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Over the years the comparison the Ferrari Daytona and the Lamborghini Miura has been a popular one in motoring magazines around the world, but is it a fair comparison, would the prospective buyer when new have had both cars on his or her list of possible purchases?
Well both were produced at the same time, the Miura predating the Daytona by a year, and both have simliar performance on paper but that is where the similarities end. Obviously the Miura is a mid engined car and coined the phrase supercar, while the Daytona is very much a front engined GT in the more traditional style. The layout of the Miura results in a very cramped and awkward driving position, I sat in one for the first time last year and I have to say I'm not sure I could drive one for more that a few miles without considerable discomfort caused by the splayed legs required to clear the steering wheel together with the narrow offset pedals. The Daytona on the other hand has (for me anyway) a very comfortable driving position and I'm more than happy to be in the car for four to six hours in a day with only heat build up and the fuel consumption needs of both car and driver necessitating breaks.
On a more practical note while neither car is exactly in it's element doing trips to Tescos these days, the Daytona was everyday usable in fact for the first three years of my Dad's ownership of my car (he brought it in 1975) he used it everyday as his company car and racked up over 40,000 miles in it. I can't imagine any Miuras doing anything similar (although I'm sure there would be great story from anyone who did). The boot is more than adequate for a few days away blasting across Europe and as I can personally confirm in the days before health and safety the rear parcel shelf could be used for seating small children, if not entirely comfortably!! The Miura on the other hand does not even have a boot.
The other major difference between the two cars when new was price - the Miura cost approximately 10-20% more than the Daytona when new (when today's 599 and Murcielago have very similar price tags). As both cars were massively expensive when new (both were more than double the price of a Porsche 911), I suspect the price difference was not decisive but surely would have been a factor for perpective buyers.
All the above probably explain why the Daytona outsold the Miura by a factor of nearly 2-1 (although that figure does include Daytona Spyders which had no equivalent Miura).
So if the Miura is not the Daytona's best comparison what is? The obvious candidate is the Maserati Ghibli. Again this predates the Daytona by a couple of years and unlike the Miura offered a similar configuration to the persepctive buyer except for using a 4.7 liter (later 4.9) v8 rather than the Daytona's 4.4 V12.
Maserati is one of the few manufacturers that can match Ferrari for heritage (arguably a greater heritage over a longer period if not the ultimate levels of sucess that Ferrari had achived both then and now). Both cars can claim engines related to racing experience.
The Ghibli seems to have been pitched to the market as a more touring orientated car than the Daytona, it was offered with both automatic transmission and power steering, neither of which were offered on the Daytona (although many Daytonas including mine have been retrofitted with power steering). The suspension on paper is a lot cruder than the Daytona with a Salisbury live axle and leaf springs compared to the Daytona's double wishbones alround. The Daytona is also more powerful 352bhp vs 335 for the Ghibli 4.9SS, and the Daytona has a higher top speed 174mph vs 165mph for the Ghibli.
Both cars offered a spyder version and in my opinion the decapitation of the Ghibli created a more attractive car than the Daytona Spyder (I've always been a Berlinetta man).
The Ghibli and the Daytona were simllarly priced (the Ghibli being slightly cheaper) sold in similar numbers (although the Ghibli's production run was slightly longer than the Daytona's), so from a market point of view neither can be said to be dominant.
Moving further afield from Italy the perspective buyer in 1968 would probably be have considered an Aston Martin DBS (in actual fact Dad owned two DBS Vantage's before the Daytona). Like the Ghibli the Aston is a touring orientated car and would need the V8 engine available from 1969 to come close to matching the Daytona's performance. (The later V8 Vantage would match the Daytona but did not become available until long after the Daytona had been replaced by the Boxer). Price wise the Aston was a lot cheaper than the Daytona in the UK but conversely punative taxes in Italy would have made the Aston a lot more expensive there.
So far then the Miura can match the Daytona's performance but has a completely different character, and the Ghibli and the Aston DBS are broadly similar in character but can't match the Daytona's performance.
One car that probably could was the Iso Grifo. The Grifo had a much longer production life than the Daytona spanning 10 years from 1963 to 1974, and was made in a two series, open headlighted series 1 and closed series 2. Rather than develop an exotic multi cam engine, Iso brought in reliable American V8's (initially Chevrolet, but later cars used Ford units). When the big block 7 liter was made available in the Grifo (identifyable by the large bulge in the bonnet) the so called Can Am Grifo claimed a near Daytona rivalling 171mph top speed. The suspension set up of the Grifo while not quite having the race inspired setup if the Daytona does use a De Dion rear end (like the Aston). Interestingly unlike the other rivals here the Grifo does have some competition pedigree with early versions competing against the likes of the 250GTO.
