The Aprilia RXV 4.5 Tuareg that Francisco López Contardo rode to a fourth-place overall finish in the 2011 Dakar Rally is up for sale on Subito. Matteo Filante, the bike’s current owner, set an asking price of €28,000.

2011 was López’s fourth Dakar and second as an Aprilia factory rider, having won three stages and placing third in the 2010 edition. Aprilia brought 13 bikes: five were for factory riders on Team Aprilia Giofil—López, Joan Barreda, Alain Duclos, Gerard Farrés, and Alex Zanotti—while the other eight were privateers—Wouter van der Beek, Francesco Beltrami, Antonio Gimeno, Erik Koffman, Jean-Pierre Lejeune, Jes Munk, Vasilis Orfanos, and Frank Verhoestraete.

The RXV 4.5 Tuareg was previously used in 2010, but several upgrades were made to the electronic mapping and other software for 2011. Aprilia aso brought ten mechanics and three team managers riding on two 6×6 trucks and three 4×4 service cars to help out, while Farrés was once again tasked with being López’s water carrier.

With the ASO introducing a 450cc mandate, López’s battle with the dominant KTMs became much tighter. He won Stage 7 and tried to keep pace with Cyril Despres and Marc Coma, only for a mechanical failure to strike on the very last day just 22 kilometers from the finish. He lost over an hour as a result and was leapfrogged by Hélder Rodrigues for the last spot on the overall podium.

Four months after that Dakar, López was nearly killed in a brutal crash at the Rallye de Tunisie that resulted in pulmonary edema and several fractures across his body. He recovered in time for the 2012 Dakar, where he bowed out due to another accident. It was his final race with Aprilia, who shuttered its rally program afterward.

Two years with KTM followed before López switched to four wheels, a transition that’s paid off nicely with his three Dakar class wins. Now a factory driver for Can-Am, “Chaleco” won SSV at the 2025 Rallye du Maroc before finishing sixth at this year’s Dakar.

Meanwhile, his Aprilia went into private ownership with Filante, who also has Édouard Boulanger’s RXV 4.5 Tuareg that he raced in 2012. López’s bike was displayed at EICMA last November as part of the Desert Queens exhibit alongside 30 other motorcycles from the Dakar’s history.

Filante noted on the Subito page that the bike is in “perfect cosmetic and mechanical condition”. It also comes with full documentation from Team Aprilia Giofil.

While Aprilia no longer races Dakar, especially not with the 450cc limit, the Italian manufacturer has operated Aprilia Tuareg Racing since 2023. The team competes in the FIM Europe Tout Terrain Rally Cup, Italian Motorally Championship, and other rallies like the Africa Eco Race with the more powerful Tuareg 660.

Featured image credit: MotorideSA / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)