1972 Ferrari Dino 246 GT RHD
- Presented in original colours of Giallo Fly with Nero vinyl seats
- Only 42,000 miles from new
- Freshly serviced by marque specialist KHPC
- Supplied with the original book pack and warranty card
| YEAR | 1972 |
| MAKE | Ferrari |
| PRICE | £330,000 |
VEHICLE DESCRIPTION
Long recognised as one of the finest drivers’ cars ever made, the Dino 246 GT blended a mid-engined chassis with beautiful Pininfarina styling and a sonorous V6 engine, and its appeal remains as strong as ever.
Finished in Nuovo Giallo Fly with a black interior, chassis number 04590 was completed in July 1972 and specified with electric windows. It was then delivered to the UK via the official importer, Maranello Concessionaires, and sold new to actor Richard Thorp.
Best known for playing Alan Turner in long-running TV soap opera Emmerdale, Thorp’s distinguished career also included a number of film roles, and he’d appeared The Dam Busters in 1955. Thorpe bought the Dino in October 1972 via Alan Brown Racing in Surrey, and it returned there in 1975 to be sold on behalf of a Mr Bateman, who had owned it for approximately nine months.
It was then bought by Jackie Wilson, a well-known powerboat racer of the 1960s and ’70s. He recalled paying Alan Brown Racing £3000 for the Dino – plus a Ford Zodiac and a 4hp Mercury boat engine.
At the time, Wilson also owned a Porsche 911S and an Aston Martin V8 alongside the Dino. When he suffered a heart attack, his wife sold the car for £3750 while he was recovering in hospital. An upset Wilson remembered that it had covered less than 3000 miles and maintained that she should have got at least £4000 for it…
By 1984, the Dino had been acquired by a Mr Elichaoff of North London, and was later owned by Douglas Hodson – an accomplished engineer who made steam engines and model aero engines.
It was then bought by it’s a longstanding customer of The Hub, a Mr Chris Sherwood, who diligently researched its ownership history and, soon after he’d acquired it in 2007, reunited the Dino with Richard Thorp. At that time, the car was red, but it was returned to its original Giallo Fly as part of a bare-metal respray in 2016. Mr Sherwood cherished the car for nearly 20 years during which time he was a great custodian before commissioning The Hub to sell the car on his behalf in 2022.
This beautifully presented Dino 246 GT comes with a comprehensive history file that includes factory paperwork such as Ferrari’s confirmation of the original order in June 1972, and has recently been serviced by marque specialist Kent High Performance Cars. It even retains its original book pack and warranty card, and is an exceptional example of this coveted little sports car.
MODEL HISTORY
During the mid-1950s, Enzo Ferrari’s son Dino was involved in the development of a new V6 engine. Sadly, he never got see how successful it would be in international motorsport because he died in 1956 at the age of only 24, but Enzo decided to honour him by using the Dino name for Ferrari’s V6-engined sports-racers and single-seaters.
The curvaceous Dino Berlinetta Speciale concept was then shown at the 1965 Paris Motor Show, pointing the way to a Dino road car. The production 206 GT was duly introduced in 1967 with an all-aluminium 2-litre V6 engine, but only 152 were built before it was replaced by the more powerful 246 GT two years later.
Based on a cast-iron rather than aluminium cylinder block, the engine was enlarged to 2.4 litres and power was boosted from 178bhp to 192bhp. The bodywork – previously constructed from aluminium – was now all steel, and the 246 GT was longer, wider and taller than its predecessor. The wheelbase had also been lengthened slightly, and a targa-roof GTS was added to the line-up in 1972.
The engine ran on triple Weber carburettors and was shared with the Fiat Spyder and Coupé, as well as the Lancia Stratos. There was independent suspension all round and ventilated disc brakes, and road-testers raved about its driving appeal; Road & Track said that ‘the steering is light, wonderfully precise and quick’.
More than 3700 Dinos were built in 246 GT and GTS form, and the car was never officially badged as a Ferrari. Instead, Maranello intended Dino to be a ‘junior brand’ in its own right,and the brochure referred to the car as: ‘Tiny, brilliant, safe… Almost a Ferrari’.
As that Road & Track road-test concluded, however: ‘Ferrari name or no, the Dino is a Ferrari, and mystique plus the exciting shape plus the sounds plus the great chassis all add up to a lot of car.’