A BABY IS BORN

Even when you think you know it, the Dino story takes a bit of unravelling but the context behind its creation is important, steeped in commercial expediency, human grief, racing pride and a family dynasty stripped of a legitimate heir when Alfredo ‘Dino’ Ferrari died in 1956, aged 24.

By naming a series of racing engines after his son, who had been working on a V6 design before his demise, Enzo sowed the seeds of an idea for a line of smaller, less-expensive Ferraris, even if it was not clear what form they would take. He probably knew that any such car would require outside funding and co-operation, and the shortlived ASA 1000 had proved that he was by no means averse to the idea of another company building a so-called ‘Ferrarina’ under licence.

However, the true origins of the Dino road car lay with a homologation requirement to build 500 production engines of no more than six cylinders for 1965 Formula Two rules. Enzo saw F2 as an important medium for nurturing young Italian talent. Designing such an engine was no problem (it existed as 1.5-litre GP unit), but finding the space and manpower to build it was impossible for a firm whose focus was Grand Prix singleseaters and large-capacity endurance sports cars.

So Ferrari sought the help of Fiat, striking a deal with Gianni Agnelli to build a productionised version of a Franco Rocchi-designed four-cam V6 in Turin for the Fiat Dino Coupé and Spider. The 65º angle between the banks gave room for twin-cam cylinder heads and the direct intake porting of three Weber 40DCN carburettors.

Sales of these cars quickly fulfilled the F2 requirements, and it was already an open secret that a mid-engined car using the same motor was on the way, its general outline heavily trailed by various show cars between 1965 and ’67. First came the 206 Speciale (above), based on a 206 S racer. Its longitudinal V6 was a dummy, bereft of moving parts, but the shape set the principle of a voluptuous, cab-forward two-seater and it ushered in a new model numbering system indicating displacement and number of cylinders.

The Dino Berlinetta GT of Turin in 1966 was closer to the road car launched a year later. The first three were Pininfarina-built pre-production prototypes, with the rest built by Scaglietti. Deliveries began in the spring of 1968, with 99 206s sold that year and a further 51 in 1969 as production moved over to the 195bhp 246GT. With their iron blocks and steel panels the 246s were 331Ib heavier, but an additional 15bhp – and a lot more torque – more than made up for it. Yet the real point about the 246 was that it was the sort of rounded and robust product needed to seriously take the fight to the Porsche 911.