Maxim Vintage Car Shopper: Ferrari Daytona
When the Jet Set weren’t in jets, they were driving Ferrari Daytonas.
The Year: 1972
The Model: Ferrari 365GTB/4 ”Daytona”
The Drivetrain: The best in the world? Maybe. A 4.4-liter V12 producing 352 horsepower at 7500 of the most beautiful RPMs, mated to a 5-speed manual driving the rear wheels.
Favorite Five Points:
· Maybe the best shape in automotive history: a sharp, aerodynamic nose and a miles-long hood resolving in a sleek, squat cabin dotted with four round taillights. Of course, designed by Pininfarina and built by Scaglietti.
· Early Daytonas, like this model, had plexiglass-covered headlamps instead of the pop-ups later mandated by the US DOT: they better maintain the purity of the shape.
· Cromadora five-spoke wheels are muscular, a perfect fit for the rough and powerful Daytona.
· The color. Red Ferraris, if not a “dime a dozen,” are a trope. This car in light blue is a tasteful, iconoclastic choice.
· True bucket seats: no headrests, just hand-stitched leather, big bolsters and incredibly meager-looking lap belts.
Quirks:
· A repaint in non-original color and modern A/C disqualify this as a Concours car, but really, who cares? Those changes make it a better car—leave the diaper-polishing to the nerds.
· While magic at speed, Daytonas also have the reputation of being fairly, excuse us, truck-like when driven around town. This is a car for flooring it to Nice, not picking up cat litter at Walgreen’s.
· Daytona’s have a famously intricate start up procedure, that includes copious idling and skipping 2nd gear until the transmission warms up. Charisma demands attentiveness.
Good buy?
This is about the perfect car, with low miles, a recent restoration and desirable early-model features. A rare version of a car this special for under $1 million seems fair to us, and we can imagine every glancing at this car in your garage and feeling regret.
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