From the early 1970s, Ferrari focused all their factory racing efforts on their Formula 1 program. The customers of the Italian company did not stop racing and rallying Ferraris but these were usually converted for racing by specialists like Michelotto with a certain degree of back-door support from the factory. Today, we take a look at two of those independently developed cars that have raced at the top level.
The newest of the pair is this 308 GTB Group B, which was built for 1980 European and nine-time Spanish Rally Champion Antonio Zanini. It was not one of the four road cars uprated by Michelotto but instead it was prepared by Ferrari's agent in Barcelona using Michelotto supplied components. Zanini drove the car to a debut victory and early in 1985, it was campaigned in the Rally Catalunya. Chassis 24783 was made famous by a Scalectrix version of the car as raced in the Rally Catalunya. Its current owner restored it to that livery once more.
While Ferrari sanctioned 15 365 GTB/4 Daytona competition cars, customers had additional cars built to Group 4 specifications during the early 1970s. The featured example was one of these third party conversions with the work done by Sport Auto in Modena for Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team. It raced at Le Mans in 1972, finishing ninth overall and fifth in class. The striking Group 4 Daytona has been in the same Swiss hands since 1997 and was shown at Villa d'Este in 2017.

Enjoy the links:

1978 Ferrari 308 GTB Group B (24783)

1970 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Group 4 (13855)