The heyday of the coachbuilt luxury cars->ke505 was back before WWII. As car became more complex machines the practice of having each body custom made became even more difficult and expensive. But for those willing to pay, it can still be done, and some of the oldest names in coachbuilding are still in operation. So when architect and home builder Bob Gittleman decided that he wanted something different for his car, it was possible to make that happen. Gittleman went to Chinetti Motors in New York, owned by legendary Italian racing->ke447 driver Luigi Chinetti, and talked to Luigi's son, Luigi Jr. (who went by “Coco”).

Gittleman simply asked for “something different” out of his car and Coco took it from there. He had always been fascinated by British coachbuilding and shooting brakes in particular, but also with Italian sports cars->ke506. So then used as the base was a then-new 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4, which was then sent to Panther Westwinds in Surrey, England for the coachwork. It is a very well executed job, and it has earned the car a certain degree of fame over the years. Not everyone is crazy about it, but it seems someone at Ferrari->ke252 thought a Ferrari shooting brake was a good idea, because we now have the 2012 Ferrari FF.

Continue reading to learn more about the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Shooting Brake.

ferrari-365-gtb-4-shooting-brake

Specifications
  • Make: Array
  • Model: ferrari-365-gtb-4-shooting-brake
Pros
Cons

1970 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Shooting Brake

Specifications
  • Make: Array
  • Model: 1970 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Shooting Brake
  • [do not use] Vehicle Model: Array
Pros
Cons

Exterior

The car started off as an ordinary Ferrari 365 GT/B Berlinetta, if such a word can ever rightly be applied to a car like this. From the A-pillars forward, the car was left stock, but when the shooting brake rear end was added, it obviously greatly changed the look of the car. The interior space is much better, and there is obviously much more cargo space in the back.

But what's really interesting about this is that Panther Westwinds wasn't even satisfied with making a regular shooting brake. So there is no rear hatch on the car, and instead the curved side windows open in a gullwing fashion, inspired by the engine compartment of the 1967-1971 De Tomaso Mangusta. The sheer size of the rear cargo area makes for a massive rear overhang, but shock of seeing a 365 shooting brake at all might make it so that you don't notice the overhang.

Interior

The coachwork for this car didn't end at giving it a bunch of extra cargo space. Some of the interior was obviously going to be required for the back, but Panther Westwinds didn't stop there, and ended up completely redoing the entire cabin, even going so far as to rearrange the dash and change the placement of the gauges. These are now stacked vertically in the center of the dash, and the whole interior has been given a more traditionally English wood and leather kind of a look.

It's true that the 365->ke3522 had fantastic interior to begin with, but it's difficult to find fault with the results of this custom version of it. Moreover, trying to get new sections of the interior to match up with existing ones could have gone wrong, looking tacked on rather than intentional. This way everything matches and gives the appearance of having been made all at the same time.

Drivetrain

Mechanically, the shooting brake is the same as the standard 365, obviously a very good thing, since the 365 was the fastest production car in the world from its debut in 1968 until it was dethroned by the 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO in 1984. This is because Ferrari made the engine specifically to still be fast even in the face of increasingly stringent U.S. emissions regulations, while many other carmakers were simply giving up on the idea of going fast. The engine is a 4.4-liter V12 making 353 horsepower, thanks to a 9.3:1 compression ratio, very high in those days.

Prices

One-off cars are always difficult when it comes to pinpointing what they're worth, even for experts. This car last sold at auction in 2005, with Bonhams getting $261,780 for it. Bonhams attempted to sell it again in 2008, putting an estimated value of $400,000 - $500,000 on it, but the car never sold. The current broker, Hexagon Classics of the U.K., hasn't put an asking price on the car. Since this isn't going up for auction, it seems to be a “make us an offer” kind of situation. That also means that we may never know what it ultimately does go for, as it is generally only auction prices that are made public. It will most certainly be more than the 2005 price, but probably not quite up into the $10+ million rage that coach-built Ferrari 250s get into. So if you're thinking of calling to make an offer, expend to spend at least as much as the 2008 estimate, but don't start out much higher than that.

Competition

1965 Aston Martin DB6 Shooting Brake by Harold Radford

There was a period where the folks at Aston Martin->ke13 became mildly obsessed with shooting brakes. This started toward the end of the DB5 production cycle and went on into the DB6's. These were obviously never as popular as the standard-bodied cars, but unlike the Ferrari, the DB5s and DB6s were actually commissioned by Aston themselves, solely because the Aston brass liked a car that they could take hunting and thought other people might like one too. A DB6 version will sell for about $600,000 to $700,000, very probably about the same range as the Ferrari.

1966 Lamborghini 400GT Flying Star II

This one is slightly different, in that Touring, the coachbuilder, made an entirely new body for the car instead of just modifying the rear end. But that new body is a shooting brake, and since we're comparing it to another one-off, it makes sense. The Lambo->ke44 is a bit older and bit rarer than the 365, but values fall into the same difficult-to-classify territory as other one-offs.

Conclusion

A grand touring car is meant to be something that you can take a road trip in. A lot of carmakers have difficulty with this idea and end up making GTs that are little different from sports cars. The 365 was a push by Ferrari to break away from the temptation to build another sports car GT and build a properly, roomy gran turismo. The shooting brake takes that idea and adds to it, giving extra cargo space to go with the larger interior. It might seem overly practical for the world of high end exotic Italian cars, but for those people who actually want to buy them and use them for their intended purpose, it must seem like a supremely good idea.