The Dino 206 GT, 246 GT and 246 GTS are
V6 mid-engined
In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle.
History
The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout of ...
sports car
A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...
s produced by
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
and sold under the
Dino marque
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
between 1967 and 1974.
The Dino 246 was the first automobile manufactured by Ferrari in high numbers. It is lauded by many for its intrinsic driving qualities and groundbreaking design. In 2004, ''
Sports Car International
''Sports Car International'' (SCI) was an automobile magazine published in the United States from 1986 to 2008 by Ross Periodicals Inc, first in Newport Beach, but then later in Novato, California.
History
The magazine was unabashedly enthusiast ...
'' placed the car at number six on its list of
Top Sports Cars of the 1970s. ''
Motor Trend Classic'' placed the 206/246 at number seven in their list of the 10 "Greatest Ferraris of all time".
Dino 206 GT
The production Dino 206 GT was designed by
Aldo Brovarone
Aldo Brovarone (24 June 1926 – 12 October 2020) was an Italian automobile designer and the chief stylist with Carrozzeria Pininfarina (1974-1988) – widely known for a prominent range of work including the Dino 206 GT, Lancia Gamma Coup ...
and
Leonardo Fioravanti at
Pininfarina
Pininfarina S.p.A. (short for Carrozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930.
On 14 December 2015, the Indian mu ...
and built by
Scaglietti
Carrozzeria Scaglietti () was an Italian automobile design and coachbuilder, coachbuilding company active in the 1950s. It was founded by Sergio Scaglietti in 1951 as an automobile repair concern, but was located across the road from Ferrari in Ma ...
.
It had the soft edges and curving lines typical of earlier Italian cars, unlike its angular successor, the
308 GT4. It was named after Enzo Ferrari's late son Alfredo who was affectionately known as Dino to his family.
The 206 GT used a transverse-mounted 2.0 litre all-aluminium, 65-degree V6 engine with dual overhead camshafts and a 9:1 compression ratio, making at the 8,000 rpm redline. Torque was at 6,500 rpm. The crankshaft featured four main bearings. Induction was via three Weber 40 DCN/4 2-barrel carburetors. The 206 GT was the first car sold by Ferrari which used an electronic ignition, a Dinoplex C capacitive discharge ignition system that was developed by
Magneti Marelli
Magneti Marelli S.p.A. () is an Italian developer and manufacturer of components for the automotive industry. The firm is headquartered in Corbetta, Italy, and includes 86 manufacturing plants, 12 R&D centres, and 26 application centers in 19 c ...
for the high revving Dino V6 engine.
It was also the first Ferrari product to have a direct rack-and-pinion steering.
The 206 GT frame featured a light-weight, aluminium body, full
independent suspension
Independent suspension is any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically (i.e. reacting to a bump on the road) independently of the others. This is contrasted with a beam axle or deDion axle system in w ...
, and all round
disc brake
A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to hol ...
s. It had a wheelbase and a top speed of .
152 were built in total between 1967 and 1969, in left hand drive only.
The same engine was used in the
Fiat Dino
The Fiat Dino (Type 135) was a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive sports car produced by Fiat from 1966 to 1973. The Dino name refers to the Ferrari Dino V6 engine, produced by Fiat and installed in the cars to achieve the production numbers sufficient ...
Coupe and Spider, produced during the same period. The conversion of the
Dino 206 SP/S twin-cam racing engine for road-going use in the Dino (and the two Fiat models) was entrusted by Fiat to
Aurelio Lampredi
Aurelio Lampredi (16 June 1917 – 1 June 1989) was an Italian automobile and aircraft engine designer.
Born in Livorno, he began his career before World War II at Piaggio, moved to Isotta Fraschini, and then joined Reggiane. This time he design ...
, to whom Ferrari owed so many great engines. Lampredi, interviewed in the early 1980s (he died in 1989 at the age of 71), noted that, "Things didn't work out exactly as Ferrari had foreseen."
Fiat quoted
DIN for the Fiat Dino and
Coupé
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...
, and in 1967 Ferrari - presenting the first prototype of the Dino 206 GT - claimed . This, however, was not the case. Both engines were made by Fiat workers in Turin on the same production line, without any discrimination as to their destination, and all were identical.
Later Fiat Dinos also used the 2.4L engine, although significantly fewer were produced with this engine.
Dino 246 GT and GTS
Calls for more power were answered with the ''
Dino'' 65°
V6 engine
A V6 engine is a six-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, Deutz Gasmotoren Fabrik ...
,
DOHC
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion c ...
, 2 valves per
cylinder
A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base.
A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...
, 9.0:1
compression ratio
The compression ratio is the ratio between the volume of the cylinder and combustion chamber in an internal combustion engine at their maximum and minimum values.
A fundamental specification for such engines, it is measured two ways: the stati ...
,
iron block with
alloy
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...
heads. It produced at 7,600 rpm and at 5,500 rpm of
torque
In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...
