Would you pay almost 2 million euros for a car that is so dirty and rusty that the best thing for your physical integrity would be to get into it with a protective suit? Probably not. And, probably, you would change your mind when you found out that the vehicle we are talking about it is a unique Ferrari Daytona. This is the story of the dirtiest car you will find in the Museum of Modena.
Between 1969 and 1983, more than 1,200 units of the precious Ferrari Daytona left the Italian factory. Of all of them, there were only five competition whose bodywork was made of aluminum and only one was a street version: is what you have before your eyes. Tinted in Rosso Chiaro and with a Nero leather interior (hardly noticeable due to its condition), this Ferrari Daytona 365 GTB/4 was equipped with plexiglass headlamps and electric windows: unique features of this model.
Although it seems strange, This Ferrari Daytona is on display at the Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena: just as you see it. The brand decided to display it as it was found five years ago: dirty, with some rusty parts and in an apparent state of neglect. It is now in good hands and could be awaiting a complete restoration (which it certainly needs) from Ferrari’s Classiche department.
His story
This Ferrari Daytona, with chassis number 12653 and 36,390 kilometers on the odometer, was sold to Luciano Conti (a friend of Enzo Ferrari himself) in 1969. Two years later, in 1971, headed to japan where it changed owners three times. When they found it in the garage where it had been locked up for forty years, it was owned by Makoto Takai: throughout that time, various buyers had tried to get hold of it, without any success.
The reasons why its owner kept it and practically abandoned it are unknown. In 2017, RM Sotheby’s put it up for auction for the first time and someone bought it for almost two million: 1,807,000 euros. Dirt included. The new owner agreed to lend the Ferrari Daytona to the museum that the brand has in Modena.
Since he bought it, five years ago, until his move to Italy was organized, no one has touched the car: evidently, it has not been restored either. This Ferrari Daytona has been in its original condition since it was put into storage in the early 1970s: charmingly contradictory as it may seem, they have managed to keep it immaculately dirty. And that seems more difficult than keeping it clean.
