Daytona (Very) Long Term test report 2009 review

The nights are drawing as we head enxorably towards winter and Christmas. This also means that the highways agencies will dump several million tonnes of salt onto the British roads which is not great for preserving a thirty six year old Ferrari Daytona, and kind of creates an enforced winter hibernation for the car.

From Goodwood italian breakfast

I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I have used the Daytona somewhat less than I did in 2008, partly due to a complete inability to organise ourselves, the usual boys driving trip didn't happen, so driving the Daytona was confined to UK shores rather than I nice jaunt through France.

The English summer didn't help in bringing the Daytona out of the Garage, I don't particularly like driving the car in the rain, not because I'm worried the rain will effect the car, more because Ferrari spent almost no time, effort or Lira on a decent windscreen wiper design. The wipers cover barely a half of the windscreen and frequently go out of synchronisation (the wipers are a clap hand design), usually meaning they are wiping the A pillars rather than the screen in front of the driver.


Despite having used the car less, it has definitely run better this year than it did towards the end of 2008, when it was frequently dropping onto 11 cylinders. The solution implemented over the winter was a complete new set of HT leads.


In actual fact the car has run pretty much faultlessly thoughout 2009, even when stuck in a traffic jam on the M40 coming back from the Ferrari Owners Club GB concours (I didn't enter by the way can't get excited about car polishing contests).

From foc concours

While the car's engine stayed nice and cool the same can't be said for it's owner who was cursing the weedy air conditioning as the cabin got steadily hotter. The only other minor mechanical gripe is an annoying resonance from around the glovebox area which only seems to crop up when the car is accelerating.


Another FOC event proved the highlight of the year when I took the Daytona to the Club's Summer picnic. Perhaps fortuatously another Red Daytona arrived at the same time and the organisers realised that the two cars would make a good display next to an already arrived Enzo. I received numerous positive comments on the car and most people couldn't believe that the car had last been painted in 1985!. Part of the secret to the fresh looking paint was that the car had just received a full permaguard treatment. This has taken away the swirls that were starting to appear. The other rather nice thing about the Permaguard treatment is that onl water is needed to wash the car.

From FOC wilton park

Best drive of the year happened on the May bank holiday. Me and my Lady friend took off in the Daytona with a loose plan to find a nice country pub somewhere for lunch. Being picky it took stops at several different pubs until we found one we liked. Somehow I managed to take a route with relatively light traffic on the Surrey/ Hampshire border and a great opportunity to stretch the Daytona's legs a little.


The Daytona is a car that takes time to get to know, in fact after six years of driving it i feel I'm only scratching the surface of it's talents. That still maintains the appeal, many modern cars you get to know quickly and equally quickly get bored with it (the Audi TT is a great example of this). I can't imagine ever getting bored of driving the Daytona, it always feels special and just occasionally you will catch a reflection of the car in a passing window, and just looking at that gorgeous Pininfarina body and hearing the mighty V12 engine will always bring a smile to you face.


The winter hibernation will probably see the car getting a major service (and attention to a minor oil leak). The other possibility for the winter is the fitting of an electronic ignition system. Dad has already had one of his 365GTC4's converted and this produces a marginal improvement in fuel consumption. The lighter Daytona has slightly less of an addiction to Shell V Power than the C4 but at 14mpg average even gaining 1mpg makes a difference.


The lack of road trips in 2009 has already been attended to for 2010 as we already have the hotel bookings for the Le Mans Classic, and an opportunity to watch some of the Daytona's Competitzione relatives in action. I'm really looking forward to that, but in reality the best thing about that trip will be a chance to once again really make use of the Daytona's country crossing abilities.