, and was available as a fixed-top ''
GT''
coupé
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...
or, after 1971, an open
Spyder
The SPYDER ("Surface-to-air Python and Derby") is an Israeli short and medium range mobile air defence system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with assistance from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Rafael is the prime contractor a ...
''GTS''. A detuned American version had an exhaust
air pump
An air pump is a pump for pushing air. Examples include a bicycle pump, pumps that are used to aerate an aquarium or a pond via an airstone; a gas compressor used to power a pneumatic tool, air horn or pipe organ; a bellows used to encourage ...
, and timing changes which resulted in . The GT had 3X2-barrel 40 DCNF/6 or 40 DCNF/7
Weber carburetor
Weber Carburetors is an automotive manufacturing company founded in 1923, known for their carburetors.
History
Eduardo Weber began his automotive career working for Fiat, first at their Turin plant (in 1914) and later at a dealership in Bologna ...
s. For the 246 a new version of the
Dinoplex ignition was deployed, the more compact
Magneti Marelli
Magneti Marelli S.p.A. () is an Italian developer and manufacturer of components for the automotive industry. The firm is headquartered in Corbetta, Italy, and includes 86 manufacturing plants, 12 R&D centres, and 26 application centers in 19 c ...
AEC103A system.
The 246 Dino GT weighed . The 246 Dino GTS weighed . The body was now mostly made of steel to save cost. The 246 Dino had a longer
wheelbase
In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...
than the 206, at . The height of the 246 was the same as the 206 at . The new car had a revised interior. Other differences were 2 rows of 7 vents on the slightly longer engine lid of the 246 instead of 6 and a fuel cap flap cover instead of the exposed one of the 206.
Dino 246 production numbered 2,295 GT coupés and 1,274 GTS spyders, the latter being built after the Series III revision from 1972 to 1974 only, for a total production run of 3,569 cars. Three series of the Dino were built, with differences in wheels, windshield wiper coverage, and engine ventilation. The Series I cars (also known as L series), 357 of which were built until the summer of 1970, used the same center-bolt wheels and "clapping hands" windscreen wipers as did the 206. Series II cars (M series, built until July 1971 in 507 examples) received five-bolt Cromodora alloys and parallel moving wipers. The Series III cars (E series) had minor differences in gearing and fuel supply, and were built at a much higher rate as sales in the United States commenced with this version. 1,431 Series III GT coupés and 1,274 GTS removable top cars were built.
The 246 had a claimed top speed of , although in July 1971 a road test by Britain's
Motor
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...
magazine reported a top speed of , which compared favourably with the achieved by a recently tested (though by now replaced)
Porsche 911S
The original Porsche 911 (pronounced ''nine eleven'', german: Neunelfer) is a luxury sports car made by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. A prototype of the famous, distinctive, and durable design was shown to the public in autumn 1963. P ...
.
With a acceleration time of 5.5 seconds the Dino narrowly outperformed the Porsche again, although the Porsche was narrowly the winner on fuel economy.
The manufacturer's recommended UK retail price of £5,485 was higher than the £5,211 asked for the Porsche. For comparison, the much larger, four-passenger
Citroën SM
The Citroën SM is a high-performance coupé produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1970 to 1975. The SM placed third in the 1971 European Car of the Year contest, trailing its stablemate Citroën GS, and won the 1972 ''Motor Tre ...
high-performance luxury coupe sold for £4,700.
In a famous incident, a Dino 246 GTS
was discovered in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
dig out by children in 1978, buried in a yard. The car was later revealed to be the victim of an elaborate insurance fraud perpetrated by the owner.
![Dino_federal_comparison](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Dino_federal_comparison.jpg)
The Dino's 2.4 L V6 was also used in the
Fiat Dino 2400 and the
Lancia Stratos
The Lancia Stratos HF (''Tipo 829''), widely and more simply known as Lancia Stratos, is a rear mid-engined sports car designed for rally racing, made by Italian car manufacturer Lancia. The HF stands for ''High Fidelity''. It was a very successf ...
rally car.
There were some minor differences in trim for various markets, the most obvious being marker lights on US market Dinos. Group 4-style flared wheelarches were optional, as were seats from the
365 GTB/4 Daytona, the pair often ordered in conjunction with wide, sand-cast
Campagnolo
Campagnolo is an Italian manufacturer of high-end bicycle components with headquarters in Vicenza, Italy. The components are organised as groupsets (gruppi), and are a near-complete collection of a bicycle's mechanical parts. Campagnolo's flagsh ...
alloy wheel
In the automotive industry, alloy wheels are wheels that are made from an alloy of aluminium or magnesium. Alloys are mixtures of a metal and other elements. They generally provide greater strength over pure metals, which are usually much soft ...
s.
File:1969 Dino 246 GTS front side.jpg
File:1969 Dino 246 GTS rear.jpg
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Dino RegisterClub Dino ItaliaFerrari, Fiat, Lancia Stratos
Dino UKFerrari, Fiat, Lancia Stratos
{{Dino car timeline
Pininfarina
Ferrari vehicles
Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles
Cars introduced in 1968
Cars introduced in 1969