1968 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Scaglietti “Prototipo”

In September of 1968, Ferrari GTB/4 Daytona Prototype #11929 was produced as the 4th of 6 prototypes, and was the very first Daytona built by Carrozzerria Scaglietti in the final Daytona production style. From that point on, every Daytona was built by Scaglietti, so this was the first.

Later that same month #11929 was tested at the Ferrari Factory track in Modena, achieving the highest speed of any production car in the world, at a reported speed of 300 km/h.

This exact car was then featured at the 55th Paris Auto Salon from October 3rd to 13th, 1968 on the Ferrari/Franco Britannic stand (No 51, Hall C). Along with #11795, which was the officially designated Daytona press car that was featured on the Pininfarina stand (and the only other production-like Daytona in existence at the time), #11929 was introduced to the world.

#11929 was then whisked off to the Turin Motor Show where,from October 30th to November 10th, 1968, it was the first and only Daytona be debuted in its native Italy.
In the spirit of the Ferrari tradition of passing prototypes on to Ferrari team race car drivers, #11929 was reportedly given to Ignazio Giunti.

Ignazio Giunti won the infamous Sebring 12 Hour campaign forFerrari with team mate Mario Andretti in 1970, but in January of 1971, he was tragically killed in a car crash during a race in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Historians confirm that #11929 was then converted to its current “spyder” configuration sometime in the later 1970s by Carrozzerria Auto Sport of Italy, given its distinctive, high-quality conversion characteristics.

The car was eventually imported to the United States in the 1980s where it was passed from collector to collector, and sold for a reported record breaking price of over $1 million in the late 80’s.

#11929 was most recently purchased by a collector from Montana in 2004 and remained in his possession, driven very sparingly, until his sale of the car in 2015 to a collector in Canada.

Currently, the car displays an odometer reading of just under 29,000 original kms (roughly 18,000 miles).

Although #11929 was converted to a spyder, it still retains the majority of its rare prototype features – most notably the chassis, being unique to the car, which was constructed based on the 275 GTB/4 chassis.

The only comparable car to #11929 in existence today is #11795, which shared the spotlight with #11929 in Paris back in October of 1968. It is preserved in the private collection of California vintner, known to own amongst the rarest and most valuable cars in the world.

#11929 has often been dubbed as “The Lost Prototype” given its spyder conversion which many have proclaimed to be an important part of its history and evolution, while others have been critical for what amounted to the conversion of such an important coupe.

The mystique is cradled in the perplexing question of whether it should be preserved as a spyder or reconverted to the coupe first seen by the world in October of 1968 in Paris.

Suffice it to say, #11929 is a very rare and special Daytona which will always be an integral part of Ferrari history.