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Modern
times
In the ’70s, Paul Frère wrote that ‘the Daytona was the
epitome of a Grand Tourer car and as such never had a successor bearing
the Ferrari badge...’ Until 1994, when the company brought out the
456 (top right), its first front-engined V12 since Daytona production
stopped in 1974, with styling cues obviously lifted from the 365GTB/4.
The glass profile is almost identical, and the tail-end couldn’t
have been inspired by anything else. But, in spite of being like its predecessor,
nimbler than an Aston, 1829kg was rightly criticised for being too flabby.
More encouraging was 1996’s 550 Maranello (right), hailed by enthusiasts
as the Daytona’s true successor - you can see all the styling cues
from the roof profile to the stubby, sloping tail. Just to reinforce the
message that this is a proper Ferrari, there are 275-esque twin cooling
slats behind the front wheels. Ferrari was back on track, even if few
fans could afford its huge £150k price. Today this 318kph supercar
can be yours for around £115,000 (Rs 75 lakh).
Genesis of a supercar
Very much a
development of the 275GTB theme, the Daytona continued the classic Ferrari
Gran Turismo basics established by that car of front-mounted V12 engine,
rear-mounted five-speed transmission and double wishbone suspension all
round.
The
275GTB hadn’t been particularly well received on its introduction
in 1964, partly because, however well executed, the design was seen as
old hat. So, from that time, thoughts strayed to its replacement. Ferrari
had been boosted by a remarkable 1-2-3 finish at the Daytona 24 hours
with its new P4s, finally breaking the dominance of the Ford GT40s on
American soil. The best Ford could finish only seventh. In the face of
national pride and fervour, it was inevitable that the new Berlinetta
project would inherit that name - it was used as the internal designation
for the new car at the factory, but the story goes that a leak angered
Enzo Ferrari so much that he reverted to the designation 365GTB/4 for
the car’s official name.
What was used in the end was a 330GTC-type chassis frame, keeping the
275’s 2.4-metre wheelbase and basic layout. As well as the massive
chassis, braced by crossmembers and a central X-frame, there’s a
lighter network of tubing on top to support body, doors, radiator and
headlights. In a first for Ferrari, the body’s inner tub is formed
in four glassfibre sections - front and rear bulkheads plus floors/ transmission
tunnel sides.
Pininfarina completed its design drawings on December 10, 1966. This first
prototype was built in Autumn 1967, with a 275-type bulbous nose, but
recognisably 365GTB styling from the front wheels back. Two more prototypes
were built before the eventual nose styling emerged, but the first cars’
bold clear strip, plus the wraparound sidelights and indicators didn’t
appear until quite late in the day.
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 ’60s and
early ’70s wasn’t very expensive, cheaper than mass-producing
the huge body, and no pressing tools were ever made for the Daytona. 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 ‘dry’, being
simply the catch pan for the lubrication set-up, with two scavenge and
one pressure pump. The rear-mounted transaxle had its own pumped lubrication
system. 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 whole drivetrain was mounted to the chassis
on four Silentbloc bushes for refinement.
The car made its public debut at the Paris Salon in 1968. In the next
five and a bit years, near 1400 would be made, including 50 GTS convertibles,
as opposed to fewer than 750 275GTB/GTSs.
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| Parkes/Lafosse
car in Esses, 1972:third GT home. |
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| 1973:
GT class-winning No 39 car just visible. |
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| Argentian-driven
car failed to finish, 1973 race. |
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| Parkes
car hard into pit straight, Sunday am, 1972. |
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LE MANS - THE DAYTONA STORY
Although Daytonas could not hope to win the prototype class at Le Mans,
the reliability and strength of the brawny V12 made the big GT an exceptional
performer in long-distance events such as Daytona, Sebring. . . and Le
Mans. After a shaky start at the French circuit, Daytonas were the cars
to beat over four years in the GT class, until age and the sheer might
of the Porsche force overwhelmed them. Weight always told against the
Daytona: the 1971 cars tipped the scales at more than 1.5 tonnes, and
the lightest ever at Le Mans was still a porky 1342kg.
1969
America’s Ferrari importer, Luigi Chinetti himself drives a hastily
prepared aluminium-bodied car from Maranello, over the Alps to Le Mans
for Bob Grossman to drive, but in qualifying he collides with Pedro Rodriguez’
(not that one!) Dino and neither North American Racing Team car starts
the race.
1971 ‘Coco’ Chinetti, son of Luigi, has the privilege
of being the first to drive the NART Daytona on the Le Mans circuit, partnered
by Bob Grossman. His GTB/4, chassis 12467, wins its class in the Index
of Thermal Efficiency. It would have beaten the Porsches running in the
GT category, but had to run in Sport as it was still awaiting homologation
which required 500 examples to be built
1972 Using factory-built ‘series 2’ racers, now tuned
by for 402bhp at 8300rpm, 130kg less weight and wing ‘fences’
to help aerodynamics, Ferrari teams crush Porsche, putting Daytonas in
the first five places in the GT category and fifth to ninth overall: nine
Daytonas had started. Andruet and Ballot-Léna’s winning Pozzi-France
car, numbered 39, is timed at 293kph on the Mulsanne straight, and finishes
fifth overall on distance.
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-Léna, 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, goes out in the 18th hour after lying 17th, when
the clutch packs up; Green had earlier crashed it into the barriers. This
year marks the end of factory support for Daytonas.
1974 Five Daytonas start and four finish: Grandet and Bardini’s
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 fails to finish, crashed into the barrier at the
Esses by Paoli.
1975 Only two Daytonas start 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 finish, at 24kph slower average than the winning Bell/Ickx Gulf Ford,
but the Daytona is getting long in the tooth and is overwhelmed by the
field of 15 smaller, lighter Porsche 911/935s.
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 ’79, piloted by John Morton and Tony
Adamowicz. Their car wore a black bonnet stripe as a mark of respect to
team manager Otto Zipper, who collapsed and died just before the race.
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February 2002
