Highlights

A highly-original low-mileage ‘Plexiglas’ 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’, with just three recorded owners from new

Formerly owned by Fabrizio Violati for 38 years and exhibited as part of his famous Maranello Rosso Collection in San Marino

Matching-numbers chassis, engine and gearbox, as confirmed by Ferrari

Retaining its original and beautifully patinated Blu Sera paint and black Connolly leather upholstery

Specified from new with factory optional extras including the wooden-rimmed steering wheel, air-conditioning and red fabric seat inserts – features it retains to this day

Subjected to a full inspection report by the foremost British Ferrari authority Keith Bluemel

Among the most original Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytonas’ extant – a genuine reference example

The best driving Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’ our esteemed leader Max Girardo has ever encountered

Road-registered in the United Kingdom

The Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’

The Ferrari 365 GTB/4’s dizzying Pininfarina-engineered beauty has been causing knees to weaken and eyes to well for decades. That sleek fastback body epitomises the romance and appeal of the Italian Gran Turismo. The ‘Daytona’ is the kind of classic in which you can turn up anywhere on the planet, be it Monaco or Mumbai, and you’ll draw gawping onlookers by the dozen. It starred in Miami Vice and even Elton John owned one. And in the 1970s that was a big deal.

The absolute must-have luxury Grand Tourer in the 1960s and ’70s, the 4.4-litre Colombo V12-powered ‘Daytona’ is no shrinking violet when it comes to hiking up its skirt and getting a move on. Just ask the legendary American racing drivers Brock Yates and Dan Gurney, who, in 1971, famously drove a ‘Daytona’ 2,876 miles from New York City to Redondo Beach in California in a record time of 35 hours and 54 minutes. That’s an average speed of 80.8mph!

Early examples are characterised by their distinctive Plexiglas noses with faired-in headlights – a slightly purer design, at least for us here at Girardo & Co. HQ. Changes in American homologation rules forced Ferrari to introduce pop-ups on the 365 GTB/4 in 1971. Less than a third of the 1,284 ‘Daytonas’ produced featured the Plexiglas nose and are therefore most desirable to collectors today.

Chassis number 13537

If we could hop in a time machine back to 1970 and configure ‘our’ new Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’, we highly suspect it would have looked a lot like chassis number 13537, the fabulous example we’re thrilled to be offering. Giuseppe Minganti from Bologna was the man who ordered this car new, paying the Bolognese Ferrari dealer Motor Sas di Carla Allegretti e C a princely 8.4m Italian lire for the pleasure.

A European-specification Plexiglas ‘Daytona’, chassis number 13537 was finished in the gorgeous shade of Blu Sera with a black Connolly leather interior. Boxes ticked on the optional-extras form included air-conditioning (a must for the hot Italian summers), a wooden-rimmed steering wheel and red fabric inserts on the dainty bucket seats.

As you would expect of somebody who’d just bought a new 12-cylinder Ferrari in 1970, Minganti thoroughly enjoyed driving his ‘Daytona’, clocking up almost 15,000 kilometres in his first year of ownership and having it serviced twice by the Ferrari factory’s Assistenza Clienti department in Modena (the perks of living in Bologna!). He parted with chassis number 13537 in March of 1976, selling to Bellancauto S.p.A., the registered company of the avid Ferrari collector Fabrizio Violati.

Heir to a prominent Italian mineral-water and wine empire, Violati kindled his Ferrari collection in 1965, buying of all models a 250 GTO – unbeknownst to his family, who disapproved of his insatiable obsession with motorsport! Over the decades, he assembled a stunning collection of over 40 significant Prancing Horses (and many more Abarths!), displaying them in the specially-built Maranello Rosso Collection museum in San Marino.

This ‘Daytona’ remained in the Maranello Rosso Collection for almost four decades, spending most of that on static public display. Violati sadly passed away in 2010 and in 2014, his beloved Ferraris were sold at auction in California and the United Kingdom. Fittingly, chassis number 13537 was acquired by a UK-based collector with an equally world-class stable of Ferraris – including a 250 GTO.

In the years since then, the historic Ferrari specialists at The Light Car Company in Oxfordshire, England, has undertaken sympathetic recommissioning works to the car including replacement of the fuel pumps, re-foaming of the seats, tuning of the carburettors and fitment of new tyres. These works were undertaken with a view to using the car – something that the current owner has, pleasingly, frequently done in the last nine years.

Charted over 53 years and in the possession of only three enthusiastic owners, this Ferrari’s story is, of course, exceptional. But chassis 13537’s trump card is undoubtedly its condition. Having never been restored, and as a result of its largely sheltered life in the Maranello Rosso Collection, this ‘Daytona’ is in genuine time-warp condition.

As outlined in the extensive inspection report we commissioned to the UK’s foremost Ferrari authority Keith Bluemel, this car retains almost all of its original Blu Sera paintwork, which has, as you’d expect, accrued a perfectly imperfect patina. Similarly, the original black Connolly hide and red fabric optional seat inserts are present inside, pervading the interior with the wonderfully rich and unmistakeable scent of aged leather. The ‘mouse-hair’ dash is from the factory, as are all the glass panels.

It goes without saying that, beneath the surface, chassis 13537 retains its original matching-numbers engine, chassis and gearbox. If it’s good to ogle, this Ferrari is even better to drive. Max goes as far as to say it’s the best-driving ‘Daytona’ he’s ever encountered. “If ever a car gave me that reassuringly familiar ‘old-pair-of-trousers’ feeling, it was this ‘Daytona’,” he explains. “It’s hard to describe, but the car feels just ‘right’ from behind the wheel – as though it’s exactly how the factory test-driver signed off on the car after thousands of miles of proving. Or how it felt as Minganti parted with it after enjoying it so thoroughly.

“Nothing feels tight or snaggy – the gearshift, especially, inspires so much confidence and the buttery-smooth 12-cylinder engine has zero fluff at lower revs. It’s true some ‘Daytonas’ can feel heavy and cumbersome. But this one doesn’t. A credit to the three gentlemen who’ve cherished it for the last 53 years and the folks at The Light Car Company who have sympathetically maintained it. It would be criminal if this Ferrari’s next custodian didn’t preserve its originality and enjoy it with the same gusto as his or her predecessors. It really is that good.”

Accompanying this Ferrari today is its original black Bologna Italian registration plates, Circolazione card and windscreen disc, and ASI Foglio Complementare. Great ‘Daytonas’ don’t come around too often. And given its provenance and condition, we don’t see why chassis 13537 shouldn’t be considered a reference example of the early ‘Plexiglas’ model. Its new owner is in for a real treat…

Price Upon Application