365 GTB/4 Daytona (Berlinetta and GTS/4 Spider)

Replacing the 275 GTB/4

By 1968 Ferrari's front-engined berlinetta was the 275 GTB/4, a 3.3-liter car of great charm that was being outrun by the mid-engined Lamborghini Miura. Ferrari's answer was not a mid-engined car but a larger and faster front-engined one, and the decision drew criticism at the time; Mel Nichols' period road test notes that the car was initially attacked for keeping the engine at the front. The 365 GTB/4 was shown at the Paris Salon in October 1968. Ferrari's own account describes it as the evolution of the 275 GTB/4, with the Colombo V12 enlarged from 3.3 to 4.4 liters, six Weber twin-choke 1.57 in (40 mm) carburetors and the rear transaxle retained for weight distribution. At 174 mph it was, in Ferrari's words, by some margin the fastest road Ferrari to that date.

Fioravanti, Pininfarina and Scaglietti

The body was drawn at Pininfarina by Leonardo Fioravanti, who would go on to the Dino, the 365 GT4 BB, the 308 and the 288 GTO and who has called the Daytona his favorite. Supercars.net quotes him saying he worked seven days without a break on the design. The shape abandoned the rounded forms of the 250 and 275 series for a sharp-edged wedge with a deep indentation line along the flanks and, on the first cars, four headlamps behind a full-width Perspex panel. Scaglietti built the bodies in Modena in steel over a Tipo 605 tubular frame, with aluminum doors, hood and trunk lid and a glassfiber inner tub on the berlinetta. The name came from outside: the press attached 'Daytona' after the 1967 24 Hours 1-2-3, and Ferrari used the name sparingly and always noted it was unofficial.

Engine, Transaxle and the Numbers

The Tipo 251 engine displaced 4,390 cc from an 3.2 in (81 mm) bore and 71 mm stroke, with twin camshafts per bank, two valves per cylinder, dry-sump lubrication and a 9.3:1 compression ratio. Ferrari claimed 352 hp at 7,500 rpm and 318 lb-ft at 5,500 rpm. Drive went through a torque tube to a five-speed transaxle with limited-slip differential. Motor Sport records that Autocar timed 0-60 mph in 5.4 seconds and reached 174 mph, figures that remained the magazine's road-test record for some time; Nichols' own test returned 5.5 seconds to 60 and a little over 12 seconds to 100 mph. The car was heavy and physical. Petrolicious describes steering that is heavy at low speeds and a rear end that breaks away suddenly on its narrow tires in the wet, and Nichols accepted the effort at the wheel and pedals as part of the car.

Spider, US Rules and Running Changes

The 365 GTS/4 spider was shown at Frankfurt in 1969, identical from the waist down but with steel floors, smaller twin tanks and a folding roof; Ferrari says it accounted for about ten per cent of sales. United States lighting regulations killed the Perspex nose, and pop-up headlamps were phased in between chassis 13800 and 14200 during 1971, with the satin aluminum nose band giving way to body color late that year. US cars ran 8.8:1 compression, a central muffler and electronic ignition, and from chassis 15701 the aluminum doors became steel so that side-impact bars could be fitted. Production ended in late 1973, by which time the 365 GT4 BB had taken over as the flagship.

Competition and the Cannonball

Ferrari built Group 4 versions in three series of five between 1971 and 1973, with lightened steel or aluminum bodies and engines tuned to between roughly 400 and 450 hp; Ferrari's own page counts 18 race-prepared berlinettas run by NART, Pozzi, Filipinetti, Swaters and Hoare. They took the GT class at Le Mans in 1972, 1973 and 1974, filling the first five class places in 1972, and a Daytona finished second overall and first in class at the 1979 Daytona 24 Hours, six years after production ended. On the road, Dan Gurney and Brock Yates drove chassis 14271 across America in the first Cannonball Baker run in November 1971, covering 2,876 miles in 35 hours 54 minutes at an average of 80.1 mph; Gurney later said they never exceeded 175 mph.

Timing chains are the well-known weak point: incorrect tensioning leads to premature wear or jumped teeth, while over-tightening damages the front camshaft bearing surfaces in the alloy heads, and access is poor on air-conditioned cars. Second-gear synchromesh suffers from poor technique or a mis-adjusted clutch, with a synchro overhaul quoted by Tom Yang at around $3,000 to $3,500 in 2005 money and cracked rear transaxle casings reported. The six Webers warp with age and admit air at the inlet tracts, and degraded rubber fuel hose is a fire risk on any car with a long gap in its history. The rear exhaust resonator rusts through from the bottom within a few years and a stainless replacement costs about twice the standard part. Brakes fade badly in hard or track use, the factory air conditioning was inadequate when new, and the steering is heavy enough at parking speeds that electric assistance is a common modification. Rust affects rear arches, door skins, the quarter-vent area and, in neglected cars, chassis outriggers, and both guides consulted assume that most cars have had metal repair at some point. A routine engine overhaul was quoted at $25,000 to $30,000 in 2005 and Petrolicious puts a rebuild at up to $50,000. Cars left unused in damp storage develop all of the above at once.

Documentation and originality carry the price. Ferrari Classiche certification confirms matching engine, transaxle and body numbers, and RM Sotheby's catalog entries lean on it heavily; the Monaco 2026 car had been certified in April that year. Establish the original color, since many cars have been changed, and note that a car titled as 1973 may have been built in 1972. Confirm which specification the car actually is: Perspex nose or pop-up lamps, European or US compression and exhaust, aluminum or steel doors, kilometer or mile instruments. Petrolicious warns against paying a premium for a 'rare Tipo A' claim, which simply means European pop-up cars, and against any dealer suggestion that Scaglietti built spiders beyond the factory run. Corrosion is the structural question. The steel is prone to rust around the rear wheel arches, the area between the quarter-light vent and the arch, lower door skins on steel-door US cars and, in bad cases, the chassis outriggers under the floor. Tom Yang's guide recommends demanding answers for any gap in the last ten to fifteen years of history, a compression test before purchase and a check that second-gear synchromesh works without noise. A complete original tool kit is worth a five-figure sum on its own. Take an extended drive from cold, because the engine takes a long time to come up to temperature and cold-stuck piston rings on a car that has sat will show themselves. Outside spider conversions, however well done, are berlinettas in the eyes of the market.

As of September 2026 classic.com's market benchmark for the 365 GTB/4 berlinetta stands at $641,683 on a downward trend, with an average recorded sale of $647,121 and a low of $309,350 for a 1973 car in September 2025. Recent tracked results include $865,000 for a 1971 car in August 2026, $792,000 for a 1972 car at Mecum in January 2026, $610,000 at Gooding Christie's in August 2026 and $500,000 for a 1973 car in January 2026, with five cars then listed between 640,000 euros and $799,890. The GTS/4 spider sits in a different bracket: as of September 2026 classic.com's benchmark is $2,699,633, also trending down, with a low of $2,200,000 in August 2025, and RM Sotheby's sold chassis 14901 for $2,315,000 including premium at Monterey in August 2026. The Competizione market is separate again: Gooding Christie's sold Series III chassis 16407 for $8,145,000 at Pebble Beach in August 2025, a record for the model. Premiums attach to Plexiglas-nose cars in some markets, to documented low mileage, to original colors and to Ferrari Classiche certification; right-hand drive, color changes, US specification and outside spider conversions sit below benchmark.