There are cars whose reputations precede them, and arguably, most Ferraris fit into that category. The prancing horse and the red paint are promises of performance that can hide the true character and charm of a particular car.
The Ferrari 365 GTB/4, for instance, has a shape that is so embedded in the collective imagination that it can be hard to think of it as a real car, in much the same way that a celebrity is hard to think of as a real person. Carfection is here, though, to test what the car is really like to drive.
At the wheel of a later model with pop-up headlights, Henry Catchpole gives the front-engine Ferrari a proper road test to see what it’s like to a modern driver. And you may find the answer somewhat surprising.
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Powered by Ferrari‘s famed Colombo V12, the 4.4-liter engine makes a pretty respectable 347 hp (259 kW/362 PS) at 7,500 rpm. That, along with the 365 GTB/4’s sports car forebears and the name Daytona always gave me the impression that it was a reasonably serious performer. According to Catchpole, though, the car doesn’t really feel all that sporty.
“It instantly makes you want to do a long journey. It doesn’t give you that sort of—any sporting pretensions from the get-go,” he says. “Doesn’t give you many sporting pretensions in the corners, either. The steering is really heavy at lows speeds and then not particularly precise, I have to say, in the corners, either.”
But that doesn’t make it bad. It is, to be fair, a grand tourer, and it grand tours well. With a very relaxed seating position and a steering wheel that’s canted forward, the car encourages you to look relaxed and cool in a ’70s kind of way. And it gets better the longer you spend in it.
“The more it warms up, the more it comes to you. The more it comes alive,” says Catchpole. “And I’ve always rather liked that. The fact that it feels like very much a living creature.”