The Dino 246GT


By Richard Conklin
Pictures copyright and courtesy Richard Conklin

The Dino's classic looks still draw attention from onlookers. Click here for larger image.

As I spent this past Father’s Day with my young son, tinkering with an old car, I was reminded of how the automotive history is rich with storied father-son relationships. Some, like that of Henry and Edsel Ford, were fraught with tension. Others, such as the collaboration of Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche, produced technical genius.

But perhaps none was more touching than the relationship of Enzo Ferrari to his son, Alfredino. In 1956, Dino, a promising 24-year-old engineer, died of a nephritus virus, leaving his father in mourning that ended only with his own death, the black tie he wore for the next 30 years a symbol of his lasting sorrow.

Not only is the rear of the car a pleasure to behold, the rear luggage area features a surprising amount of space for suitcases, which is a good thing because... Click here for larger image.

In his 1963 memoir, "My Terrible Joys", which he dedicated to Dino, Enzo confessed that "everything I have done since the death of my son has been in his memory." One of those memories was of Dino’s fondness for the technical merits of V6 engines. By the late 1960s, as the potential market for Ferrari grew rapidly, Enzo – helped by an FIA ruling – decided to honor his son by creating a line of V-6 powered sports cars. A cruel irony of Enzo’s effort to commemorate his son is that there’s always been some question of whether it is a ‘real Ferrari.’

..the front compartment is filled with spare tire and battery. Click here for larger image.

The Ferrari name and prancing horse logo are nowhere to be found on the car, while the name Dino is enshrined practically everywhere one looks: on the steering wheel hub, hood, rear fascia, valve cover -- even the Chromodoras are embossed with the Dino signature.

Compounding the car’s identity crisis is confusion arising from the naming of Ferrari’s 4-cam V6 racecars. After 1956, Scuderia Ferrari racers powered by that engine were all called ‘Dino,’ like the Dino 246 that captured the 1958 World Championship with Mike Hawthorn at the wheel. In the mid-1960s, a rule change in Formula 2 required all race engines to be manufactured in quantities of 500. If Ferrari wanted to continue to use the Dino V6 as a race engine, it needed to find a way to manufacture a mass-produced (by Italian standards) Dino-powered car.

The dash was modeled after the Daytona. Leather wheel reflects contemporary race car design. Click here for larger image.

Il Commendatore called on his compatriots at Fiat, who quickly honored the request, and in 1967 a pair of Fiat-built Dinos appeared, a Pininfarina spyder and a Bertone coupe. Powered by a Dino V6 of 65° V and 2.0-liter displacement, these Dinos soon shared the powerplant with the first iteration of the Ferrari Dino, the 206. When the three Dino models – two Fiat, one Ferrari – were originally conceived, the intent was that they would form a separate marque, known simply as ‘Dino’, distinct from both Ferrari and Fiat lines.

But Fiat, wishing to enhance its own name through its association with Ferrari, released the coupe and spyder with Fiat badging, and decades of confusion over the legitimacy of all Dinos ensued. The final production tallies didn’t help restore order: when the Dino engine displacement was upped to 2.4 liters it powered both the Fiat Dinos and Ferrari Dino 246. Yet a 2.4 Fiat Dino is actually the rarer item, with just 2838 total produced, compared with 3761 examples of the Ferrari Dino 246GT.

While looking crowded, gaining access to everything in the engine bay is not nearly as bad as it seems. Click here for larger image.

Marketed squarely at the successful Porsche 911—again, the result of a father-son dynamic, this time between Ferry and his son Butzi – the Ferrari-built Dino 246 GT was introduced in 1969 wearing a beautiful body sculpted by Pininfarina and built by Scaglietti that perfectly enveloped the two-passenger cockpit and the transverse-mounted 2418cc V6. With its four overhead camshafts, a four-bearing crankshaft, and three, twin-choke Weber 40 DCF carburetors, the V6 Dino may have possessed only half the cylinders of a typical prancing horse, but it had all the aural qualities. The engine’s 195 horsepower made a particularly raspy note from its quad-tipped exhaust. To the delight of its owners everywhere, that note rose to a crescendo as the Dino approached its top speed of nearly 150 mph.

Dan Fitzgerald came across a Ferrari Dino 246GT for sale while attending a Pennsylvania auction, he initially resisted the temptation to add it to his personal collection of dream cars, which includes an air-cooled Porsche Carerra Cabriolet and a flawless Jaguar XK140 roadster. But after a few sleepless nights, the Dino’s lure won out. A dealer/restorer, from Geneva, New York, Dan quickly set out to correct the car’s only visible shortcoming: its color. While white may be some people’s idea of an appropriate color for a Ferrari, it was not Dan’s. A frame-off, bare-metal respray in Dan’s restoration facility did the trick, and today the car joins the 75% of Dinos ordered from the factory in red.

Whatever the color, the Ferrari Dino certainly ranks among Pininfarina’s finest efforts. Its mid-engine layout allows for an extremely low hoodline, leading to a steeply-raked windshield. From the front, the Dino looks the part of merry prankster, its large eyes and broad mouth inviting mischief. >

The graceful "flying buttresses" were first seen on the 1954 Paris Show car, a 375MM. Click here for larger image.

From the rear, the Dino’s broad stance is accentuated by a narrow roof and wide power bulge on the rear deck. But it’s at the rear of the roof where the eye is likely to fixate. The deeply-recessed rear window is so severely curved that it creates a tension all it own, as if straining against the powerful forces emanating from the engine bay. By the time your eye traces the sloping roofline to its terminus atop the rounded shoulder of the rear fender, all tension is relieved.

Inside, the atmosphere is comfortable and relaxed. The flashback to late ‘60s Italian styling, with suede covering the dash board and contrasting stripes running across the leather seats, takes a moment to recover from, but settle in, and it’s surprising just how much room there is for heads, knees and feet. (the Targa-roof GTS, offers unlimited headroom.)

Fire the ignition, and the fun truly begins. Head off in search of winding ribbons of road, and the Dino’s go-kart-like driving response will quickly have you wondering why the Dino has lived in the shadow of more powerful, but less nimble Ferrari models.

Now that shadow is cast by new Ferrari supercar, the Enzo. As in life, Enzo’s shadow is long. Yet the ties that bind Enzo and Dino, be they mechanical or familial, will always be especially deep, and profoundly personal.