In the mid-sixties the Ferrari 275GTB needed to evolve. Enzo Ferrari knew that Lamborghini were soon to launch their V12 sports car the Miura, which was revolutionary in being mid-engined and is pictured on this page along with the Maserati Ghibli a more conventional competitor.
Despite the revolutionary nature of the Lamborghini Miura almost twice as many Daytonas were sold. 

Pininfarina, through Leonardo Fioravanti his chief designer at the time, had been working on a design for the 275 GTB chassis.
So, when Enzo Ferrari turned to Pininfarina and his design studio, as he had done on almost every occasion in the past, to create 'clothes' for his new V12 chassis and drivetrain they were already well advanced in their plans.

Essentially the prototype created had the front of the 275 GTB to the 'A' pillar and the rear of the 'to be confirmed at the time' Daytona.The front of the car was to change radically too on the final production model. This is chassis number 14271 and was the first prototype a second one was bulit and finished in silver with chassis number 11001.

In 1966 this car was shown at the Paris Salon almost two years before the Daytona was seen. It was a mid-engined design with three seats (tre posti) across the width of the car, and as the McLaren F1 had 30 years later the driver sits in the middle.It looks like a bigger 204 GT Dino and shares most of its lines  but is not as elegant. The 'P' was for prova (prototype).
The mid-engined Lamborghini Miura was about to launch and Ferrari were experimenting with the concept in this prototype.

Enzo Ferrari decided to shelve the mid-engined concept at that time for reasons stated elsewhere, the concept reappeared after the Daytona with the arrival of the Berlinetta Boxer in 1973.

Enzo Ferrari had, through his American importers Chinetti, experimented with a mid engined V12 model the 365P but the results had been unsatisfactory.
He was not confident that Ferrari had sufficient knowledge to launch a mid-engined road car for his retail customers.
So, as he explained, 'The cart does not come before the horse' and he decided to develop the ultimate front engined V12 powered road car. He also feared his customers would endanger themselves if let loose in a mid-engined V12 performance car.

However he realised the impact that had been made by the mid-engined Lamborghini Miura and needed to use the same layout as this was the way the market was going.

So, the Daytona was meant as a stop gap model prior to the launch of the Berlinetta Boxer,their first production road-going V12 car some six years later.It is interesting to note that today,this later model does not command the same resale value as the car it succeeded!

The power though would be enhanced by four cams (hence the '4' designation in the model name) instead of the two in his previous models. Also with the gearbox in the rear differential and a torque tube connecting it to the engine technically the Daytona was very much on and ahead of the mark with almost perfect front rear weight balance.

The engine was set back behind the front wheelbase so the car enjoyed an almost 50/50 balance to front and rear. The dry sump lubrication for the engine ensured that the engine could be set low in the chassis and therefore the weight was kept low further enhancing the handling capabilities

The braking system is effectively two seperate systems ensuring the car stops even if one of them were to fail.

It even has two oil filters!

It was launched at the Paris Auto Salon in 1968 to generally favourable revues. Some though were quick to point out that, like the recently launched Lamborghini Miura, an engine mounted amidships would be more appropriate for the new Ferrari flagship.

However the sheer practicality, power, room inside the car and ease of entry and exit offered by the Daytona soon won everyone over and the order books were bulging very quickly. The seats are comfortable and there is room for the over six foot and rotund drivers, both unusual characteristics in a car of this type.
It was the most elegant Grand Tourer and could eat up the miles at very high velocities in very great comfort.

Those who owned them loved them and tried to buy them back later only to find their values had exceeded their pockets!

Many racing drivers owned Daytonas,a sure recommendation to we mere mortals, such as Clay Regazzoni who had driver aids fitted after his accident so he could continue to use it . Curiously it was a green one, and more recently Eddie Irvine who despite his Jaguar connections opted for red. He had come from Ferrari to Jaguar after all!
Paul Frere a well known part time race driver and journalist is also a huge fan of the Daytona and owned a red berlinetta.
 

Scaglietti, effectively Ferrari's in-house bodyshop, built it. Unusually, given the complex panels which combine sensual curves with knife-edge styling, and details such as the side swages and tail panel lip, Daytonas were all hand-made: skilled labour in Italy in the late 60's and early 70's wasn't very expensive, cheaper than mass-producing the huge body, and no pressing tools were ever made for the Daytona. All panels were hand formed on wooden bucks, hence every car is different and extremely time consuming and expensive to repair when panels are damaged.

This complex construction involved folding the intricate curves of the body around a wooden master buck, then welding the panels together on a jig to maintain accuracy, with the result that, although they had the mass-produced look, no two Daytonas were exactly the same.

Inevitably, this meant that construction quality was variable, and stitching a big body together from lots of smaller panels meant the cars could later suffer badly from rust - as Ian Fraser, long-time owner of his 365GTB/4 'Ghengis', observed when he had his car restored. You pay for that wonderful engine, and they throw the body in for free, he wrote.

The engine was a departure from Ferrari norm - although its four-cam layout had been seen on the last 275GTBs made in 1968 and four camshafts were first seen on Ferrari's 1.5-litre supercharged V12 racer in 1949.

