1972 Ferrari 365 GTC/4

Details

The late 1960’s and early 1970’s were a fabulous time for Ferrari. Its flagship 365 GTB/4 Daytona was a resounding success and Enzo’s ‘big risk’ the Dino 246 was also selling very well. Ferrari wanted to continue with his tradition of producing high performance ‘Grand Touring’ cars and needed a successor to the 365 GT 2+2 and 365 GTC. He opted to continue with a 2+2 configuration – enter the 365 GTC/4.

The Ferrari 365 GTC/4 was first shown at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show and the unique Pininfarina design took some styling cues from its ‘big brother’, the 365 GTB/4 Daytona It shares the same chassis and engine block from the Daytona but the focus on this car was to ensure it was a comfortable, luxurious, high performance GT car. It had power steering, electric windows and air conditioning as standard.

The model received good reviews in period and 505 cars were built in a short production run from 1971 to 1972. It was succeeded by the wedge shaped 365 GT/4 2+2.

Oldtimer Australia is delighted to offer this very unique Ferrari 365 GTC/4.

This is not your average Ferrari 365 GTC/4! This car has been modified into a tarmac rally car and is regularly seen at track days, hill climbs and various Ferrari Club rallys & events on the east coast of Australia. The car has a current CAMS log book and it has been road registered in Queensland, Australia.

This car’s new owner may continue to use it as a tarmac rally car / club car in its current guise, however, it can easily be converted back to a road car if you chose. All of the original components will accompany the car including the interior/trim, bumpers, air cleaner boxes, carburettors, radiator etc etc.

The owner of this car is a long term Ferrari owner and as a ‘driver’ keeps his cars in excellent ‘road ready’ condition. The car has been regularly maintained by a Ferrari marque specialist and additionally whenever something has needed to be done on the car it was done. The gearbox has recently been out of the car for maintenance (the selector hub and first and second gear synchros were replaced) and the engine was rebuilt some 9 months ago. The engine has a number of ‘improvements’ including:  ‘hot cam’, high compression pistons, has been bored out to approx. 4.5 litres, lightened flywheel, slightly larger diameter extractors, slightly bigger carbies (40mm in stead of 38mm), competition valve springs and it has ported gas flow cylinder heads. The car also has a modern cooling system with an increased capacity aluminium radiator. Given all of this the car is still very tractable and will cruise all day at low rpm. It will happily pull away at 1500 – 2000 rpm in 5th gear. The engine has been previously dyno’d and recorded in excess of 350 bhp at the rear wheels. I have no doubt it would leave most Daytonas in its wake!

As a tarmac rally car the car can be used ‘as is’, however, to convert it back to a road car it would require a full re-trim and repaint. Mechanically the car is excellent and importantly the car looks to be straight with good panel gaps. Structurally it is also very good.

This particular example has a known history from new.  It is factory left hand drive and was delivered new to Chinetti Motors in New York. There is some documentation on file that suggests the car was originally finished in ‘nero’ (black) with a black/red interior, however, subsequent research indicates it was ‘Avorio Tetrarch’ 2.662.016 (ivory) with nero 8500 hide’ new. The car may have been repainted at the factory or even by the dealer when new for a customer.

Chinetti sold the car new to a Mr Robert K Lowe of Hartsdale, New York who had the car until 1977. It subsequently lived on the east coast of the USA passing through a number of owners until the current owner acquired the car in the USA in early 2000 and subsequently imported it into Australia.

The car has its original US title (from Florida) on file making it a relatively simple process to get the car back into and registered in the USA.

Whilst the car can be sold ‘as is’ with all of the original components, the owner is amenable to keeping all of the ‘modified components’ ie the race seats, roll cage, 40 mm carbies, radiator etc if its new owner is going to convert it back to a road car. This subject can be a negotiating point on price.

The car is confirmed as a having its matching numbers engine and it has tools in the correct brief case as well as plastic holder which sits inside the spare wheel. It also has the jack. Unfortunately there are no books.

It is reluctantly offered for sale to make way for a new project.

 

 

 

 

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