Enzo Ferrari produced road cars to pay for his racing. The Daytona was no exception to this rule.

The Daytona was homologated in June of 1969 despite only one of the required 25 cars being built with an aluminium body, plexiglass side and rear windows, polyester bumpers, bonnet and boot lid.
Just 15 of the Daytona production were used for competition racing, so the required 25 was never achieved, and were built in fives over the period of the production run. Due to the weight of the production car the panels were made in aluminium and polyester for the race cars.
The list price of these cars was double that of the roadgoing cars but featured tuned engines and suspensions as well as the aluminium, polyester and plexiglass replacement parts.

Early progress on the track was slow for reasons other than it's performance. The 1969 Le Mans race was it's first outing but sadly, due to an accident, it never got to take part in the race.It raced twice in 1970 though and failed to produce a significant result.

Although the Daytona could not hope to win the main, prototype class, at Le Mans the reliability and strength of the brawny V12 made the big GT an exceptional performer in long-distance events around the world at such as Sebring and Daytona. As you have read the start was shaky, Daytonas were the cars to beat for over four years in the GT class, until age and the sheer might of the Porsche force overwhelmed them.
It's weight always worked against the Daytona: the 1971 car tipped the scales at more than 1.5 tonnes, the lightest ever Daytona was still significant at 1342kg.

But in 1971 things began to happen for the Daytona. At Sebring Raceway in America in the 12 hour race it finished 12th overall and fifth in class (See Group 5 competition car below). Then at Le Mans it came in fifth overall ahead of two Ferrari 512's, ironic that it began to show its race pedigree after the arrival of the 512, and a fleet of Porsche 911's.
Then having built over 500 cars the Daytona was awarded group four status and five cars were built and shared across Europe and America.
In 1973 Ferrari and won first in class at Le Mans.
Remarkably in 1972 they came in 5,6,7,8,9th overall at Le Mans with 1st to 5th in class.

The Daytona had come of age on the track just as production ceased.

 

The 4th car out of 15. 1 of only 5 all-alloy cars. This is the only LM Daytona with square shaped wheel arches. Engine type 251 - Engine No. 1476. The car is in fully restored - race ready condition having been restored and maintained for the past 8 years.

It has competed in various rallies and Shell Historic Events since.

Interestingly Ferrari only ever entered a Daytona once for LeMans. Maranello Concessionaries entered chassis number 15681 in the 1972 race.
Using factory-built cars now tuned to 402bhp at 6300rpm, 130kg less weight and 'wing fences' to help aerodynamics, the Ferrari cars crushed the Porsche, putting Daytonas in the first five places in the GT category and fifth to ninth overall: nine Daytonas had started. Andruet and Ballot-Lena's winning Pozzi-France car, numbered 39, was timed at 293kph on the Mulsanne Straight, and finished fifth overall on distance. 

The car pictured is the Parker Lefosse car which came home 3rd in the GT category.

Claude Ballot-Lena and Jean-Claude Andruet took car 39 to a sensational Class victory win at Le Mans in 1972. Unusually the car was made heavier for race use at 1575kg with 120 litres of fuel as opposed to 1520kg for the car for normal road use. Power was up 48hp to 400hp DIN at a higher 8300rpm. This car was the second of the second five competitione cars produced by Ferrari for its race customers, mainly its importers of which Charles Pozzi was the French distributor for Ferrari. The car also walked away with the 'power index; having been timed on the Les Hanaudieres straight at a speed of 297 kph (185mph).

It was sold in 1973 for a little less than the price of a new Daytona, amazingly, for 115000 french francs, around £11000. This car must now be worth approaching at least £750,000 with its excellent racing pedigree. It chassis number is 15667.

It won a first in class in 1972, and a first overall in the Tour de France both in 1972 followed by a third in-class in 1973, the year factory production ceased.  

A great article about the car appeared in Cavalino 59 from the October. November 1990 edition. It featured on the cover.

This restored ex-Le Mans car appears in many historic events throughout the world.

