CarBrandLogos archive · Ferrari · 1968

Ferrari365 GTB/4 Daytona

Ferrari's reply to the mid-engined revolution: keep the V12 up front and win anyway.

Photo: MrWalkr · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Ferrari history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Lamborghini had shown the Miura in 1966 and made every front-engined grand tourer look like the past. Ferrari's reply, unveiled in 1968, refused the premise. The 365 GTB/4 kept a 4.4-litre Colombo V12 ahead of the driver — set well back, behind the front axle line — with the five-speed gearbox mounted at the rear axle in a transaxle to balance the weight. Ferrari's argument was that the mid-engined layout was right for racing cars and wrong for a road car meant to cross continents at speed, and on that specific claim the Daytona was hard to fault.

Ferrari365GTB4Daytona · Brian Snelson · CC BY 2.0

Ferrari 365 Daytona Spider Corvette "Miami Vice" - III

Design and engineering

Leonardo Fioravanti's design for Pininfarina is one of the great shapes of the period. Early cars had a full-width acrylic panel across the nose covering fixed headlamps, an arrangement US regulations killed in favour of pop-ups. The proportions — enormous bonnet, cab set far back, sharp shoulder line running the length of the car — read as aggressive in a way Ferrari's previous grand tourers had not.

Ferrari 365 Daytona Spider Corvette "Miami Vice" - III · Cyberuly · CC BY 3.0

In production

The Daytona name was never official. It came from the press, after Ferrari's 1-2-3 finish at the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona, and it stuck against the factory's preference. Competition versions arrived later, and Daytonas took class wins at Le Mans well into the 1970s, long after the car should have been outclassed, because the engine and gearbox would run all night.

Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona · Thesupermat · CC BY-SA 4.0

Legacy

A spider version, the GTS/4, followed in 1971 and was built in far smaller numbers than the berlinetta. Production ended in 1973, with the mid-engined 365 GT4 BB taking over the flagship role — Ferrari conceding the layout argument after all. The Daytona's real successor in spirit arrived much later, when the 550 Maranello returned the company to a front-engined V12 two-seater. It is now among the most sought-after road-going Ferraris, helped by an appearance in Miami Vice, by the pop-up-lamp cars being cheap enough in the 1980s that people actually drove them, and by the simple fact that it remains one of the most satisfying ways to travel a very long way very quickly.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Units built

1,284

Engine

4.4 L (4390.35 cc) Tipo 251 Colombo V12

Body

GTB/4: berlinetta

Technical specification

The 365 GTB/4 Daytona, in detail.

Production: GTB/4: 1968–1973 (1,284 produced); GTS/4: 1971–1973 (122 produced)
Class: Grand tourer
Body style: GTB/4: berlinetta; GTS/4: Roadster (automobile); spider
Layout: Front-mid engine, rear wheel drive
Engine: 4.4 L (4390.35 cc) Tipo 251 Colombo V12
Transmission: 5-speed manual
Designer: Leonardo Fioravanti at Pininfarina
Assembly: Italy: Maranello
Manufacturer: Ferrari