Ferrari Dino is one of the most important car models created by the Ferrari company.
There have been rumours for some years now about a new Dino model, and even if CEO Luca Cordero di Montezemolo keeps on denying this possibility, the new Dino should show off its face before the end of this decade.
Many articles have been written about the new model, but to understand the significance of this car, we have to think back to its history in the past, and not only the 40 years since it was first produced.
Enzo Ferrari, founder of Ferrari and a great pilot himself with Alfa Romeo, continued driving until the birth of his first son, in 1932, Alfredo Ferrari, called Dino. He was an excellent mechanical engineer, supposed to be the main designer of the 1.5 L DOHC V6 engine for the Formula 2 races. We came to know later that he just helped and encouraged the engineer Vittorio Jano to plan and improve the V6 and V8 engines, that were later basic in the development of many road cars, as the ones who took his name, “Dino”.
Dino Ferrari could not continue his work on this engines because he was hit by muscular dystrophy, and died at the age of 24 in 1955, but he was fundamental for the development of this kind of engine.
The month of october 1965 can be considered, in the abstract, as the date of birth of the first Dino, because at the Paris Auto Show was presented the first prototype
of the “Dino Berlinetta Speciale“, with a red exterior and a coachwork by Pininfarina.
The following two years saw the multiplication of Dino prototypes, with different interiors and many different exterior colors, with a Dino 206 S showed at the 1966 Turin Car Show that was very similar to the final one.
Finally, in the 1968, we have the first known production of a official Dino, the Dino 206 GT, that appeared in the july of the same year in the factory sales brochure. The 206 GT had a 2.0 L V6 engine, that let it reach the maximum speed of 146 mph (235km/h). It was characterized by soft edges and curving lines typical of earlier Italian cars. The estimated production of this first model has been of 152 cars, of which 99 only in that first year.
The reason of this limited production was the official introduction of its successor, the Dino 246 GT, at the Geneva Auto Show in the month of march of 1969. It was a fixed-top GT coupe, but since february 1972 Ferrari started producing an open Spyder GTS. The engine was developed in a 2.4 L V6, and it was different from the previous one also because of 2 rows of 7 vent holes in the engine compartment lid, one more vent hole than the 206 GT. The Dino’s 2.4L V6 engine was then fundamental in many other Italian cars, as the Lancia Stratos or the Fiat Dino.
The Dino 246 GT was undoubtfully the most successfull of its family, considering the period, with a production of 3,761 cars in the 5 years it has been built by Ferrari.
Since 1973 until 1980 Ferrari produced the 308 GT4 (pic to the right), initially branded as Dino, which had to find the perfect mix between the sport car and the possibility of having a capacity of 4 people.
It was designed by Bertone, and not by Pininfarina, and the difference was obvious looking at the strange angular lines, entirely different from the classical and curvaceous forerunner, the Dino 246 GT.
This controversial styling made this model have less success than the previous, but anyway the Ferrari in 1975 started producing the 208 GT 4, with a depowered engine.
Both models were important because they represented the first production Ferraris to feature the mid-engined V8 engine, and were sold on the whole 3,761 cars.
Ferrari Dino made the history of the Italian brand, and it is still a legend, as showed by many books that have been written about it, and by the existence of a website dedicated only to this magical car: www.dinoregister.com
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