DAYTONA PEOPLE
Max Girardo ‘I sold my Daytona so I could start my company’
Great cars have been my life. I became a director of Bonhams of Europe in 2006 and then spent ten years with RM Sotheby’s, where I was managing director. I absolutely loved it, especially the actual auctioneering – it’s just such fun. My father was a rally driver in the 1970s and I’m a collector, so classic cars are in my blood.
But there comes a time when you have to go out and do something on your own. Last year we set up Girardo & Co and really started to burn money. Sadly, I realised I’d have to sell my beautiful Rosso Dino Ferrari Daytona to set up the business. The Ferrari was one of the best I have ever seen: that orangey red with beige interior and I had a silver stripe painted across the front, which was an option on the pop-up headlight cars. It looked fabulous, so 1970s. I kept it on the original-spec slim alloys and those cool black Italian numberplates.
I’d known the Daytona for about seven years. It had belonged to a scrap metal dealer in the south of Italy. I’d go to his premises, which looked like a bomb site, and hidden away in what was basically a house was his collection of immaculate Ferraris. It was quite preposterous. Anyway, he sold his collection to a well-known Ferrari dealer in Milan, from whom I bought the Daytona. I knew I just had to pull the trigger! I didn’t tell my wife how much it cost. I was in my thirties and must have been mad but the Ferrari seemed to go up in value every week. Makes me seem clever…
It was fabulous to drive as it pulled like a train. I mean, a front-engined V12 with quad cams and six Weber carbs – it doesn’t get much better than that. Yes, it was a bit heavy to parallel-park but the car was never designed for that. I loved driving it. As well as being really fast it was comfortable and even had its original eight-track stereo.
Yes, it drank fuel and the quarterlight window fasteners would break off but apart from that the Daytona was dead reliable and easy to live with. I have done some epic drives over the years but one of the best was in the Daytona. I strapped my young son into his baby seat and we set off to West Sussex. He, of course, fell fast asleep but what a joy to be driving him through the countryside in my Ferrari Daytona!
And the looks! We lived in a small house in Putney with a tiny garage. The Daytona would only just squeeze in – I’d have to take off my shoes, remove my belt, wind down the window and squeeze out through it because the garage was too narrow to open the door. It had a glass window facing the garden and often I’d just go and look at the Ferrari. But someone made an offer and then I started Girardo & Co at our great mews premises in Fulham… But I do miss it. Fortunately, I know exactly where the Daytona is. It’s in Norway and I’m keeping an eye on it.