My Ferrari 365 GTB4

Hello everyone - I just wanted to share my ongoing project.....

My car is one of the only six EG Autokraft Coupe Replicas built by Emilio Garcia. The EG Autokraft is without doubt the most accurate replica of the marque (Ferrari 365 GTB4 or Daytona as it was known), dimensions are exact and allow genuine Ferrari Daytona parts to be used if required. The EG Autokraft was the work of Emilio Garcia and Peter Jacobs, Emilio had been turning genuine Ferrari Daytona Coupes into Spyders for years and the next logical step was for him to engineer a replica based off the original cars he was modifying. He turned to Peter Jacobs to make the molds and bodies, Peter was the man who built the bodies for the RS200 Ford Rally car and the GTD, a very well know GT40 replica. The EG bodies were Kevlar reinforced composite and only 6 coupe bodies were known to have been produced. The chassis is an authentic tube replica of the original Ferrari Daytona, but the car utilizes V12 Jaguar mechanical components (V12 Engine, gearbox, steering, suspension and axles). MY car is dismantled, see story and pictures below. Im now based in the US whilst the car is located in the UK.

I’ve owned this car for many years, driven it occasionally and then decided to create an even more accurate version of the Ferrari Daytona with this car. I was very happy with the exterior look, the body is in amazing shape with high quality finish of both panels and paint. However the interior was not ‘authentic’ enough for me (it used the Jaguar instruments and switchgear). So I set about collecting the complete interior parts from an original Ferrari Daytona, it’s taken me 5 years to collect all the parts but now I have everything that is required to make this the most accurate Ferrari Daytona Coupe replica ever built – every switch and original instrument gauge, including a complete Ferrari steering column and NOS Daytona steering wheel! I even have the rare material that the dash was originally finished in – a type of Alcantara called ‘fuzzy felt’ that I found in Italy. The fibreglass dash was re-shaped to more accurately represent the original Ferrari and allow for fitment of the original gauges as well as replicating the air-con plastic box which I had vacuum formed. I also have many other original Ferrari Daytona parts, such as Cromodora wheels, complete headlights cans, seals and lenses, taillights, glass, badging, grills, bumpers, door locks and latches etc. I was in the process of changing the colour combinations of the car – I'm planning to have a silver exterior and blue interior, and as such had already had the seats re-trimmed in blue Connolly hide (I have a number of hides specially coloured by Connolly Leather in the UK). The seats are also very authentic replicas of the original seat even down to the inner frames and headrest and I even had the inserts accurately copied with a special press tool I had machined.

The engine is a Jaguar V12, with the very hard to find set of 6 vintage downdraft Webers, Hayward & Scott stainless steel tubular race headers and authentic Ferrari Daytona back boxes with quad outlets. The gearbox is a manual Getrag 5 speed, and the linkage for the shifter has been engineered to replicate the offset of the original Daytona mechanism. I had specially commissioned aluminium castings to replicate the cam covers of the original Daytona, which sit on top of the existing Jaguar cam covers. There is a brand new wiring loom, once again, that I had specially built specifically for this car. The brakes have been completely overhauled and many suspension parts re-plated. Still quite a lot to do to get this project back together and on the road again......

Anyway - hope you guys find my project interesting.

Regards,

Chris
 

Attachments

  • 02.JPG
    02.JPG
    751.7 KB · Views: 1,896
  • 03.JPG
    03.JPG
    372.6 KB · Views: 1,279
  • 04.JPG
    04.JPG
    406.4 KB · Views: 1,283
  • 05.JPG
    05.JPG
    433.2 KB · Views: 1,544
  • 06.JPG
    06.JPG
    404.3 KB · Views: 1,006
Here are some the parts mentioned above and ongoing modification of the car......
 

Attachments

  • 07.jpg
    07.jpg
    211.7 KB · Views: 559
  • 11.JPG
    11.JPG
    142.6 KB · Views: 686
  • 12.JPG
    12.JPG
    133.1 KB · Views: 621
  • 13.JPG
    13.JPG
    132 KB · Views: 635
  • 16.jpg
    16.jpg
    61.2 KB · Views: 630
The interior is coming along nicely and the addition of the original Ferrari steering column, wheel and gauge pack make a huge difference to the authenticity of the car.....
 

