Someone once decided that the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, one of the most breathtaking Pininfarina designs ever to roll out of Maranello, needed to look more like a geometry project. That someone was Luigi Chinetti, the legendary importer who helped build Ferrari’s empire in the United States, and the man Enzo Ferrari wisely chose never to argue with.
Chinetti handed the redesign to Giovanni Michelotti, who took five 365 GTB/4 Daytona coupes and gave them an angular, wedge-shaped identity. Sharp lines, squared-off bodywork, a visual language borrowed straight from the future. Whether that future actually wanted them is a separate conversation.
One of these five, the one with chassis number 14299, originally built in 1971, was converted into an open-top spider and gifted to Chinetti’s wife, Marion. The car became known as the “Marion Spider”, though its official designation reads Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona NART Spider by Michelotti.
That specific car is about to hit the market. RM Sotheby’s will offer it at the Cavallino Classic Palm Beach auction on February 14 in Boca Raton, Florida, with pre-sale estimates ranging between $600,000 and $750,000. A Valentine’s Day auction for a car named after someone’s wife. Poetry.
The history behind chassis 14299 reads like a collector’s greatest hits. Exposed at the Turin Motor Show in 1980, displayed at the Le Mans Museum, shown at the La Baule Concours d’Élégance in 1984, and spent over two decades in the garage of acclaimed collector Jon Shirley. Ferrari Classiche has certified it. The odometer reads roughly 6,000 miles, practically untouched for a car that’s over fifty years old.
Beneath the controversial bodywork, the mechanical heart remains completely stock. A 4.4-liter V12 producing 352 HP at 7,500 rpm and 431 Nm of torque at 5,500 rpm, pushing this open-air renegade to a top speed around 174 mph. The “Daytona” name itself is a tribute to Ferrari’s iconic 1-2-3 finish at the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona.
The bicolor livery, dark blue over gray, with orange leather interior and a beige canvas top, plus the removable hardcoded roof panel make this one of the most visually distinctive Ferraris ever produced. Marion’s name is still engraved on both doors. Chinetti’s gift to her endures, wrapped in angular controversy, about to find a new home.