This was one of the first five delivered to Charles Pozzi in France intended for competition use. It is chassis number 14429 and is owned by Mark Tippets. It has mildly flared arches and the engine is modified to 450 bhp by whizz mechanic Joze Fernandez. It was delivered to Paris by Daniel Marin who raved about the speed and handling of this unique one off. Apparently on the way to Lyon he nuddged 300kph (185 mph)! 0-60 was reached in 5.8 seconds with 0-100 being reached in 12.1 seconds. Blistering pace!

The NART mechanics quickly removed the thermostats which brought the engine temperature down to acceptable levels. 

The KONI shocks were far too soft for Sebring's tight and numerous turns. They were adjusted to maximum hardness but were still not really up to the job. In night time practice, so great was the Dayton's top speed down the back straight that the car could easily outrun its headlights. Small "Cibie" rally lights were then installed above the front grill that provided some measure of relief.

Come race day, despite being hopelessly outclassed, Grossman and Cluxton ran a faultless race. Over the next twelve hours, the car used four sets of brake pads but never a drop of oil or water! Neither Grossman nor Cluxton ever had a problem with the car or any type of track side altercation. During the race, both used 8,000 rpm as a redline. Cluxton, however, recalls that at least twice he seriously over revved the engine hitting 9,800 rpm without damaging the nearly new motor. The two managed the near impossible with a fifth in class finish and an even more incredible 12th overall. While not the first race for a Daytona, it was the fist time one had finished a race!

First place was scored by the famous Martini-liveried Porsche Factory Team 917K. Second and third in class were taken by two other 917K's entered by JW Gulf Oil. Fourth in class was the famous 512M, chassis No. 1040. This was the blue Sunoco / Penske car, with this Daytona coming in fifth. Ferrari announced shortly after Sebring the availability of a "client" race version of the Daytona. These would be built and homologated to race in the FIA's Group Four category   In coming fifth it was awarded the 'index of thermal efficiency'. Then in September it achieved three world speed records 9flying start 500km, 500 miles and 1000km) with drivers including Graham Hill..

By the time the production car had ceased being made in 1973 the last batch of 5 Competitione Daytonas were delivered. They featured modified engines producing 450 bhp and the suspension was altered to accomodate this. The brakes which had proved particularly tiring when braking, from 185 mph on the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans, were beefed up to cope.

1973 Nine Daytonas entered, this time series 3 racers, and four finish: chassis 16363, again entered by Pozzi-France, is the quickest driven by Elford and Ballot-LTna, and wins the GT class and sixth on distance overall. The British-entered JCB-sponsored car, chassis 15681, driven by Neil Corner and Willie Green, and with extra sponsorship from Corgi, went out in the 18th hour after lying 17th, when the clutch packs up; Green had earlier crashed it into the barriers. This year marked the end of factory support for Daytonas.

1974 Five Daytonas start and four finish: Grandet and Bardini Tourol-entered Daytona (14407, which had retired the previous year) wins the GTS class, is first in the Index of Thermal Efficiency and first in the 3-5 litres class, with Heinz and Cudini's similar car right behind. Only NART's car failed to finish, crashing into the barrier at the Esses by Paoli.

1975 Only two Daytonas started after a row with organisers over non-qualification of his 308GT4 Dino causes NART boss Luigi Chinetti to withdraw all his cars including a 72 Daytona. Both the independently entered remaining cars finished, at 24kph slower average than the winning Bell/Ickx Gulf Ford, but the Daytona was getting long in the tooth and was overwhelmed by the field of 15 smaller, lighter Porsche 911/935s.

Pozzi was the most successful and racked up many important class victories with their Daytonas. The Daytona was particularly successful in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with class victories in 1972, 1973 and 1974. Of these, the Pozzi team scored the first two. The featured Series 3 Competizione, s/n 16363 is the actual class-winner of 1973. 

This was the end of the road for the big cars at Le Mans, but Daytonas continued to serve a useful purpose at other venues including the track that gave them their name until one last, glorious, thundering blast to second overall at Daytona in 1979, piloted by John Morton and Tony Adamowicz.

What could be more fitting for the Daytona to make its swan song at Daytona a full 6 years after production of the road car finished. A truly remarkable feat!

This is a quality book, now out of print, that covers in detail all the 15 competition Daytona and what successes and otherwise they enjoyed. They occasionally come up on ebay for around £50.