As a successor to the Ferrari 275 the Daytona cured many of its predecessor the 275’s ills without being greatly different from it. Its 4-Liter V12 engine endowed Daytonas with shattering acceleration and a staggering 175 mph top speed.

The Daytona – or as Ferrari insisted on calling it, the 365 GTB /4 was a remarkable car in more than one way. In the first place , authoritative road tests of the early 1970’s made it beyond doubt the fastest road car of all time, until the advent of the most exotic beasts of the mid-1980’s , turbocharged or otherwise. Yet it achieved this feat with chassis engineering which some critics decried as old-fashioned even when it first appeared.

In essence, the Daytona was a replacement for the Ferrari 275. By the mid-1960s Ferrari had clearly established its presence in the market for nimble, ultra-fast GT coupes, as well as that for heavy but prestigious sports cars like the 330. The Ferrari GT reputation had been established with the much admired 250 and 275 models, culminating in the classic 275 GT/4 with its 4 cam engine. The question on hand is where the company should to next. With the 275 becoming long in the tooth and the competition becoming keener ( none more so than the upstart down the road – Lamborghini) there was an obvious need for something both quicker as well as better looking and even trendy. Yet at that same point in time there was the looming threat of exhaust emission regulations in the vital USA export market. North America Canada and the USA were indeed Ferrari’s principal market places.

It was both the emission requirements which quickly killed the 275GTB/4 since there was no way that this engine could beat or match the tough EPA regulations without emasculating its performance. It was simply too high tuned to survive. That argued that the 275 replacement should be bigger-engined, it would then have the margin to achieve decent performance with such addition as an air pump and exhaust gas recirculation, while in Europe that margin could be put to better use in a search for really shattering performance by road car standards.

Since the engine had to be bigger, it followed that the car as a whole would grow, but not too much, since it had after all to follow the GT tradition of the 275. Perhaps it was a risk to place any great restraint on Pininfarina when he addressed himself to the problem of coming up with a shape to attract even greater administration than the 275 , but no doubt it is beyond question that he succeeded.

The 275 represented the last practical stretch of the Colombo-designed small block Ferrari V12 and the engineers therefore turned to the Lampredi’s “big-block” unit whose origins stretched all the way back to 1951.

The basic power unit was used in the hefty 350s and had been stretched even further to 4390 cc for use in the 356 GT 2 + 2. As always with Ferrari designations of the time. The 265 referred to the cubic capacity of a single cylinder.

Daytona production continued until 1974, by which time it was overwhelmingly clear that what ever merits of the car. The pressure for any then current car to be mid-engine became irresistible. The result, and next in line, was the 512BB.

Tom I Stables
Edmonton Auto
Trader
Fort Mc Murray
Alberta Used Car Truck Dealers