Re: [alfa] when did a Dino 308GT4 become a Ferrari?

["Dean W. Cains" <dwc@xxxxxx>]

Hi James:

I've always felt dismay upon seeing one of Pininfarina's prettiest cars, 
the 206/246 variants, with a prancing horse slapped on its rear fascia.  Of 
course, the Dino is a real Ferrari, regardless of its lack of a V-12 and 
Ferrari badging, and plenty a Dino racing car won a Grand Prix or hillclimb 
event for the Ferrari factory team.  But the real point is that the Dino's 
(and before that, the V6 Dino engines) were originally an homage to Mr. 
Ferrari's late son, and I always wondered if they were somehow more special 
to him, and thus kept as a separate line of cars for that reason.  To me, 
that's what the Dino's are about, and that's what makes them almost more 
special than a Ferrari-badged Ferrari.

Then there were the 308's from '75 onwards.  Not great cars, but they 
certainly all left Modena with prancing horse emblems on the nose, tail, 
wheel centers, and steering wheel hub, and they were sold as Ferrari's, not 
Dino's.  It's not that the Dino's morphed into Ferrari's, it's that the 
Dino's died in '74.

Now, anyone want to re-open the debate about when Alfa died?

Regards,

Dean
Lutz, FL
'74 & '87 Spider Veloce's


At 05:47 PM 5/21/2004, you wrote:

> Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 15:37:37 -0500
> From: "James Tyson" <jftyson@domain.elided>
> Subject: [alfa] when did a Dino 308GT4 become a Ferrari?
>
> In 1973/74,I belonged to the Deleware Valley chapter of AROC and I
> attended several club meetings at Algar Enterprises.At that time Algar
> was an Alfa & Ferrari dealer and was also the Ferrari distributor for the
> entire East Coast.I distinctly remember there were two logos on
> display-one for Ferrari and one for Dino.The 246 coupes and spiders on
> the showroom floor had Dino badges.If you went to an auto show there were
> two displays,one for Dino and one for Ferrari. They weren't Ferraris...no
> one dared to refer to them as Ferraris.They were much cheaper and they
> didn't have a v12. I'm no Ferrari snob,and I'd love to own either Dino
> model,but I am curious as to when and how Dinos morphed into Ferraris.Did
> Enzo issue a papal bull(which leads me to consider, what is the
> automotive equivalent of ex cathedra....)?
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