1972 Ferrari 365 GTC/4

This 1972 Ferrari 365 GTC/4 is finished in Rosso Chiaro over beige leather and is offered from Illovo, Johannesburg by illovo_gtc4, about this seller, its fourth owner and the keeper of the car for twenty two years. It carries chassis 15681, shows 71,300km, and is one of roughly 500 built across 1971 and 1972. The Viglietti Motors supply record published with the lot confirms it was sold new in South Africa rather than imported later, which is the rarer of the two histories for a Ferrari of this age here.

The 4.4 litre Colombo V12 is the Daytona unit turned to breathe through six Weber 38 DCOE side-draft carburettors instead of downdraughts, which is what allowed Pininfarina to drop the bonnet line, and it drives through a five speed gearbox mounted in unit with the engine rather than the Daytona's transaxle. Power steering was standard. The car is a genuine 2+2, which is why it has spent decades being described as the sensible Daytona and priced as though that were a criticism.

The documented file begins in 2006 with a bare metal respray in the original colour, photographed in primer and invoiced, during which one lower rear quarter section was let in. Suspension and a resealed steering rack followed in 2011. The timing chain tensioners were replaced and the valve clearances set in 2016, the six Webers were stripped, rebuilt and synchronised on a rolling road in 2019, and the fuel tank, lines and hoses were renewed in 2022. A leak-down and compression test was run on all twelve cylinders before the sale and both sheets are in the documents.

The flaws the seller states are paint blistering at the base of the left A-pillar that has not been cut back, so nobody knows what is under it; a long crank from cold with the carburettors last set up in 2019; an air conditioning system that does not work, with the compressor removed and kept with the car; light blue smoke on a cold start that clears within a minute; and a slow driver's window. One question went unanswered: asked whether the engine internal numbers still match the chassis, the seller declined, saying he has never had the engine apart and will not certify from the outside. The car has not been through Ferrari Classiche. Bidders should price both of those accordingly.

The 365 GTC/4 arrived in 1971 as the car for the owner who wanted the Daytona's engine and did not want the Daytona's compromises. It used the same chassis and wheelbase and the same 4.4 litre Colombo V12, but with six side-draft Weber 38 DCOE carburettors in place of the Daytona's downdraughts, which lowered the induction stack and let Pininfarina draw a nose that needed no pop up lamps to meet the American headlight rules. Filippo Sapino did the body. Power steering was standard, the seats behind the front pair were usable by people with legs, and the gearbox sat with the engine instead of at the back.

Ferrari built roughly 500 over two years, then replaced it in 1972 with the 365 GT4 2+2, which began the long line of front engined four seat Ferraris that ran to the 456. That short production run and the model's position between two more famous cars is the whole story of its value: it was the Daytona's quiet twin, and for fifty years the market paid for the noise.

South African supply came through Viglietti Motors, the Cape Town concessionaire that held the Ferrari franchise here, and cars delivered new through that route carry a supply record that an imported car cannot produce. In a market with no Carfax, where provenance rests on NATIS, stamps and registers, an unbroken local chain of this length on a car of this age is the document that does the work.