Built on commission by UK-based boutique carmaker Panther Westwinds (the same imaginative blokes who would go on to build the three-axle, Cadillac-powered Panther 6), the Shooting Brake started life as a standard Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Berlinetta –  the 805th off the Ferrari production line, in fact, painted red with a black interior. Hexagon says the car was modified at a cost "equal to approximately four new Daytonas," which is not an inconsiderable sum, as the Daytona Berlinetta was equal to approximately four new Corvettes. From the front, the Shooting Brake is more or less standard, lovely Daytona. Behind the B-pillar, however, things get downright wacky.

There is no rear hatch, only a large, removable near-vertical pane of glass. The cargo area, lined with polished wood decking, is accessed through curved "gullwing" glass on each side of the body, hinged at the top. Panther also completely revamped the interior, mounting the instruments in the center and dressing up the standard car's businesslike dashboard with glossy wood trim. Prudently, the Panther team left untouched the Daytona's 4.4-litre, 353-horsepower V12, suggesting the Shooting Brake could be good for 180mph.

In 1975, US car dealer Luigi Chinetti Jr delivered the finished Daytona Shooting Brake to its new owner (a Florida real-estate developer, naturally), who kept it until 1980. From there, it changed hands several times before returning to Europe in the late 1990s. Hexagon acquired it in 2014 and set about restoring this most unusual Ferrari to its former, um, grandeur.

Despite its advanced years and parade of owners, the car landed at Salon Privé with fewer than 4,000 miles on its odometer. Now, Ferraris aren't generally known for logging hundreds of thousands of miles, but 4,000 miles in 40 years seems unusually low, even for an Italian exotic. Could it be that its owners weren't all that keen to be seen driving it?

(BBC)