Daytona’s less famous sister had a custom targa conversion carried out in the 1980s when it was just another forgotten, used Ferrari
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These days, when even the ropiest old Ferrari seems to be worth $100k, and the best can go for many times that amount, it’s hard to find many people who want to hack them about. Okay, apart from the Liberty Walk guys in Japan, but they’re just nuts.
Go back to the early to mid 1980s though, before the first classic car boom had really taken off and cars like the 365 GTC/4 were just fairly forgotten used Ferraris, it wasn’t a big deal to reach for the angle grinder. That’s what happened to this GTC/4, but what makes it even more interesting is that the work was carried out by Claudio Zampolli.
More: This Beach-Bodied Ferrari 365 GTC/4 Is The Ultimate Summer Flex
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Zampolli’s early years were spent working as an engineer at Lamborghini in Italy, but he’s perhaps most famous for creating the Cizeta V16T, a short-lived 16-cylinder supercar designed by Countach creator Marcello Gandini. In the years between, though, Zampolli ran his own exotic car dealership in Los Angeles, from where he sold and serviced Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other exotics to celebs like Eddie van Halen.
That’s where this GTC/4, now up for grabs on Bring a Trailer, apparently went under the knife some time in the 1980s. It received a very neat-looking targa conversion, projector headlights to replace the pop-up factory lamps, fender vents and Scuderia shields, and a ducktail rear spoiler. Plenty of cars from the tail end of the custom craze that stretched from the 1970s and into the early 1980s have dated really badly, but this car looks so right you have to wonder why Ferrari hadn’t thought to produce its own conversion.
There never was a factory targa or convertible version of the 365 GTC/4, which shares plenty with the 365 GTB/4 Daytona, but has always lived in its shadow. According to Hagerty’s price guide, a stock 1972 GTC coupe in good condition would set you back $220,000, but you could expect to pay $575,000 for an equivalent Daytona. And as for the 122 original Daytona Spiders, well, forget it. They’re worth millions now, and even in the 1980s they were big money, so it’s no surprise Zampolli thought chopping the roof of a GTC was a good idea.
The GTC/4 used the same chassis as the Daytona, and also wore a set of clothes by Pininfarina, though it wasn’t as pretty. Factory cars got two small back seats that the Daytona lacked (this car seems to go without) and to further underline the touring slant, the 4.4-liter Columbo V12 was detuned slightly to around 320 hp (324 PS), and hooked up to a front-mounted gearbox, rather than a transaxle.
