NART Ferrari Daytona at Keno Brothers New York 2015

The NART 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’ that finished fifth overall at Le Mans will be among the headline offerings at the Keno Brothers New York 2015 auction, scheduled for November 18-19 at Skylight Clarkson Sq in Soho, New York City.

The inaugural Keno Brothers Fine Automobile Auctions event, named Rolling Sculpture, will take place during the heart of the New York art auction season. The sale will precede the second iteration of RM Sotheby’s ‘Art of the Automobiles‘ sale, which will be held on Thursday, December 10th at Sotheby’s headquarters in Manhattan.

“Our goal as a company is to channel the trust, integrity and knowledge that we have built throughout our entire lives into every aspect of this new auction house,” said Leslie Keno, Co-CEO and Founder of Keno Brothers. “Our inaugural sale will offer a unique selection of 45 of the most highly coveted vehicles from around the world. Whether a racecar — purposefully built to go extremely fast or a touring car, designed with fanciful curves and sensual lines, each offering has a distinct story to tell.”

At its unveiling at the Paris Auto Salon in 1968, the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 was immediately hailed as a masterwork. However, through June of 1971, the Berlinetta had not yet proven itself as a competition machine. A prototype race version was built and promptly crashed at the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans, and only a middle field finish came much later in 1971. Nonetheless, North American Racing Team (NART) patriarch Luigi Chinetti Sr., the man who had delivered Ferrari its first win at Le Mans in 1949, driving 23 of the 24 hours himself, believed in the promise of the what would be christened the ‘Daytona’.

This 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona on offer at the 2015 Keno Brothers Manhattan auction, serial number 12467, was modified from a standard road car for NART and entered in the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans. This era is still considered the golden age of road racing, due to the colossal battle between Ferrari and Porsche, and their awe inspiring 5-liter World Sports Car (WSC) Championship machines. Driven by Americans Bob Grossman and Luigi Chinetti Jr., 12467 finished in fifth position overall, behind only the much larger and more powerful WSC machines. It came in eight laps ahead of the GT cars that it would be classified against in the future.

By the end of the 1971 summer, with the requisite 500 road cars completed for homologation, the first of three batches (eventually totaling 15) of official Ferrari factory-prepared Daytona Competiziones were at the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans. The racing world watched as a flank of Daytonas took fifth through ninth place overall, once again behind only WSC machines, and swept the GT class podium. The Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona represents the final front engine road-based race car built under the gaze of Enzo Ferrari.

In 1972, 12467 would go on to place within the top 5 spots in the 2.5-liter plus category at the 6 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. It is eligible for historic racing events around the world. The pre-sale auction estimate for the car is $4,900,000 to $5,900,000.

“The N.A.R.T. Daytona is an example of our vision to carefully curate and celebrate, when possible, automobiles with unique origins, or notable achievements in history,” said Co-CEO and Founder, Leigh Keno. “We strive to offer at auction noteworthy cars which have contributed to the fine automotive tradition. Importantly, each lot will be thoroughly vetted and researched by top specialists in respective Marques and will be elegantly presented and accompanied with videos so that their unique attributes can be fully appreciated by our clients and the public at large.”

For more information, visit KenoBrothers.com.

[Source: Keno Brothers]