Ferrari SP3 Daytona driven
The SP3 Daytona blends Ferrari’s past, present and future in one delectable, V12-powered whole. Can its performance live up to its looks?
O rdinarily,this would be the dullest of driv-ing environments. A nondescript stretch of dual carriageway, in steady drizzle, in a forgettable bit of Germany. But in the SP3 Daytona, it feels like a stint at Le Mans in the late ’60s or early ’70s. The trees the other side of the grey armco are rushing past in Cinemascope, and beads of rain elongate and slide across the deeply bowled screen like speed-line graphics in a sci-fi jump to hyperspace. They’re interrupted by a central single wiper blade, just like a classic sports prototype. Two curving humps over the front wheelarches frame the view ahead through the wraparound screen, topped by staggered mirrors. They reflect a roostertail of spray, trailing the sound of a big-capacity, naturally aspirated V12.
That’s the entire point of this car: to fire the imagination, to be a wheeled storyteller. This is how I imagine it must feel to be at the wheel of a Ferrari 330 P4, a 512 S or another of the golden-era sports racers this car takes its inspiration from. The SP3 Daytona is so named because it’s the third model in Ferrari’s Icona series, Ma-ranello’s low-volume, money-almost-no-object machines inspired by different eras of its history, sold to clients and collectors on firs-tname terms with the factory, and considered to be ambassadors for the brand. It’s not so much a case of a customer calling Ferrari to put their name down for an Icona; Ferrari calls them.
The SP3 Daytona’s name comes from the 1967 Daytona 24-hour race, where Ferrari (still stung by Ford’s clean sweep at Le Mans ’66) took the top three places with the achingly beautiful 330 P3/4, 330 P4 and 412P. The SP3 follows the Monza SP1 and SP2 in the Icona series (SP standing for Special Project). A run of 599 SP3s will be built, priced at €2m. All were sold before the car was revealed to the public last year. Ferrari doesn’t disclose information about customers but does say that more than 90 per cent of Monza SP1 and SP2 owners have also decided to buy an SP3 Daytona.
We meet the SP3 the evening before the drive, basking in the set-ting sun’s soft light. It’s captivating to behold. Although it’s a homage to racing Ferraris of yesteryear, nostalgia is not really the right term for the SP3. It’s intended to be very much a car of today with futur-istic leanings, despite its ’60s inspiration. ‘Conscious of history but futuristic in approach’ is how design lead Stefano de Simone puts it as he shows us around the car. It really comes to life as you inspect it in three dimensions, its carbonfibre surfaces appearing clean and complex at once.
