The Ferrari Daytona will be celebrated in its 40th anniversary year at this year’s Classic Adelaide in November when some of the world’s rarest Daytonas gather to participate in Australia’s premiere classic car rally. The Ferrari Daytona was launched at the 1968 Paris Motor Show and its design by Leonardo Fioravanti at Pininfarina was a radical change for Ferrari, with its sharp edge lines, flowing shape and blended lights and bumpers placing it at the cutting edge of car design.

The Ferrari Daytona, one of the greatest all-time super cars, will be celebrated in its 40th anniversary year at this year’s Classic Adelaide in November (20-23 November 2008) when some of the world’s rarest Daytonas gather to participate in Australia’s premiere classic car rally.

“The Daytona is the epitome of a super car, with its styling, potent V12 performance and ‘bad boy’ aura that has made it star on the track, in films and on TV,” says Kevin Wall, General Manager of European Automotive Imports, the Australian and New Zealand Ferrari importer who will be welcoming Ferrari Daytona owners to Adelaide. “Its influences can be seen across the industry and the top Ferrari model today is, like the Daytona, a classic front engine, rear wheel drive V12 powered supercar, the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano.”

The Ferrari Daytonas attending the Classic Adelaide event will be on display at the Gouger Street party on Friday 21 November before taking part in the event on 22 and 23 of November, allowing the public to hear the magnificent sound of the Daytona’s V12 engine at full pelt.

The Daytona celebration in Adelaide is part of a worldwide celebration for the classic Ferrari Supercar, which started at this year’s Geneva Motor Show when Ferrari launched a special version of the modern Ferrari 612 Scaglietti with a colour and trim combination the same as the original launch Ferrari Daytona. This was followed in April by the first of a series of Daytona gatherings at the Mugello Historic Festival and a celebration of the Daytona at the Essen Technoclassica in Germany.

Officially named the Ferrari 365 GTB/4, the Ferrari Daytona was launched at the 1968 Paris Motor Show and its design by Leonardo Fioravanti at Pininfarina was a radical change for Ferrari, with its sharp edge lines, flowing shape and blended lights and bumpers placing it at the cutting edge of car design.

Fioravanti was inspired to produce the Daytona after seeing a bare Ferrari 330 GTC chassis. “It struck me as something unique. I wanted to follow its dimensions, while playing close attention to aerodynamics. The fundamental objective was to obtain a thin, svelte car; the search was for a sense of lightness, rake and a slender look.”

The official name comes from capacity of one cylinder – 365 cc – and the 4 represents the four camshafts atop the V12 engine. The unofficial Daytona name arose from its unofficial designation during its development, to commemorate the triple success of Ferrari in the 1967 Daytona 24 hour race with the Ferrari 330P4. The Daytona raced at Daytona with its best result being in 1973 24 hour race when a car entered by NART finished second overall, driven by Francois Migault and Milt Minter and the same year two Daytonas finished in the top ten in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

With its front mounted 259 kW 4390 cc V12 engine and relative light weight of just 1200 kg, the Ferrari Daytona offered performance even today places it in the super car bracket and for many years held the title of “fastest car tested” for many motoring magazines.

The engine, known as the Tipo 251, was a classic 60 degree V12 with double overhead camshafts and featured six Weber twin carburettors and provided the Daytona with a 280 km/h top speed and it blasted its ways to 100 km/h in just 5.4 seconds. The Daytona was officially the world’s fastest road legal car from 1968 to 1970 with an independently tested top speed of 175 mph or 281 km/h by the UK magazine, Autocar, and enough to see off its nearby rival, the Lamborghini Miura.

Of the 1406 Daytonas produced by Ferrari, just 158 were made in right hand drive, while the rare Spider version, which was produced by Scaglietti, had a total production run of 122, with just seven in right hand drive. In addition some 15 Daytonas were built as racing cars.

The Ferrari Daytona’s bad boy image was cemented in 1971 when racing legend Dan Gurney and Car and Driver Editor Brock Yates drove a Sunoco Blue Daytona from New York to Los Angeles in the inaugural Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. The Daytona covered the 4,628 km route in 35 hours 54 minutes at an average speed, including stops of 129 kmh. The drivers claim to have crossed the back roads of Arizona at a steady 290 km/h, reporting the Daytona to be ‘rock-steady’. 

Chris Rea celebrated the Ferrari in his song ‘Daytona’ in his 1989 album ‘Road to hell’ with the lines “She ain’t easy, so you take good care or she will scream down your lust” and the song finishes with Daytona’s engine at full power and screaming tyres to match.