From one yellow, Pininfarina-styled two-door to the next. Ferraris like the 308 and Testarossa are probably what you would get if you asked a random stranger off the block to draw a car with the Prancing Horse badge. The Daytona was the icon before those icons, so to speak. Impossibly beautiful, these grand tourers represented the winding down of front-engine, 12 cylinder Ferraris, soon to be replaced by wild, wedge shaped, mid-engined sports cars. For sale in Texas, this Daytona represents the second to last year of production for this legend.

1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona

1972 U.S. Spec Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona. It only has 55,086 miles.

• A U.S.-spec Daytona with well-known history from new
• One of 1,273 Daytona berlinettas built by Scaglietti from 1968-1973

352 hp, 4,390 cc DOHC V-12 engine, six Weber 40 DCN 17 carburetors, five-speed manual transaxle, independent front and rear suspension by coil springs and wishbones, and four-wheel hydraulic disc brakes. Wheelbase: 94.5 in.

The Ferrari 365 GTB/4 acquired its unofficial Daytona name after the model swept the top three places of the 1967 race of the same name. Ferrari was reportedly quite put out when the Daytona name leaked out during testing, and it was never officially applied to the model. In any case, the Daytona proved its namesake point 12 years later when a 1973 model finished Second at Daytona in 1979, driven by John Morton and Tony Adamowitz, capping an extraordinary competition career.

Introduced at the 1968 Paris Salon, the Daytona had a tube steel frame, and the body featured a horizontal body-side crease below the level of the wheel wells. Early models had full-width plastic headlight covers, but U.S. regulations rejected covered lights, and the solution was the elegant pop-up lights, which were fitted to all the cars from 1970 onward. The Kamm tail contained two taillights on each side, and aluminum was used for the doors, hood, and trunk lid. The Cromodora five-spoke wheels were standard and similar to wheels used on Formula 1 cars at the time.

The price of the 365 GTB/4 rose from $19,500 to $23,940 through the model’s five-year production run, while one of the 121 spyders would set you back about $2,000 more. But the Daytona’s mechanical specifications delivered on its claim to be the fastest production sports car in the world, with a top speed of 174 mph. The four-cam Colombo V-12 engine displaced 4.3 liters and generated 352 horsepower.

Competition Daytonas won the Tour de France in 1972, their class at Le Mans in 1973 and 1974, and their class at Daytona in 1973 and 1975. The 1973 Le Mans class-winning Charles Pozzi entry, driven by Vic Elford and Claude Ballot-Lena, was driven back to Paris following the race, proving the Daytona’s remarkable reliability.

The car on offer today was built on November 23, 1971, in Ferrari Fly Yellow black leather upholstery, and equipped with Borletti air conditioning, a Voxson Sonar radio, and Cromodora magnesium wheels. It was sold in February 1972 by the fabled Luigi Chinetti Motors to Gerald L. Buhrman, an engineer and longtime Ferrari Club of America member, to replace his 330 GTC.

The Daytona was returned to Luigi Chinetti Motors in 1976 and resold to Nicholas Seidman, who traded the 25,000-mile car to Kenneth Fullerton of Lexington, Massachusetts. It went on to spend the next three decades being carefully driven and maintained as part of a private collection on the East Coast.

The car was recently relocated to California by the consignor, a noted Ferrari enthusiast with multiple fine examples in his possession. It wears a sympathetic cosmetic restoration and new suspension by BMC Classics Inc. and Better Body’s Antique & Classic Car Restoration, as well as correct Dinoplx ignition and a Becker Mexico radio, added for a later owner. It has been thoroughly detailed, Additionally, the seat inserts were replaced. The car is accompanied by much documentation relating to its history and maintenance, a partial tool kit, and the all-important report of Marcel Massini documenting its history.

The 365 GTB/4 Daytona was released as the fastest and, for many Ferrari enthusiasts, the most desirable car in the world. Four decades after its debut, the Daytona maintains its glorious status among the sports car elite and is a cultural icon in its own right.

The last last Daytona we featured was on offer for $435,000. Almost $500,000 represents strong money if the seller can get it. As always, with these cars, documentation and history are paramount. If the records are thorough and you can trace the owners back to new, we might have a $450,000 car at best. Half a million could be a tough sell.

-Paul