This particular Ferrari finished 5th overall in the 24 hour race at Daytona in 1977. Actor and racing driver Paul Newman bought the car prior to the 1977 season and drove the car along with Milt Minter and Elliot Forbes Robinson to 5th place behind two Porsche 935s and two Porsche 911 RSRs. The winning RSR completed 681 laps in the 24hrs, while this Daytona managed 631 laps, 3 laps ahead of the 6th place finisher, a Chevrolet Corvette.
Prior to being sold to Paul Newman, this Daytona, chassis number 14437 was sold new in 1971 to the American Scuderia Filipinetti racing team. They entered it in the 1971 Tour de France in which it finished 4th overall driven by Vic Elford and Max Kingsland. It was also driven in the 12hr race at Sebring by Bob Bondurant, but failed to finish. Originally this particular Daytona was one of 5 series I 365GTB/4Cs made in 1971. The series I cars were very light compared to the roadgoing steel bodied Daytonas as they had aluminium body panels with a glassfibre bonnet and plexiglass in all the windows except for the windscreen. Bodywork changes also included a wraparound front chin spoiler, wheelarch flares (to accommodate the wide 5 spoke lightweight magnesium Campagnolo wheels) and distinctive "fences" at the front end of the wings. The pop up lights of the street Daytona were replaced by fixed twin lights behind plexiglass covers. The interior was completely stripped of sound deadening insulating material and had a substantial roll cage welded into the structure of the car. In total, the lighter materials used in it's construction resulted in a 400kg weight saving compared to the standard production car.
The engine was very similar to the standard cars 4.4 litre V12. In race tune it produced between 360-380bhp which was not that much more than the 352bhp produced by the roadgoing Daytona. Most of the performance gains were therefore due to the lighter weight of the Competizione.
After the 1971 season the racing Daytonas were homologated as Group 4 race cars and in order to comply with Grp4 regulations they had to share the same material for their body structure as on the road cars. Hence the aluminium and glassfibre panels on the Series I cars (which were homologated as Group 5 cars allowing more radical changes to the bodywork) gave way to heavier steel panels on the Series II cars. Performance was generally preserved despite the heavier body thanks to a more highly tuned V12 with 402bhp. Four out of the five Series I Competizione Daytonas built in 1971 were converted to the same specification of the Series II cars (of which 5 were built in 1972) including chassis number 14437. It was entered in the 1972 24hrs of LeMans race but failed to finish.
In addition to it's participation in the 1977 Daytona 24hrs, this car also raced at Sebring and at Laguna Seca in the same year, and failed to finish in either race.
From the pictures I've seen of the real car in action at Daytona in 1977 it seems Kyosho have made some errors with the markings on this car. The white and blue central stripes stopped level with the top of the headlights and the car had some additional sponsorship markings on the front end (specifically the words "Star" and "Buildings" above the right and left headlights respectively and "Ledwards" under the Ferrari badge. I believe Kyosho based their model on the appearance of the car as it is today rather than how it looked in 1977. Otherwise it is pretty close to perfect in appearance, and is certainly the best (and only!) racing Ferrari Daytona available in 1:18th scale. Further racing Daytonas have been announced as future releases by Kyosho and I estimate (and certainly hope!) they will become available in 2006.
To date (November 2005) I think this is possibly the best 1:18th Kyosho have produced, and it has certainly been very popular. It is hard to find and when model retailers get them in stock they usually sell out quickly. The engine on this model looks particularly nice and a neat feature is the struts which hold up the bonnet when open. The racing interior looks very purposeful and the overall feel and finish of the model is very good indeed. This model has very wide appeal, for many reasons, being both a Ferrari, a race car with a good history and a famous driver, hence it is no surprise that it sells out so quickly. Highly recommended.
85%
