In the mid-1970s, Eric Clapton was dominating stages with his blues-soaked guitar playing and was also indulging his fascination with the world’s most exotic cars. Among them was a 1975 Ferrari 365 GT4 BB, one of Maranello’s most daring mid-engined creations of the decade. Sleek, angular, and packing a 4.4-litre flat-12 engine, the Boxer was Ferrari’s riposte to Lamborghini’s radical Miura. It was also Clapton’s pride and joy, though only briefly.
After taking delivery of the car, Clapton managed just 43 miles before disaster struck. Whether through over-exuberance or misfortune, the 365 GT4 BB was wrecked almost immediately. Taming a 380-horsepower Ferrari was an entirely different challenge for a muscian. Clapton himself later admitted that he had a tendency to take on cars that were "a bit wild," with his passion for Ferraris matched only by the occasional bad luck behind the wheel.
Despite its short-lived road career, the car achieved a kind of immortality. The very photograph of Clapton’s stricken Boxer was used on the sleeve of his 1977 album Slowhand. The image is stark and revealing: a young rock star, his prized Ferrari, and a moment of human frailty. It gave the album artwork a kind of accidental honesty.
The Ferrari, however, was far from finished. After changing hands, it underwent a meticulous restoration. Rebuilt from its battered state and resprayed in striking Rosso Corsa, the car was given a second life. Where Clapton had left it broken, someone else coaxed it back into the form Ferrari originally intended—a sharp-edged wedge with a low, predatory stance and the promise of thunder from its flat-12 heart.
Today, the story of Clapton’s 365 GT4 BB is part of Ferrari folklore, adding a touch of rock and roll chaos to the Boxer’s history.