The Tipo 251 engine, an in-house development of the 275's Lampredi V12, was a wet-liner version, with its bore increased to 81mm, stroke was 71mm, meaning 365cc for each of the 12 cylinders and a 4.4-litre capacity - a litre more than the 275. Six twin-choke Webers fed the giant V12 and, although the ribbed sump looked massive, it was a dry sump, being simply the catch pan for the lubrication set-up, with two scavenge and one pressure pump.
American versions were slightly less potent, having only 8.8:1 compression ratio instead of 9.3:1, and a compromised exhaust system, the primary pipes on each side having to be of unequal length to meet a massive central silencer 
The rear-mounted transaxle (housing geabox as well as differential) had its own pumped lubrication system. .

The whole drivetrain was mounted to the chassis on four Silentbloc bushes for improved refinement.

As on many other occasions he turned to Pininfarina to cloth his chassis/drivetrain. Leonardo de Fioravanti oversaw styling the car and, carrying over some style points from the previous model, created the unique and beautiful design.
He designed the 204 Dino and 308 (Magnum PI) too.           

The Miura            

This was Leonardo's -styling -after designing houses for a few years. He had clearly lost non of his design flair!

The period from the 206 Dino to the Ferrari 365 BB was a golden period for Pininfarina and Ferrari. The chief designer during this period was Leonardo Fioravanti.
During his 24 years service in Pininfarina, he designed 8 Ferraris by himself, including the masterpieces like Dino, Daytona, 308GTB and BB, plus guided another 5, such as the aerodynamic layout of Testarossa. Unlike many nowadays stylists, Fioravanti is also an aerodynamic expert - he started life in Pininfarina as aerodynamist - which explained why his designs could be kept original throughout the production adaptation process. 

In America in 1970 the NSA; led by Ralph Nader, decided to introduce a raft of new conditions for cars one of which related to minimum ride heights, potentially this could have destroyed the design, ride and handling of the Daytona. This was called ;Naderisation'.

It did just that on the MGB and Midget in this country when it had to change to rubber bumpers and higher ride heights as it sold into both markets and it was not financially possible to produce different cars for each market. Sadly it badly compromised the handling on both these cars.

Fortunately Leornardo Fioravanti was able to create a 'pop up' headlight array to replace those fixed under a plexiglass cover.

By the further addition of small side light units on the front bumpers they needn't be popped up until darkness had fallen, avoiding breaking the cars natural lines.
The final design change was to incorporate the sidelight units into the front of the indicator lenses doing away with a need even for the small bumper mounted units all together.

The Daytona could be purchased in one of 137 different colours but as with Ferrari before and after Rosso Corsa is the most popular. When combined with 'crema' interior Ferrari retain greater value than those in other colour and interior combinations. Red with black was very popular too but isn't nearly as attractive to the eye.

Production continued until 1972 by which time 1400 coupes and around 125 spyders had been built.
This broke all previous production records at Ferrari by quite a margin!

Here is a picture of the Maserati Ghibli a competing car of the period.

At around this time at the Daytona Raceway in Florida, USA, Ferrari achieved an unheard of 1,2,3, victory in racing Dino 330 P4's.

Enzo decided to have this feat remembered by naming the new 365 GTB4 the Daytona and this was its official factory internal designation in 1967. But it became common knowledge which Enzo was annoyed about and so he stopped it. So the 365 GTB/4 it was but to today it is still known as the 'Daytona'.  A car such as this needs a memorable name and this one is legend!                                                                                    

This is the 12 cylinder car that followed the Daytona in 1973, it had taken longer than expected to make the mid-engined solution ready for customer use. It is mid-engined and a two seater but has horzontally opposed cylinders as opposed to a V12 engine configuration hence the 'Boxer' designation. Once again it was the work of Leonardo Fioravanti.

As the US safety regulators had decided that convertibles were unsafe ath the time, it was, as its name suggests, only available in Berlinetta (Coupe) style. It wasn't until the 550 Maranello replaced the  365 GT Berlinetta and even then a few years after that the 550 barchetta finally replaced the 365 GTS/4 when convertibles were once again accepted.

This is the other 365 Ferrari available at the same time and now available for a fraction of the cost of the Daytona. Bit of an ugly sister though but was styled with the sharp angles that were to follow from Boxer on!

However, it was actually a couple of £100 more expensive when new, the C is for coupe. Styling was quite different but it actually goes through the air cleaner. To lower the bonnet it has side draught webbers and therefore less horspower than its beefy brother. It also has power steering, missing from the Daytona. While the Daytona has its gearbox in its back axle this has the gearbox, more traditionally bolted to the rear of the engine. Also only 500 were made in its 18 month production run. The first right hand drive imported went to the Earls Court car show in 1971. Of the 31 originally imported 26 still survive HPL 22K is much cherished by its owner, Miles who travels 3000 miles a year in it, much of it in Europe.

Following the sucessful launch of the 550 Maranello in 1996 to commemorate Ferrari's 70th anniversary there followed a demand for a spyder version. The result was the Barchetta. This car has no roof but is a very beautiful version of the hard top 550 and 575 Maranello.

Finally the Daytona Spyder was superceded!