In total there were around 1400 cars made and around 125 were spyders, of which only seven were right hand drive models. The spyders, by their scarcity, have the greater value and the seven right hand drive ones changed hands for as much as £1.6 million in 1989 at the peak of the classic car boom, and even recently in 2007 for over £330,000.
The 365 GTB/S4 was the last Ferrari model where a berlinetta and full spyder designs were used. Its replacement the 550 Maranello was followed but over 30 years later and was added to by a barchetta.
It is rumoured that Pininfarina would not sanction a full spyder version of the later 308 car preferring the 'lift out roof section' option instead.

The problem with the spyder models is that by removing the roof much of the body strength is lost and has to be recovered by 'beefing up' the remaining chassis and body sections.
In the case of this car the composite interior panelling of the Berlinetta is replaced by steel from composite.

All the spyders were built by Scaglietti in Modena for Ferrari.

The demand for spyders in the US after production ceased was such that many coupes were converted into spyders by specialists either because they had been crashed, by changing them to spyders the cars value increased by more than the cost of the repair! Or perhaps the owner wanted to increase the value of their car by having them converted to more valuable spyders.

This was a period where the NSA believed convertible cars were dangerous so the manufacturers didn't supply them. The new Berlinetta Boxer was not available as a spyder so the next logical solution was to convert Berlinetta Daytona's into Spyder models.

The demand for spyders in the US continued to grow year on year after production had ceased. Of those made around 80 went to the US which merely scratched the surface of the demand so other companies supplied that demand by converting Berlinetta's into spyders.

It was quite a task to take on as the rear window and quarter glass panel had to be removed and a new boot lid made. Internally some of the fibreglass panels had to be replaced by steel ones to put the strength back into the spyder shell.

It is possible to spot the converted cars as they rarely have the same amount of curvature in their newly fabricated  boot lid panel and the windscreen rake is not as steep as the original spyders' as the Berlinetta configuration tends to be carried over to avoid altering the doors and the glass in them. 

Enzo Ferrari favoured Borrani for its spoke wheels and all Ferrari models had a spoke wheel option available from them.

The spyders and berlinettas ordered by Americans tended to have Borrani spoke wheels. The borrani wheels are much lighter in appearance than the British built ones.

Whilst  I think the berlinetta is complimented by them the spyder just looks too fussy with them. The design is beautifully simple and doesn't need the complication of spoke wheels. What do you think?

The most desirable and most valued cars are those which are Rosso red with 'crema' hide interiors. Some even have crema tonneau covers hiding the black convertible hood. The car featured here has the Borrani spoke wheels often specified by US buyers.
It is the 'ultimate' expression of four wheeled transport. There is a converted spyder which carries the registration ULT 1.

In December of 2002 at a Bonham and Co, auction sale in Gstaad Switzerland the hammer went down on a Dino blue Ferrari 365A (Daytona Spyder). So another page of the history of this cars was turned. It sold for £330,000.

There were only ever seven made, I call them the magnificent seven for the  reasons that they are magnificent and there were only seven ever made!

This car, chassis number 15963, was delivered in the July of 1972 to a Marks and Spencer store heiress and cost £7000 as Mrs Glass heiress of the Marks and Spencer empire bought direct from the factory to avoid paying VAT.

Collected from the factory on Italian export plates it was not sold on until May 1977 when it had covered only 6,800 miles and spent most of its time in Monte Carlo.

During her time with it she had the hood re-trimmed as it tended to be draughty over 120 mph!

Its new owner, a Canadian QC imported it into Canada and kept it for two years before selling it on in March 1979 at a price of  $76,000 with a mileage of 10,050 to a collector and gentleman farmer who then imported the car into the UK in April 1979 and registered the car with SAD 717W.

Liking the car so much he kept it purely for his own use, only he didn't travel far in it, presumably pefering t just look at it! Until July 1982 when a South African financier purchased it and shipped it to South Africa. It won a concourse event at a Ferrari owners club meeting in 1983 for best V12.

 The thing about this car is it looks fantastic without turning a wheel, so it can be fully appreciated without actually driving it anywhere, which probably explains how few miles the car has covered with its owners!

Whilst in his ownership the car  then became infamous as Nathan Beehl, the well known Ferrarifile, wrote a book featuring the car almost exclusively called 'Ferrari Daytona Super Profile'. In the book the car shows a recorded mileage of 13887. The book ha been out of print for years now but copies keep popping up on ebay from time to time.

The story continues when, in the South African recession of mid 1985 in the June UK Ferrari dealers Modena Engineering persuaded the financier to sell the car to them and it was then sold on for £130,000 to its new owner with the mileage still under 14,000 and so it came back to the UK.

The making of this purchase proved to be a very shrewd one indeed. The late eighties saw the classic car boom and right hand drive Daytona spyders became something of a Holy Grail and the market price went through the stratosphere. One of its sister cars was sold for £1.25 million but this car sold twice for £1.6 million..

The next record of the car was when it was advertised in Motor Sport January 1989 where it was advertised for sale at £1,600,000. This was at the  top of the market and Mike Wheeler now of Talacrest tells me that it sold twice at that figure into the Arab Emirates, surprise surprise!

