1973 Ferrari 246 Dino

Ferrari sports cars didn't arrive on the scene until 1947, 18 years after Enzo Ferrari founded Scuderia Ferrari - literally 'Ferrari Stable' - to build and field race cars. After WWII, Enzo began building road cars, but even then they were only a concession to keep his beloved, but quite expensive, racing program funded.

The Dino brand name was used from 1968 to 1976 to designate cars with fewer cylinders. The Ferrari name continued - referring to cars with the larger 12-cylinder engines. The Dino name was in honor of Enzo Ferrari's only legitimate son, Alfredo 'Dino' Ferrari, who died of muscular dystrophy at age 24 just before the car went into production. The 246 nomenclature refers to the 2.4-liter, 6-cylinder engine. This was the first mid-engine Ferrari for street use.

The 246 GT, introduced in 1971, filled a demand for more horsepower over the original 246. This new V6, which Dino gets some credit for designing, had an unusual 65-degree angle between cylinder banks, dual-overhead-cam, with a 9.0:1 compression ratio, iron block and alloy heads making nearly 200 horsepower. The car weighs less than 2,400 pounds. The Dino 246GT was Ferrari's first mid-engine road car. Although the design was common in sports car racing, the idea of a mid-engine production car was quite daring.

Only 3,761 were built.

This is an original-owner car bought from the Ron Tonkin Ferrari dealership in Portland, Oregon. Mr. Curis drove the car home to Detroit. A 'bare-metal' restoration was completed in 1991. This is one of the few, if not the only, original-owner Dinos. It has been used often as a resource for Dino restorations.