By Wallace Wyss
Photos courtesy RM Sotheby
One of the pains of being a car historian is that there’s a lot of Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda that comes with the job.
Take this white (and red and blue) Daytona targa-topped car.
I saw it on a used car lot in West Los Angeles around ’78, when it was painted red and gave no hint of its competition DNA. I won’t name the car lot but I remember meeting a boxer there – not a Ferrari Boxer, a real boxer – who asked me if there was anybody I wanted beat up—but, alas, I am so peace-loving I couldn’t think of a single person! [Not even your editor?]
Anyway, this car was a genuine, built-in-Modena 1972 Ferrari 365GTB/4, but it had a different body shape. I liked the shape from the side and back but it had an unfortunate resemblance to the Corvette body style introduced in ’68. Does anyone really want to drive a Ferrari that would easily be mistaken for a ‘Vette?