December 2015 Classic&SportsCar 135T
his was a visionratherthana
plan,a schemewherebyBritain
provided the pompand Amer-
ica the circumstance.Luigi
ChinettiJnr – or ‘Coco’if you
absolutelyinsist– is in full flow,
recallinghow he cameto create
a Ferrari “wagon”, and whyit endedup being
made in Surrey. He sto ps only to lau gh at the
periodbrochurethat talksup a stormaboutthe
bespokeDaytona“shootingbrake”. Theone
packinga turbocharged600bhpV12. That,and
an allegedtop speedof 230mph.In 1975.
“Well, that’s newsto me!”he insists.“No,
that’s all wrong.It was neverturbocharged.That
neverenteredmy mind.ThenI wouldhave
neededto do the gearbox,the backaxle,the...
as if I didn’t haveenoughto do as it was.Seri-
ously, thatwas nevergoingto happen.And
230mph?Whosaid that?Not me.”
The promotionalspiel was scriptedby Panther
Westwinds,the once-famedconstructorof
JaguarSS100and BugattiRoyalelookalikesthat
fashionedthis remarkablemachine.Road&
Tr ack, meanwhile , cla ime d in March ’76 tha t: ‘...
Chinettiwill duplicatethis car for just under
$50,000...You supplythe Daytona.’
“No,that’s also wrong,”says Chinetti.“It was
alwaysgoingto be aone-off.Howmanycustom-
ers do you thinktherewerefor sucha car in the
mid-1970s?Hey, I had the idea 40 yearsago so
my memorymightbe a littlefuzzy, but it was
uniqueand was alwaysintendedto be. And you
knowwhat?It turnedout prettynifty.”
He isn’t wrong,but conjectureand half-truths
hauntthis car. It doesn’t helpthat evenperiod
reportsmix factswithfantasy, and that’s before
you factorin someof the more,ahem,‘creative’
auctioncataloguedescriptionsfromyesteryear.
But whatis beyondquestionis that this was –and
remains– a Ferrariunlikeany other.
“It came about because I always had an inter-
est in design,”Chinettirecalls.“I likeddoing
specialcars,as didmy dad [three-timesLe Mans
winnerandNorthAmericanRacingTe am
founder, LuigiChinettiSnr].We did a lot of
them,somebetterknownthanothers,but there
was also a businesscase for doingthem.I mean,
I was abusedfor someof the thingsthat we did,
althoughthey madesensefinancially.
“I did a car thatyou Britscall a ‘shooting
brake’backin the late ’60s that was basedon a
Ferrari330GT2+2.You wouldn’t believethe
crapI had to put up withoverthat,but you
couldn’t give awaya 2+2 backthen.I did that car
withAlfredoVignale.The donorwas just sitting
there.It cost us $4000for Alfredoto do the body
and I sold it for $12,000.Nowtell me, who’s the
dummy?Whatreallymattered,though,was that
eachcar was pre-sold.I neverbuiltsomething
and thenwentlookingfor a buyer.”
Asidefromthe Vignaleoffering,othervehi-
cles createdby Chinettiat the timeincludeda
supercarbasedon a 275Psports-prototype
constructedby Michelotti,and whichhas latterly
beenreturnedto its originalform.It wasn’t all
Ferraris,though.‘Lou’also reworkedaMcLaren
M6 Can-Amweaponfor streetuse and ropedin
Zagatoto builda wildCadillac-basedGT car
that he wouldsoonerforget.
And it was anotherCadillacprojectthat,in a
roundaboutway, led to the car picturedhere.In
1974,Bob Gittlemanwalkedinto the Chinetti
Motorsshowroomin Greenwich,Connecticut