The Ferrari Daytona is undoubtedly one of the more significant sports cars ever made, and it has enjoyed tremendous staying power on the sports car marketplace. Like all of the other truly great sporting and exotic models, the Daytona’s star has never really fallen, remaining in consistent high demand among collectors of every stripe. This is one of the very few examples offered in roadster form from the factory, and was in the hands of its original owner up until 1991. Find it here on RM Sotheby’s website with a pre-sale estimate of €2,200,000 – €2,500,000 EUR.
Thanks to Barn Finds reader Araknid78 for the find. While many Daytona hardtop coupes were forced into surgery in the 1970s and 80s when convertibles were the must-have variant of pretty much any make and model, the factory did let a few cars out of the gate as drop-tops. This being one of them automatically drives its value exponentially higher than those cars converted at the hands of an aftermarket company. Ferrari produced just 121 Dayona Spiders, putting it in rare company indeed.
Inside, the Daytona is as stunning as you’d expect, with its trademark leather sports seats in absolutely incredible condition. The original owner hailed from Cincinnati and ordered his Spider in an identical color scheme to the coupe he offered in trade: Nocciola Metallizzato over Pelle Beige. The listing is correct in stating that seeing such a car on the streets of Ohio in the 1970s had to have been quite a sight, and the first caretaker was clearly enamored with his Spider, considering he owned it until 1991.
He covered a healthy 41,000 miles in that time, so the Spider was clearly exercised with some regularity. It then left the United States and was imported into Germany. The Spider underwent recommissioning and had its odometer reset to zero; it has remained in Germany ever since and was recently restored again back to its original colors and ultimately received Ferrari’s coveted “Red Book” certification, which noted the Spider retains its numbers-matching engine. A stunner in every regard, especially in these colors.
Not Resale Red or Miami Vice White.
How refreshing.
No it’s ugly as hell gold!
Sorry man the Daytona in Miami Vice was black.
Sorry man the Daytona in Miami Vice was a Corvette C3 wearing a Daytona body.
From the wonderfully detailed engine compartment, to the suede dash and perfectly restored interior, this car is a stunner. This Daytona appears as fresh as the day it left Maranello. I would love to hear that 12 cylinder powerplant sing as I drive through the California redwoods…..well, I can dream can’t I?
Acton. Back in the mid-70s I almost had that dream. A friend’s father owned the 2+2 365 2-door coupe model. He allowed us to drive it for the rest of the day if we washed and cleaned it first. The puny 4.4 litre (268 cu in) with only three weber carburettors (the Daytona here has six webers) was extremely fast and powerful. I remember starting to begin to overtake a slower car in front. Ordinarily you wait for the engine revolutions to wind up then pull out to overtake. When I put my foot down onto the accelerator pedal, I nearly ran into the back of the car in front! I didn’t realise that the acceleration would be instantaneous. On the second attempt I pulled out and then powered up in third gear. In front of us was quite a steep hill and after going over the top I looked down at the speedo and it showed 100mph. The turbine smoothness of the V12 engine gave no indication the engine was under any stress. Handling and braking was at the same high level. My friend’s father traded that car for a Daytona coupe and later sold the Daytona for only $25,000 Australian which is less than $16,000US with today’s conversion.
Peter, your time with a Ferrari was memorable so many years later. Isn’t that what owning or driving a Ferrari is all about? I looked up that car in Google photos, what a gorgeous car! I’m glad you had that experience and nice memory.
Here we look at 30.000 dollar cars and go I wish .
Ha if you got 2 million would you spend it on it?
Not me
Is this the same car they used in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? But in gold.
Acton, Yes, there are some memories and even more. We were lucky the Ferrari was a 2+2. We both had our girlfriends with us in the back seats. My girlfriend later became my wife and we are still together today. She too remembers the one day only Ferrari drive and reminds me of it when we see similar cars today.
That barn must have been mighty clean!!
I can imagine a guy walking up to a broke down lean-to, wrenching the doors open and finding this stashed under a pile of old horse blankets and chicken feed bags. Nice find!
Sometimes we just feature things we think are cool. Most Ferraris fit in the low mileage survivor category anyway so they can technically be considered barn finds.
These break down all the time. Not reliable at all. Read what Richard Carpenter said about his when he tried to take it on tour. Mr Carpenter has the money for repairs, but the headaches were not worth it. He said his 70 Plymouth with the 440.6 was the go to car to drive between concert dates.
I’ve never met a Ferrari owner that claimed that they bought a Ferrari because of their stellar reliability. There must be another reason though.
Oh, there are other reasons alright. Most of which you would not tell your mother about.
Well, if Barn Finds “jumped the shark” with this listing at least they did it in a Ferrari Daytona.
When you buy a Ferrari although reliability is important to most car buyers it’s not what drew them to a Ferrari. It’s every thing else, the beauty, performance, nostalgia and experience of owning one of the most beautiful cars in the world. Oh yeah and because you can afford it.
I guess what you say is true, but I have read absolute horror stories about these, stranding people over and over again. What fun is a car if you can’t even take it out of town for a weekend trip? If you just want to drive around town and show off, fine, but I prefer to actually drive a car.
I could do all that for a lot less money in a Fiat in the ’70s and ’80s when I was “between” reliable mechanics. And still had enough Italian fun to average about 300,000 miles per car.
“Living like the wealthy” ain’t ALL it’s cracked up to be?! :D
Do these suffer from “Carbon on the Valves”?
Too fast! Nothing can settle on a Ferrari.
Unreliability used to be just understood when you bought an exotic Italian sports car. Then the Japanese showed the world how it was done with the Miata and NSX. EVERYONE had to up their game. Including Ferrari. They are much better car now
Never liked the front end design of these cars, it was the 70’s and flat nose wedginess were in, but the Maserati Ghibli achieved it with with far more elegance.
Went on the site it read sold. Over 3M somebody is happy! 🙄🐻🇺🇸
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was a great movie, they used a Ferrari 250 GT Spider in that movie….or rather a very nicely built replica. That 250 spider was another timeless design to come out of Maranello. We Americans learned how to mass produce cars, the Japanese made them reliable and the Italians taught cars how to sing.
€3,098,750 EUR | Sold
München, Germany