Attachments

  • 17.JPG
    17.JPG
    266.9 KB · Views: 657
  • 19.JPG
    19.JPG
    316.5 KB · Views: 719
  • 21.JPG
    21.JPG
    280.2 KB · Views: 566
  • 22.JPG
    22.JPG
    304.6 KB · Views: 604
  • 23.JPG
    23.JPG
    290.6 KB · Views: 735
Chris, no doubt that is/was a daunting project but it sure is a bloody nice copy. A question that comes to mind is what do the F-group think of it? Regardless, carry on mate and keep us posted on your progress. I'm sure lots of other group members would love to hear that engine at "full-chat" too.
 
Looks great, and for sure would love to her it!

@Jimmy, the F-group brings an other meaning to the F-word, or are they synonimous!?
 
Hello Jimmy,

I never had any dealings with the F-group, but there is a Daytona Replica Club in the UK that is a great support for these cars. There are many spider versions of the Daytona, and the club mainly supports these cars. The 6 coupe versions of the car, all made by EG Autokraft, are pretty rare and as such when i drove the car there was little awareness this was a replica. The car was originally built in the 80's, and also part of the reasoning for undertaking the modifications was also the opportunity to restore the car to as new condition.

When I drove the car prior to rebuilding, the noise was intoxicating and unlike any V12 Jaguar i'd ever heard. The 6 Weber carbs and tubular exhaust make such a difference...... and it was pretty fast for an old car!!

Chris
 
I did a couple of Photoshop mock-ups of the engine with the new cam covers I had cast. The first image is the engine with the Weber carbs, currently on the engine, and the second image is a mock-up of something I'm considering, which was to convert to injection to make the drivability a little better. The carbs, when you have 6, can be a little temperamental! The first image is also prior to strip down.......

Chris
 

Attachments

  • 33.jpg
    33.jpg
    339.2 KB · Views: 982
  • 35.jpg
    35.jpg
    237.5 KB · Views: 1,014
This has been a long journey - I started the process of restoration/ modification about 5 years ago, but due to my job moving me around the World i’ve not really had much chance to attend to the project in person. Plus - I have other cars that have been a bit of a distraction, so the Daytona has suffered from lack of attention! I’m at the point where I’m considering either moving the car to the US, where i’m now based, so I can complete the rebuild or passing the project on to someone else that can finish the transformation……..
 
Last edited:
Chris, that's a beautiful looking car. I would have not known it was a replica just glancing at the pictures. You're obviously doing some great work.

Don't pay any attention to the sneers of the f-car crowd. Most don't know how to do anything more than rub on some wax and write checks to their mechanic.

One other don't...don't be careless shipping the car through Europe. The legal freaks at Ferrari have been known to get court orders to seize replicas being shipped through Europe. They're zealous nut jobs about the brand and use an overly heavy hand.

Keep up the good work!
 
Great car. I suspect that is less prone the rust issues of the real thing and with the Jaguar V-12, a little more driver friendly in traffic. The cost of rebuilding a 365 engine is the cost of a new Corvette and Jag v-12s are a tenth of that and more importantly, available. The cost factor is probably approching current Daytona pricing.
 
Hi Tony,

The car is a great drive, fast, loud, handles great and is a crowd puller wherever it goes, although running the Webers made it extremely thirsty on gas, but you're right a much more useable car than a real one. I had no fear of driving it hard and using it to do normal daily driving unlike most real Daytonas which probably only venture from car show to car show! Also, the cost involved to own and restore this car, even to the extent i'm going, is nowhere near the cost of a real Ferrari Daytona coupe - they're fetching between $500K and $800K at the moment!

My plans for the car are to further improve it's performance and handling - and as such i've gone through a weight reduction process during the restoration. Losing the cast exhaust headers, adding a aluminium radiator, ditching the heavy air-conditioning system etc. As mentioned above the handling is very good, so improvement are mainly to the springs and dampers with some minor updates to the braking system. The power is around 300hp+ (a standard 5.3 V12 is 295hp - so the additions I have should boost it a little!) and the car is pretty light so decent performance isn't a problem!!

Chris
 
Hi Cliff,

You're right, Ferrari have a reputation for being very hard on replicas, but I think as long as you stay away from Italy you should be fine! I have a couple of other cars, real vintage ones, but I love this Daytona just as much as those cars as it such a beautiful car, and being a 'low cost' version of an original I have no fears using it - just need to put it back together........

Chris
 
As mentioned above, the car has been in restoration or should I say ‘hibernation’ for the last few years and I’m hoping to get back to it very soon. But the process to get to where it is today makes for interesting reading - so I’m posting as an encouragement for me to get off my backside and complete the car…….

