Whats the deal with Dino's?

they are called dinos because when enzos son dino died he dedicated a car to his son

 

Well, there are different Dinos, and Fiat had led it's predecesser into production 2 years before the Dino Berlinetta was shown at Paris in June of 65, then the Dino GT in 11/66 which was shown in Turin, then launched into production 11/67.

In 68 it became the Dino 206GT, and then 3 series of 246GT until 74.

Fiat had already been making Dinos since 11/66, but they were front engined
I believe this was the first real sign of the linkage between Ferrari & Fiat.

Smallish V6 engine started at 2L and went to 2.4L, - the first Ferrari road car with an engine not located in the front.

Sooo, some people aren't convinced, I suppose, that the Dino is a "real" Ferrari, but Ive seen a Dino GT with the Ferrari name and horse on the rear and the Pininfarina badging on the sides, along with a Ferrari hood emblem.

If it doesn't have the Ferrari name, it's probably a Fiat.

 

Not exactly true: it may be an early run 308gt4, which is a dino, but not badged as Ferrari

 

The road car Mr. de Cadenet drove was a 246 GT and is a Dino (Ferrari). I've heard/read that it's actually wrong to have Ferrari badging on the car though. I don't believe it is called Fiat because they were made in the Ferrari factory(?) and the Fiat Dino's (different car) and Lancia Stratos' all use a version of this Dino Ferrari designed engine. This is my understanding, and I'm sure the great people on this site will correct me where I'm off.

Happy Driving!

But I'm not from all these final projects and exams!!

 

"Dino" has a deeper "Dino" ancestry. Incomplete & likely inaccurate list...

Yr. ------ Model ------------ # ------------ Qty.
58 ------ 206 Sport Dino ---- 0740 --------- 1
58 ------ 296 Sport Dino ---- 0746 --------- 1
59-60 --- 246 Sport Dino ---- 0776-0784 --- 2
60 ------ 196 Sport Dino ---- 0776 --------- 1
67-69 --- 206 GT ----------- 0102-0404 --- 153
69 ------ 246 GT Serie L ---- 00400-01116 - 357
70 ------ 246 GT Serie M --- 01118-02130 - 506
71 ------ 246 GT Serie E ---- 02132-07650 - 1624
72-74 --- 246 GTS --------- ??------------- 1274

 

The name "Dino" was used on all non-V12 cars before May 1976. Because a V6 or V8 wasn't considered a "real" Ferrari. It's correct those cars were dedicated to his son. Since 1976, Enzo allowed the non-V12 cars to be badged as a Ferrari too. Some owners of the earlier Dino badged cars changed their badge to a Ferrari one. Many people still only consider the V12's as "real" Ferrari's. But the Dino's can be considered as Ferrari's too IMO.

It's true there are Fiat Dino's around too, they had a V6 made by Ferrari engine, but they certainly weren't the first Dino's.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong...

In addition to the V6/V8 distinction with V12, I was always under the impression that "Dino" was developed as a specific brand that would marketed differently from both Ferrari and Fiat. It was analagous to Lexus/Toyota today. Many shared design elements, suppliers, engineering concepts, but marketed in a very different way. Dino was, to my recollection and memory (unfortunately) a positioning act rather than a specific rejection of non V12 Ferraris.

On a personal note, I will say it's ironic that Pininfarina designed the most beautiful body ever created by mankind on the 246 and Fiat/Ferrari built a darn solid (although slow by today's standards) powerplant. Screw the pundits... I think every car that carried the Dino badge is worthy of the name Ferrari and a respective place in history.

Anyone want to trade a 348 for a 246? ;-)

-Daniel

 

Ahhhh. I didn't know the 308 was ever considered a dino as well.

 

dino
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The Prancing Horse, and the Ferrari Badge were not original equipment on the Dino.

Ferrari wanted to start a new car to compete with Porsche, at a differenet price point from his v-12 cars. He left the Ferrari Badges off the car in an effort to establish Dino as its own brand.

He continued this through at least the first year of the 308 "Dino", but finally dropped it in 1976, by adding Ferrari badges to that year 308, I believe.

Excellent article on the Dino in Forza some years ago. here's a link to the article in pdf.

http://pennphoto.com/pages/jag_xj12/forza_dino_article.pdf

Dave

 

What I find interesting is that some of them have started to appreciate in price. I saw a Dino with chairs and flairs go for 86K at auction.

 

GT or GTS? Big price differential in these cars. Which Auction? Recently?

 

The 308 GTB and GTS are Ferrari, it is only the GT4 that carried the Dino name. But towards the end of it's life it became a Ferrari if recall correctly...

 

No, Enzo did not consider these cars "not good enough for the Ferrari name".

Dino originally simply meant non-12 cylinder cars, which also originally meant 6 cylinder cars. This includes the awesome 196 and the 6-cylinder Formula 2 race cars.

In "Victory by Design" de Cadenet drives a 196 through London to pick up the GT. He compares the 196 to a small Testa Rossa, which is a very apt description. It's shorter in wheelbase and in engine size, intended for shorter, twistier circuits. It doesn't make it less of a car, even in Enzo's eyes.

 

The 308 GT4 was originally badged as a Dino. In 1976 (or maybe it was 77), the factory began badging them as Ferrari's. What's interesting is that there was a set of documents issued by Ferrari ( you can find them at Gerrit's Dino308gt4 site- http://www.dino308gt4.com/Ferrari/downloads/TechRevs-308GT4.pdf) that described various upgrades in the 308 GT4, which included rebadging from Dino to Ferrari, modifying bumpers, exhaust, aircon, etc.

My 308 GT4 is a 1975 car that was originally badged as a Dino. If you look closely at the front of the car, you can see where the horizontal area that housed the Dino badge was filled in, so that the Ferrari badge could be placed.

While many consider the GT4 the bastard child, or black sheep of the family, I still think it's one of the best cars they produced.

Dom

 

That's all that counts, Dom.

As for the 246 - I love the car, and I definitely consider it a baby Ferrari. It's much more Ferrari than the current Maseratis, IMO.

 

The GT4 with unmolested badges is cool. I've seen one recently.

As stated above they have no horse logo.

They were a hard sell in US market, hence the retrofit to add Ferrari prestige.

 

See Carbon's pics here http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15483
for a GT4 with Dino badging for sale in Long Island (I think they are asking in the 30s)

 

The first Dino engine was circa 1957, and designed for formula 2 racing.
It's development was overseen by Jano, Enzo, and Dino, but it didn't see it's first use till about 6 months after Dino's death...

Later, Formula 2 racing required production based engines derived from road going cars, from which 500 units a year were produced.
But Ferrari couldn't build enough Dinos to qualify, so a deal was made with Fiat, through go between Francesco Bellicardi, who was the GM at Weber carbs.
In that deal, Fiat would not only produce the dino engine, but also produce enough Fiat Dino cars to offset what Ferrari needed to qualify the engine for racing.
The Ferrari built Dino road cars, 206, 246, 308, were all assembled at the Ferrari plant, not at Fiat.

 

Dave nailed it with even more detail than I provided.

For what it's worth, Enzo's son's name was Alfredo. The diminutive is Alfredino, which was shortened to Dino.

--Matt

 

I have heard from a few people that the slightly extended wheelbase of the GT4 makes for a better handling car than the regular 308. You do see them often converted to track use. There was on a Silverstone on Monday, and it was awesome; I'll post some pics if can find 'em.

 

I too, have read the GT4 handling was better, ie. more predictable at the limits, than the later 308GTB. Can't recall the source of the info, however.