This particular Italian stallion would have been right at home with all the Arab stallions for which the Arab Emirates are renowned.

The car was re-registered with the 43 SF plate and then, some years later ended up at the Bonhams Gstaad auction.

10 May 1990 sold through Strattons of Wilmslow in the UK to Crawford Hewlett of The Drambuie Liquer Company Ltd in Edinburgh, who paid GB Pounds 792'500 (invoice #13882). Mileage now 15'573. Sold to Glenvarigill Classics Ltd of Edinburgh on August 20, 1992 (UK plates "JDS 690 K"). Sold 18 December 2001 at Bonhams auction in Gstaad, Switzerland, to Carlos Monteverde, London. Late 2003 traded by Monteverde to Frank Sytner, in exchange for Sytner's 250 GT SWB Berlinetta #2209 GT. 2005 for sale by Maxted-Page Limited. Then to Pete Townshend.
Marcel Massini

Maranello Concessionaires Order #544. Fitted with chromed grille guard to protect the front.
July 5, 1972, delivered new to Mrs Diana Glass, resident in Vaduz, Principality of Liechtenstein, car registered on Italian export license plates "EE 60197" (EE = Escursionisti Esteri). Factory invoice #2220/72. Car was supplied with a black soft top from the factory. The original colour was Azzurro Metallizzato but when Mrs Glass inspected the car at the factory she didn't like the colour, and it was changed to Blu Dino Metallizzato 106-A-72. Interior Blu VM 3015. After she took delivery of the car, she complained about the fit of the soft top (it would let water in at 130mph!), and then she had Hoopers in London make up a white one, still with complaints about the fit. At this time the body side indent was painted white to match the soft top. Later the car was resprayed in the UK in Rolls Royce Blue Le Mans and the soft top was changed for a blue one. It was at some stage re-registered on UK temporary license plate "QN 4419". May 18, 1977, sold by Mrs Glass through Luigi Sports Car (Sales & Services) Ltd. in Montreal/Canada to second owner Joyce and Boris G. Freesman of Toronto. Mileage now 6'800 miles.

27 March 1979 sold to third owner P. Noel H. Gibbs of Autosearch, Inc., Ripley, Surrey, UK, who paid US$ 76'000. Mileage now 10'050. On the 19th April 1979 shipped from Halifax/CDN to Southampton/UK by Dart Containerline. 27 July 1982 sold by Gibbs to fourth owner Charles M. Schlamm in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Sale completed through House of Sports Cars in Johannesburg because the South African authorities had ceased to allow individuals to import second hand cars after 1982 and HSC had an importation permit. From September 23, 1982 to December 20, 1982, maintainted by Modena Engineering of East Horsley, UK. 20 December 1982 delivery taken by Schlamm, driven from Cape Town to Johannesburg. Shown by Schlamm at the Sefac Southern Equitorial Ferrari Automobili Club Concours on 7th August 1983, awarded with three trophies "Best V12", "First Class C" and "Car of the Day". 21 June 1985 sold by Schlamm through Modena Engineering to Robin Lodge of Horsham, England, price paid was GB Pounds £ 130,000.

 So in 20 years the car had travelled from Maranello to Monte Carlo to Canada then on to South Africa and on then to the UK where it then, after a number of years was taken to Switzerland for auction. In all those years, despite its stunning driveability, it has covered less than 16,000 miles indeed it probably covered as many miles as cargo as it did on the road and despite this low mileage has cost its owners over £72,000 in maintenance!

At March 2009 the latest development is that Peter Townshend has now bought the car. There was an excellent article in Classic and Sports Car March 2009 where its history was covered but they failed to mention the book that was written about it and that it had sold twice for £1.6 million.

I wrote to tell them and I am published in this months edition!

He has since sold it on elsewhere!

It could be argued that all spyders are specials as the berlinetta was the original design.
Both Pininfarina. Panther Westwinds and Michelotti produced specials of the Daytona spyder, there were six in all. It amazes me that such a perfectly proportioned car such as this should be corrupted by attempts to change its looks, shame on you Pininfarina et all!

Chassis No. 12925 was built for Steve McQueen
                    14271 made for and won first Cannonball Run
                    15003 Michelotti NART Targa
                    15275 Panther Westwinds Pininfarina car
                    15965 Michelotti NART spyder
                    16467 Michelotti Spyder with removable roll bar
                 
One such car was this spyder which resembles the 365 GTC model. It was created with the backing of Luigi Chinetti who was heavily associated in the Ferrari US race programme.

It definately does not have the presence or beauty of the original making it special in a negative way!

Coco Chinetti, with friend Gene Garfinkle doing the renderings concieved this outrageous station-wagon for customer Bob Gittleman. It was converted from a standard car by Panther Westwinds in the UK (Chinetti was Panther Westwinds distributor in America). for an alleged £50k.