When I was using the car prior to restoration and rebuild, it had a modified Jaguar V12 automatic gearbox which wasn't ideal and also the engine sat too far back in the engine bay that the final two throttle intakes of the Webers were under the cowl (not good if they back fire!!). So these were also a couple of the things I wanted to change when the restoration was undertaken, and as I’m not very good welding or the mechanical side of the business, I commissioned a small Engineering firm to do all the work for me. This firm (MDV Specialist Engineering in the UK) specialises in rally car builds and one-off special performance cars so they were perfect for this kind of work. Pete, the owner, is a brilliant engineer, fabricator, performance guru and great bloke to boot…..

MDV - Home


Chris
 
The conversion from automatic to a five speed manual would change the character of the car immensely and would better suit the nature of the car, just finding the relevant parts wouldn't be easy as they never made many manual V12 Jaguars! As mentioned, we also moved the engine forward approximately 25mm to give clearance to the back Webers but this move dictated other modification, such as revisions to the stamped Jaguar cross beam, engine mount location and steering column. MDV did a great job of modifying all the chassis pieces and the engine slots into location beautifully, with sufficient clearance to not cause issues.

Here is the stamped beam, with modifications required to clear the repositioned engine.


Chris
 

Attachments

  • 49.jpg
    49.jpg
    291.4 KB · Views: 540
  • 50.jpg
    50.jpg
    197.3 KB · Views: 477
  • 51.jpg
    51.jpg
    273.9 KB · Views: 483
  • 43.jpg
    43.jpg
    183.2 KB · Views: 521
The modifications to the engine mounts and structural supports.



Chris
 

Attachments

  • 45.jpg
    45.jpg
    351.3 KB · Views: 559
  • 46.jpg
    46.jpg
    317.1 KB · Views: 483
  • 47.jpg
    47.jpg
    237.1 KB · Views: 453
The original steering column of the car was a Jaguar V12 column, I wanted to change this, therefore I sourced a Ferrari 400 column - the same exact part as used in the Ferrari Daytona. MDV mounted the column and modified it to fit up to the Jaguar steering box. The NOS Daytona steering wheel now fits perfectly to the column and everything looks as an original Ferrari Daytona. For those that know the original Ferrari Daytona, the chassis numbers are embossed on the top of the steering column surround - this once says ‘Ferrari 400’ - I will probably need to change this to ‘Ferrari 365’ as some point.

Here's a couple of original Ferrari Daytona columns......



Chris
 

Attachments

  • 54.jpg
    54.jpg
    224.5 KB · Views: 558
  • 55.jpg
    55.jpg
    195.9 KB · Views: 574
The gearbox and associated parts were sourced and mated to the rear of the engine - and we wanted to ensure the final gearshift mechanism exited in the same location as an original Ferrari Daytona. For those that aren't familiar with the Daytona - it is a front engined car with rear transaxle gearbox, and as such the shifter is located offset to the left to allow the drive shaft to pass through the tunnel centrally. Replicating this position was important to ensure the authenticity of the car I was modifying - and as my car is front engined with conventional gearbox mated to the back of the engine an adaption of the final linkage would be necessary. Once again - MDV did a great job of correctly locating the shifter and modifying the gear linkage appropriately.

Here's an original Ferrari Daytona with offset gear shifter - all Daytona's, be it LHD or RHD are offset to the left.



Chris
 

Attachments

  • 56.jpg
    56.jpg
    231.8 KB · Views: 577
  • 57.jpg
    57.jpg
    194.5 KB · Views: 570
The Getrag gearbox with new revised linkage and offset positioning for the shifter.



Chris
 

Attachments

  • 29.JPG
    29.JPG
    314.7 KB · Views: 581
  • 30.JPG
    30.JPG
    338.6 KB · Views: 552
  • 31.JPG
    31.JPG
    327 KB · Views: 473
  • 39.jpg
    39.jpg
    264.9 KB · Views: 479
  • 40.jpg
    40.jpg
    282.6 KB · Views: 507
Modified tunnel and offset hole for shifter.


Chris
 

Attachments

  • 52.jpg
    52.jpg
    218.1 KB · Views: 535
  • 53.jpg
    53.jpg
    274.8 KB · Views: 490
  • 38.jpg
    38.jpg
    247.2 KB · Views: 478
  • 37.jpg
    37.jpg
    282.5 KB · Views: 524
Back
Top