Ferrari, Daytona, 365, 365 GTS, 365 GTS/4, Spyder, replica, kit, miami vice

365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder replica

Ferrari Daytona replica with Plexiglass headlight cover             Alfa Romeo mirror & 2-tone head rest

Above: 5 views of my Daytona - all after the 11/2004 suspension upgrade

5/2004: new custom shift gate, thanks to CNC students at the University of Cincinnati Clermont

Dash features soft 'mouse fur' and and a binnacle packed full of instrumentation

(note: interior leather is not pink; it just looks more pink than red in pictures... to the naked eye it appears red)

Above & Below: 11/2004 just after the suspension upgrade and 'lowering' of my Daytona.

Dayton wheels w/ knock-off center hub sub beautifully for correct Boranni wires

Custom exhaust features 4 pipes, 4 Ferrari mufflers and no cats!

Winter 2004 project was to freshen up the engine bay, which received chrome valve covers, custom made P-flow, wrinkle paint on TPI unit and a good detailing.

What to drive today?  If the sun is shining, it is an easy choice!

Little Italy!  Mike Hudson's Daytona Factory during full production.  Clockwise from far left: red 365 GTB coupe; blue 365 GTS was the first of Mike's GTS cars; A Rolls Royce or Bentley; dark blue 365 GTS (behind red car);  MY red 365 GTS; unpainted 365 GTS would be finished in gold.    

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Ferrari produced 124 Daytona Spyders (GTS).  All the spyders were built by Scaglietti in Modena, Italy.  After Enzo Ferrari died, the price of these special cars soared well above $1 million.  A number of Daytona Berlinetta (GTB or Coupe) owners had the hardtop removed to convert into Spyders for various reasons including to profit from the inflated market value. It is possible to identify the converted cars as they typically don't have the same amount of curvature in the boot lid panel and the degree of windshield rake is not as steep as the original spyders' since the Berlinetta configuration was often carried over to avoid having to alter the doors and the glass.  Mike Hudson, the man responsible for making my Daytona stated that, "the easiest way to tell a cut coupe from a real spyder, is that the area behind the seats on a coupe was fiberglass to save weight, and on a spyder the wall area behind the seats was metal to stiffen up the cockpit area."

Over the past decade, vintage Ferrari values have seen a market correction.   Today, the price of an authentic Spyder can range up to about $450,000 US, while converted Spyders sell up to half of that price.

One conflicting item I've found is the issue of the headlight panel.  I have read that the only Ferrari Daytona Spyder to be fitted with a Plexiglass headlight panel across the nose was the yellow 365 shown at the 1969 Frankfurt Auto Show and that 'all' production models came with pop-up headlights to conform to new US safety standards.  I have also read that European-spec cars still featured the Plexiglass panel, though different sources disagree on this issue.  Since a number of 'produced for America' GTBs were manufactured before this time with the Plexiglass panel, some US cars converted to Spyders feature this nose.  The maker of my car stated that it was made to match the 'Euro-spec' design, which also included 2 amber tail lights.  My car does feature the US-spec amber front turn signals, while Euro-spec cars have white and amber front signal lenses.         

I've always considered the 365 GTS/4 to be the most beautiful car that I'd ever seen.  In August 2003, I was able to purchase a replica of the dream car that I had been captivated by over 3 decades ago.         

The above pictures are of my Daytona.  This car is one of 8 produced by Mike Hudson in the mid 1990s.  It has a 1988 L98 350 TPI (tuned-port fuel injection) engine with a T700 R4 4-speed automatic transmission.

LINKS:

Daytona Replica Club    Awesome UK Replicas

Ferrari 365 GTS4            Replica History, Film History and more

KitCar.com                            Lots of data and a great place to search for a car  

KitCars.com                    More data and 'for sale' listings

Kit Car Magazine            Excellent resources and more

KitCar Online                       Data and resources

Ebay                                      Replica listings

My Search                             Pictures and descriptions of the 30+ Daytona-like cars I found  

Email me                                FerrariDaytona@yahoo.com