Say what you will about his costumes, but there’s no denying music legend Sir Elton John has impeccable taste in cars. A quick tour of the Rocket Man’s back catalogue reveals a love for British bruisers, having owned three Aston Martin V8 Vantages and at least four Bentley Continental GTs. Oh, and a Jaguar XJ220 along with a handful of Rolls-Royces, among other things.
But even the most patriotic of car collectors usually can't resist finding space for the odd piece of Italian exotica - especially one as flamboyant as Elton. He owned a Ferrari Testarossa and the improved 512 TR (dodging the controversially re-styled F512 M we recently featured), along with an incredibly brown 412 Coupe. A stunning collection, for sure, but there’s one car that sticks out among a sea of gems, and it’s currently up for sale on the classifieds.
It's this utterly gorgeous Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’. A car that isn’t steeped in motorsport history, nor was it produced in ultra-limited numbers, yet is among the most sought-after models by collectors keen to snap one up before values rise into the many millions of pounds. Possibly because its wedge-shaped, pop-up headlight styling was years ahead of its time. In fact, the Leonardo Fioravanti design proved so popular that it was mimicked across the motoring world – with the Rover SD1 being the most egregious example.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but no one could build engines like Ferrari in the late ‘60s. Underneath the incredibly long bonnet was a 4.4-litre V12 breathing through six Weber carburettors, for an output of 352hp at 7,200rpm. A frankly ridiculous number for the time, edging ahead of the then-new Lamborghini Miura, with 175mph possible on a clear stretch of autostrada. And yet with all that power, Ferrari never officially built a racing variant until the late 1970s. So that Daytona name has nothing to do with the 365 GTB/4’s motorsport achievements, but is instead a nickname given by fans after Ferrari scored a 1-2-3 at the legendary 24-hour race in 1967.
A truly gorgeous car then with a lot of power, but this particular example is a little bit different. Ferrari built a little over 1,400 examples of the coupe variant and only 122 roadsters, with the latter naturally commanding a considerably higher figure than the hardtops. But this car is one of just 156 right-hand drive cars, purchased in the UK in 1972 for just £10,072 before it arrived in the possession of Sir Elton. The cherry on the cake, though, is that it comes with power steering, meaning you can actually use the thing as a GT car without your arms falling off after ten minutes of urban driving.
Remarkably, these coupes haven’t quite hit the heady heights of the GTS/4 roadster and values have, surprisingly, remained stable despite the market being anything but. And it’s not like this car has a dodgy past, with invoices and receipts dating back to the car’s purchase some 50 years ago. Sure, it’s been places with 82,000 miles on the clock, but at least you’ll feel less guilty about racking up some distance while cruising through the alps in Sir Elton’s former chariot. The price? £495,000. I get enough stick for using the terms ‘bargain’ or ‘steal’ on here. But come on, an iconic Ferrari owned by one of Britain’s greatest musicians for under half a million? I’d call that almost sensible.
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