Ferrari's retro Daytona SP3 sells out immediately

Florence, ITALY -- Ferrari has already sold out its entire 599-unit run of the new Daytona SP3, which is the third member of its exclusive Icona family.

The 2-million-euro ($2.26 million) two-seat targa's production run is up from a combined 499 units for its two siblings, the Monza SP1 and SP2, which have a more limited appeal because they do not have a traditional windshield, preventing them from being homologated out of Europe.

Ferrari marketing and sales boss Enrico Galliera said that all 499 owners of the Monzas decided to also buy the Daytona SP3. The other 100 Daytona SP3s were sold to a "select" group of Ferrari collectors, Galliera added.

About 300 Ferrari collectors had a private preview of the Daytona SP3 here from Nov 15- 19.

The deals were done before the car's public unveiling on Saturday.

Ferrari Chief Technology Officer Michael Leiters said that to make the Daytona SP3 as pure as possible it was fitted with the company's most powerful, normally aspirated V-12 ever, an 829-hp (840-cv or metric hp) engine that reaches 9,500 rpm and delivers 697 newton meters of torque.

Not remakes

Galliera said that Icona models are modern interpretations -- not remakes -- of iconic models from the past.

For the Monzas, Ferrari chose to create something based on the two-seat racing Barchettas of the 1950s and 1960s.

Ferrari's designers and engineers then researched what were the most iconic models with that body style from that era.

The Monza models were inspired by the 1948 166 MM Barchetta and 1954 750 Monza, which were lightweight, small-displacement racecars with no roofs.

For the Daytona SP3, the inspiration was Ferrari's endurance racecars of the 1960s, specifically the 330 P3 from 1966 and the 330 P4 from 1967. The latter is considered one of the most beautiful racecars ever.

A trio of Ferrari P3 and P4s dominated the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race, crossing the finish line at nearly the same time. That iconic moment was captured by a photo that is one of the most famous in motorsports history, giving the Daytona name a special meaning at Ferrari.

The Daytona SP3, which can exceed 340 kph (211.3 mph), has a small spoiler integrated at the rear, while the sides of the car were shaped to extract air and generate downforce keeping the profile as clean as possible. Leiters said that at 200 kph the Daytona's body generates 200 kg of downforce.

The Ferrari design team led by Flavio Manzoni had complete freedom when designing the Daytona. That means the engineering department was only brought in to tweak technical aspects as long as they did not alter the styling.

"Our engineers repositioned and reduced the size of the oil radiators in the sides of the car, which kept the airflow into the body undisturbed," Manzoni said.

Manzoni added that the inspiration for the clean double-crested front fenders came from past Ferrari sports prototypes such as the 512 S, 712 Can-Am and 312 P.

Timeles, innovative

The supercar maker describes its Icona models as having the "timeless design of iconic Ferraris reinterpreted with innovative materials and state-of-the-art technologies."

The Monza SP1 and SP2, a one- and two-seater, respectively, led the way. When launched, they started at 1.6 million euros (plus sales tax) in Italy.

The Icona family is one of Ferrari’s four product strategy pillars. The others are the performance-focused sport range, comfort-oriented gran turismos family and the special series based on existing models.

Icona models have significantly higher margins than Ferrari's core production models, Galliera confirmed, but he declined to provide specifics.

Ferrari's margins are currently getting a lift from Monza deliveries, which will be completed by the year-end.

Ferrari will begin delivering the Daytona in the final quarter of 2022, completing the car’s 599-unit production run in late 2024, Galliera said.

Ferrari’s adjusted margin in the third quarter stood at 35 percent, as adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew 12 percent to 371 million euros and revenue increased 19 percent to 1.053 billion euros.

Earlier this month, Ferrari said it would raise it full-year core earnings forecast after strong third-quarter results.

Full-year EBITDA for 2021 would come in at around 1.52 billion euros, Ferrari said. The company's previous guidance was between 1.45 and 1.50 billion euros.

Ferrari shares have climbed almost 30 percent this year, giving the company a market value of more than 44 billion euros on Nov. 19 closing prices in Milan.