I recently saw this photo & caption in Alan Henry's 'The Ferrari Dino 246, 308, and 328' book. Is the caption correct? It certainly looks like '286' cast on the cambox. What I find so intriguing is that the heads, cambox & injection manifolds look exactly like the 1967 166F2 items, also the 206F2, then later the 1976 206F2 customer engines, and the Stratos works 4 valve heads. The exhaust port is clearly oblong, ie it has 2 exhaust valves per cylinder. So the photo seems to show a 4 cam 24 valve V6. All the information I have seen on the 286 engine says it is a 2 cam 12 valve engine. Can these engines all use the same basic head casting? The 90mm bore of the 286 would at least mean this is possible. Does anyone know? Image Unavailable, Please Login
This is the 2-cam, 12-valve, 286 engine from 1962, with Webers. On your picture, isn't it unusual for Ferrari to cast both "Ferrari" AND "Dino" onto the cam covers? Image Unavailable, Please Login
You are the Tasman guy? I believe all those engines were made for the Tasman series. I remember Peter Sacha had four of them in 1987 but none were 2.8 liters. What series would have allowed a 2.8 liter engine? David
Hello David The Tasman engines were 2.4. I bought several 206F2 blocks & heads & other parts from Peter Sachs several years ago. Are you thinking of these? They date from 1976 on, whereas the Tasman 4 valve engines were around 1969.
Miltonian Thanks for the picture of the 'known' 286 2 cam engine. Here's a 1976 206F2 head which looks just like the one captioned as a 286. You will see Ferrari is cast as well as Dino. My question really is now whether Ferrari could have made a 24 valve 286 engine back in 62 which then became the projenitor of the later Fiat engines. That photo seems to show a block very much like the 65degree engines of the 166F2, 206F2, 246 Tasman, + the Fiat & Dino road cars. That cambox really does say 286! Image Unavailable, Please Login
The 286 was the experimental 2.8L SOHC V6 that was in 0802 when introduced. Supposedly, the engine, being experimental, was left unnumbered. 0802 was raced first with the 2.6L SOHC V8. Then, after being wrecked by Phil Hill, rebodied/manufactured as a 196SP with the 1.9L V6 and finished 2nd in 1963 Targa Florio (should have won if the driver didn't have brain fade right before the finish). It did beat the 250Ps at the same race. Rumor has it the experiemental engine is either with Pierre Bardinon or still with the Ferrari factory. Chinetti still has 0802, with both the 268 and 196 motors, today. Steve
I appreciate the 286SP engine history, but does anyone have any ideas what the engine in the photo might be?
I reckon it does not have 286 cast in the cambox but 206 and is the engine that you think it is, ie: 1976 206F2. Maybe the paint has been chipped in that area. Pete
If memory serves (a serious issue!) Jess Pourret used to own the 286 engine. Sorry, I don't know what happened to it, and haven't talked to Jess for some time. Seems as if it was at his country place outside Veselay.
Hello, refering to the 0802 what do you mean by rebodied as a 196 SP? I know it raced in Targa Florio in 1963 with a different front end but were there any other substantial differences from the 268 configuration bodywise? Beside the engine of course, thank you.
I have John Godfreys book on the Dino Sps and he notes that #0802 was tested as a 286SP, re-engined as the 268SP, written off first time out at the 1962 Targa Florio when Hill had a throttle stick open, then re-engined and rebuilt as a 1963 spec. 196SP with partially new coachwork based on the 250P nose and traditional SP rear (its unclear how much coachwork was new but Hills 1962 Targa accident left much of the car unscathed and Hill lucky to be alive), 196SP and finished 2nd at the 1963 Targa Florio. #0802 was stored after the Targa Florio and sold to Chinetti on 3 August 63, sans engine. Wayne Sparling built #0802 into a LHD Coupe and returned it to Chinetti who fitted a Olds V8 and sold it to Barbara Howe. #0802 bounced between Chinetti and Sparling in the 1970s and may have not run between 1963 and circa 1978 when Sparling restored it with SP style bodywork and a 196S engine (#0778) and it was retained by Chinetti although in 1990 still lacked a transmission to complete it. The 196SP engine fitted to #0802 for the 1963 Targa Florio was owned by Godfrey at the time the book was written.
No sweat. I hope it all made sense. Far more interesting is Godfreys claims that the 246SP/250P Prototipo #0796 survived and his thoughts that a car #0800 was built for Stirling Moss but never used. Now I would love to know more about those two cars.
Its interesting because Godfrey quotes Marcel Massini no less as his source for the engine and part chassis surviving. Who knows exactly what that means thirty years later but again would be great to know.