Despite this I would assume the use of what might be percieved as crude American power units did not inspire buyers when new as despite the long production run only approximately 400 Grifos were sold (around 90 with the big block units).
The next car considered here clearly did not feature in many buyers choice lists as very few were actually made, it is the almost mythical Monteverdi. Like Lamborghini, Monteverdi car production was borne out of a arguement with Enzo Ferrari. Peter Monteverdi was the Swiss importer for Ferrari, and when he refused to pay up front for a consignment of 100 cars set about producing his own cars to rival the cars from Maranello. As one would assume as a Ferrari salesman Monteverdi would know what buyers wanted I must assume his cars were designed to meet those needs.
The First cars designed by Frua appeared in 1968 and the initial 375S bears a strong resembleance to the Maserati Ghibli. (as the Ghibli's predessor the Mistral was also designed by Frua one could speculate that the design was a proposal for the Ghibli thas was rejected by Maserati). Later cars were bodied by Fissore. (the Fissore 375s looks similar to a Ferrari 365 GT "Queen Mary"). I have only ever seen one Monterverdi, a Fissore bodied 2+2 375L (pictured above) but from photographs I personally prefer the Frua design. Engine wise like Iso, Monteverdi turned to American V8 power, this time from Chrysler, the majority of cars having the 440cu in Magnum V8 and possibly a handful the 426cu in "Hemi". Like the Iso and Aston the Monteverdi's used a De Dion re suspension setup and all reports seem to indicate that the Chassis had remarkably stiff contsruction. I guess this means the Monteverdis are again more touring orientated than the Daytona.
Price wise a 375 cost similar money to a Daytona, if you could actually buy one. No offical production numbers are available but somewhere between 50-200 cars for all Monteverdi's (including the 4 door 375/4 and the mid engined Hai) seems to be the concensus.
Frua was also responsible for the styling of one other potenial Daytona rival the AC428. This is another car which uses American V8 power, but this time the car is British rather than Italian (I know Monteverdi is a swiss company but the cars where designed and built in Italy). the 428 uses a stretched chassis from the AC Cobra Mk3 (the 427), with it's race inspired suspension setup one would assume it could match the Daytona but the 428 V8 is a much more relaxed power unit than the 427 uses in the Cobra and again this is clearly a touring orientated car. The high production costs of buying in engines from America and bodies from Italy meant the 428 was expensive and not a great sales success with 81 being made.
So if I was a new buyer and wanted an alternative to the Daytona in my Garage which would I have choosen?
First to go would be the Aston it would not have had the performance or the looks to excite me.
After this the AC is next to fall (no I'm not anti British cars just the way this is) I don't particularly like the styling which looks dated next to the other cars here.
Next and probably surprisingly the Miura, they are one of the most beautiful cars ever made (especially in final SV form with the wider rear track) but the driving position is too compromised for e and that would reduce it to being a garage ornament rather than a car, shame.
On paper the Ghibli is the closest match to the Daytona but I suspect that I would always have the feeling that I was driving something not quite as good (if anyone wants to let me drive theirs to rebut that assumption I would love the opportunity). I would also probably choose the Ghibli Spyder over the Daytona Spyder as the touring orientation would probably suit the open Ghibli more (and briefly returning to 2009 you could buy a Ghibli Spyder and a Daytona Berlinetta for the price of a genuine Daytona Spyder).
While criticised when new (and probably value wise today) for using American V8's, for that very reason the Monteverdi and the Iso offer something different to the Daytona. In 2009 The idea of buying a restoratation project Grifo and fitting a modern LS3 V8 from the latest Corvette and upgrading the brakes and suspension etc to a make a car that could be driven regularly and reliably has a lot of appeal.
Back in the late sixities early seventies however if I had been the jet set playboy that writers assume drove these cars when new, and if I could not of had a Daytona then the idea of wafting across Europe in a Frua bodied Monteverdi perhaps fitted with a Hemi engine, and a Brigitte Bardot lookalike in the pasenger seat would have massive appeal to me.
But the Daytona was available and when you look at all the cars here you realise that it was the fastest, best looking (equally with the Miura), the best engine (unlike the triple chokes in the Miura the twin choke carbs don't spit fuel onto the exhausts causing the car to catch fire) and possibly best driving car here. It also has a cast iron pedigree, from the most famous brand in motorsport. That is why for me it is the greatest Gran Turismo of it's time and possibly ever made.
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