The front inner panels, door pillars and doors were carried over but the nose was completely re-fashioned with impact bumpers and headlamp covers that rose to reveal Hillman Avenger lights! Bob Jangel gave it a new interior, but the cars special exentricity was it's perspex 'butterfly' panels giving access to walnut covered loading bays. The rear is fixed glass and it does resemble  a futuristic hearse! Escalating costs and the fact that the steering became very light at 125mph meant that the planned 600bhp turbo engine, good for 230mph, never happened. Registration is FER 15.

Another Chinetti idea based on a badly damaged Daytona, it came with the inevitable roll hoop. Michelotti was asked to style it and came up with the wedge shape.

It had a curious cutaway door, little chrome trim and black rubber impact bumpers. Inside was a different dash with the same instruments. Shown at the 1974 Turin show it was allegedly built for Steve McQueen but it is unclear if he ever took delivery of it.

It was essentially a Daytona spyder with a Surrey style hard top and an elongated rear section from door to the end of the boot section.

A second spyder along similar lines was built for an abortive NART Le Mans entry in 1975. It was rather corvettesque as if Burt Reynolds had been given a free hand to design his ultimate Ferrari. Although ridiculously luxurious for a racer the targa style spyder qualified for the 24 hour classic but it was pulled 90 minutes before the start after a disagreement with the organisers.

Officially it was not a Daytona but it was built from a 1972 berlinetta. This spyder was styled again by Michelotti. It was said to be more slippery and have better weight distribution than the standard car.

It was displayed at the Geneva Show in 1975 two years after official Daytona production ended! It was finished in a red white and blue Custom Car centre spread combination that suggested Wonder Woman drove it! It is seen here in a more sober traditional finish.

It is a tribute to the Daytona that a full 17 years after production of the car ceased coachbuilders were still re-dressing it!

This car is little known but was built for the Turin show in 1980. whilst reminiscent of earlier projects it was cleaned up to the point of bland as the TVR Tuscan or even TR7! This car was based on the 1972 factory spyder used in the film a Star Is Born, the one Chris Christofferson rolled. It turned out to be the last car Michelotti styled and there may even have been a second example built.

The first modified special of the Daytona spyder theme was ruby red and the car that won the first ever Cannonball Run beating, among other vehicles a heavily modified Dodge Van equipped so that it didn't need to stop and re-fuel en-route. 2876 miles were covered in 35 hours 54 minutes coast to coast across America. This is at an average of close to 80 mph when the double nickel (55 mph) was being strictly enforced.
Whilst driving they claim to have reached speeds of 172 mph when travelling through Arizona. They were amazed at the stability of the car at these amazingly high speeds.

Dan Gurney was the driver, the only man to win a championship in a car of his own manufacture. His win inspired his co-pilot,  Brock Yates, to write the scripts for the very successful Cannonball Run films.
The race was made for the Daytona as the object is to cover thousands of miles of road at great velocity in the shortest time. 
Rather curiously the car has been re-finished in blue as you can see here!

Built by Pininfarina this car was made for Steve McQueen. It is effectively a standard spyder with a mildly lenghtened body in the boot area.
It appeared at the 1969 Auto Show of Paris and was named as a 'false two-tone hard-top coupe'. It featured a prominent stainless steel roll bar and a removable rear window. This had the effect of  making the silhouette harder so the boot was elongated to compensate and the bumpers wrapped further around.
The changes are subtle, I would have thought that a targa option would have been well recieved by other spyder owners but the elongated boot rather detracts from the overall effect.

The picture featured here is from the front of a Fujimi model box . I have still to complete this model as I write this! However, having examined the kit the body shell is not elongated but is as the standard spyder, It is essentailly a standard spyder with a detachable hard top and that is a shame!

This was a severe change from the original car. It is effectively a shooting brake and, in black, has the look of a hearse!
It is beautifully crafted though, I wouldn't mind going to my maker in the back of this unique car.

It is registered with FER 15 and has a chestnut brown interior. Both the side window units hinge up to open on each side.

It reminds me of the Pink Panther car featured on the cartoon of the same that he turns up in at the start of the programme.

This is a more angular interpretation of the model and featured a removable roll bar. Note the conventional door handles and the shaping at the rear of the door continuing the rear wing profile.
It is said that the sight of this car prompted Ferrari to create a spyder, however as the spyder was only a year behind the berlinetta some doubt is cast on this theory. It is possible however that on seeing this Enzo Ferrari thought, 'I can do a lot better than this!'.

Once again an angular interpretation not very pretty and mimicking corvette styling. It was built with the co-operation of Coco Chinetti.
Chinetti attempted to get this car homologated for Le Mans that year 1972 but due to a dispute all NART cars were withdrawn from the race.

It was some 30 years later before Ferrari felt they could once again improve on the Daytona, the undeniably best ever front engined GT supercar. It was 10 years before any road car outperformed the Daytona. Cars such as the Vantage Aston Martin bettered the top speed by a tenth of a second to overtake the 0-60 speed achieved by the Daytona!

The competitizione cars were winners for many years after production had ceased!

The 550 Maranello and then the Barchetta version with 485 bhp and state of the art technology on tap this was indeed a worthy successor. Only 448 cars were made each with a plaque bearing the chassis number of that particular car and the signature of Sergio Pininfarina himself.

However there is no weather protection in the Barchetta so UK use would not be recommended!