Monday 15 December 2014

Know your Ferraris: The 365s

I just added this article to the online section:

http://www.drivecult.com/features/know-your-ferraris-the-365s

At the Paris Salon of 1972 the C4 gave way to the. 365GT4 2+2. Not all the short life of the C4 was wasted, since the entire engine, transmission and dashboard design were carried over into the 365GT4. The shape of this car should be familiar to anyone with a reasonable knowledge of Ferraris, since it was also used for the later 400 and 412 (making a total life for this design of 17 years, the longest for any Ferrari). The longer wheelbase of this car means it is a proper 2+2 unlike the C4.
The 365GT4 is distinguished from the later cars by the lack of a front chin spoiler and six rear lights instead of four. Many people knock the design for being boring and 'un-Ferrari-like', but in this early form at least it's a very elegant shape and considering the turbulent political and economic times when the car was new, I suspect many owners appreciated the subtle looks.
Ferrari produced 525 of these cars before the 400 took over. Unlike the 400, an automatic version was never officially offered.
Values for these cars have been in the doldrums for many years, with the over-familiarity of the shape not helping matters, but in recent years they have picked up, and are particularly sought after in Italy. The best examples are probably around £40,000 which is something of a bargain in Ferrari V12 terms, although it's important to remember that this is still likely to be many times less than the restoration cost of one.

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