Sticking with the Italian theme I will begin next week, I did some scrounging around on ClassicCars.com and found this little gem to use as my Pick of the Day, a Fiat Dino Coupe located at a dealer in Newport Beach, California.
The Fiat Dino is interesting and often misunderstood in the world of collector cars. They are also often messed with and frequently wear Ferrari badges on every possible surface. Whenever I see this, I cringe, as the Fiat Dino is a great GT car of its own accord.
Fiat Dino road cars came to be when Ferrari needed to homologate a V6 engine for their Formula 2 racing cars. In 1965 the FIA created new rules for the 1967 season that stated F2 engines would be required to have no more than six cylinders and had to be derived from a production engine used in a road car homologated in the GT class. In addition, the manufacturer had to produce at least 500 examples of said road cars powered by this engine within 12 months. Being a small manufacturer, Ferrari did not possess the production capacity to build this many engines or road cars. To solve this problem, Ferrari made an agreement with Fiat to produce the 500 engines needed for the homologation that they would then install in a yet-to-be-designed GT car.
These Dino V6 engines were based on the racing engine designed by Vittorio Jano and then modified for road use by Aurelio Lampredi, who not only designed several four-cylinder Ferrari racing engines but is also responsible for the Fiat 124 Spider engine. According to Lampredi, “Things didn’t work out exactly as Ferrari had foreseen.” Enzo Ferrari had counted on building the engines at Maranello, but Fiat insisted on taking control of production to avoid any engine supply slowdowns. The result is that the Fiat-built Dino V6 ended was installed in two very different vehicles: the Fiat Dino, a front-engine Grand Tourer assembled in Turin by Fiat, and Ferrari’s first production mid-engine sports car, built in Maranello – the Dino.
While the Fiat Dino Spider was designed by Pininfarina, the coupe was designed by Bertone. Not only that, but the Fiat coupe designers were none other than the legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro and Marcello Gandini.
The seller describes this 1967 Fiat Dino coupe as a solid, “no stories” Fiat of the 1960s. The car is said to have received a $30,000 service last year by a local specialist shop, during which they rebuilt the Weber carbs, did a full tune (including valve adjustment), installed new mufflers, a new interior and window motors.
The seller goes on to say that a local Fiat specialist shop just inspected the vehicle and was surprised that parts usually missing or corroded are all intact, solid and tidy.
In addition, this car has all the correct trim and badging a Fiat Dino is supposed to have (there’s not a single Ferrari badge in sight).
I have personally owned a Fiat Dino coupe and can honestly say it’s a great car for driving on vintage tours and is certainly something you don’t see every day. The model is powered by a true Ferrari engine and the exhaust note is one of the best I have ever heard on a road car. Being a V6 that sports cam chains rather than belts, it is also the least expensive Ferrari engine to deal with and service.
If you are looking for a true, storied, great-driving Italian GT car with impressive design and development history, but are also on a budget, then this Fiat Dino coupe, with an asking price of $59,800, is just the ticket.
Click here to view this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com