in 1980–1981 by Mario Andretti, Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell.

      You could say the car became famous after de Angelis finished 2nd in the 1980 Brazilian Grand Prix, and a year later Mansell finished 3rd in the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder in it – that was the first of the future world champion’s 59 podiums. Incidentally, that was the last race of the legendary British team in which a Lotus 81B chassis was used.

      In its day the team founded by Colin Chapman built five of these cars, and until 2016 this chassis No. 1 remained in Team Lotus ownership, after which it was sold to a private collector.

      The car is fully operational; British specialists have regularly carried out its restoration and maintenance, including a recent full rebuild of the Cosworth DFV V8 3.0 engine. In recent years the car has taken part several times in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix.

      The car comes not only with a full set of paperwork and the appropriate FIA certificate, but also a substantial set of spare parts. It is emphasized that throughout its lifetime it has been in the hands of only one private collector.

      The car is painted in the corporate colours of Essex Overseas Petroleum Corporation, Team Lotus’s sponsor at the time.

      The sale of the Lotus 81 is being handled by the British company William I’Anson, which specializes in historic racing machinery, and it is deliberately in no hurry to name even an indicative price – at least not publicly.

      The British publication Motor Sport was unable to obtain such information, but it knows of a case dated 2006 when the same car (chassis No. 3) was sold for $159,000. It is safe to assume that the Lotus driven by three such famous drivers will be worth considerably more.