Dino 246 (Dino 246 GT and GTS)

A Rule About Five Hundred Engines The Dino V6 is a homologation artefact. Formula Two rules adopted in the mid-1960s required a racing engine derived from a production unit built in quantity, 500 of them within a defined period, and Ferrari, then building a few hundred cars a year, had no prospect of meeting that alone. An agreement signed on 1 March 1965 committed Fiat to producing the six-cylinder Dino engine in numbers sufficient for its adoption in a Ferrari single-seater; Fiat used it in its own front-engined coupe and spider from 1966-67, Ferrari transversely behind the driver. The name came from Enzo Ferrari's son Alfredo, called Dino, who died in 1956 and had argued for the six-cylinder layout. The badging followed the same logic: these cars carried Dino script and no Ferrari nomenclature anywhere.

Aluminium, and Not Many of Them The 206 GT reached production in 1968, its body a Pininfarina design credited to Brovarone and Fioravanti, built by Scaglietti in Modena, in aluminium throughout. The Tipo 135 B engine displaced 1,987 cc from 86 x 57 mm, a 65-degree V6 with twin overhead camshafts per bank and an alloy block and head running cast-iron wet liners. Ferrari quotes 180 hp; specialist accounts give 160 bhp at 7,200 rpm, close to the rating Fiat used, and the two are not reconciled. Around 152 were built between 1967 and 1969, all left-hand drive, at roughly three a week; period assessments put it short of power against the Porsches it faced.

Steel and Cast Iron For 1969 the car became the 246 GT. Bore and stroke went to 92.5 x 60 mm for 2,418 cc, and the aluminium block was replaced by cast iron. That was a manufacturing decision, not an engineering one: Fiat was building the enlarged engine in volume, and iron suited the numbers and the cost. In Ferrari tune it made 195 PS at 7,600 rpm. The wheelbase grew 60 mm to 2,340 mm, absorbed by a longer engine cover and a repositioned fuel filler. The body went from aluminium to steel, doors and bonnet excepted; Motor Sport put the weight penalty at nearly 400 lb. The other consequence took longer to appear: the 246 corrodes in a way the 206 does not, and rust now dominates its condition hierarchy.

L, M and E The run divides into three series, Tipo 607 L, M and E. L-series cars, 357 built to the summer of 1970 in chassis 00400 to 01116, are left-hand drive only and carry centre-lock knock-off wheels. The M-series took five-stud wheels with Dino centre caps, a revised gearbox, ATE brakes and relocated door locks, and introduced right-hand drive from around October 1970, running to July 1971 in chassis 01118 to 02130. The E-series, from late 1971 to the end in 1974, is much the largest and the most developed, with further gearbox changes and upgraded Weber carburettors, and is said to have been built at three cars a day. Published counts for the M and E series differ by enough to change the model's total by nearly two hundred cars.

The Targa, the Options and the Americans The 246 GTS was shown at Geneva in March 1972: the same shape with the rear quarter windows replaced by blanked sail panels carrying ventilation grilles, a reinforced structure, and a lift-out black roof panel. It exists only in E-series form, from chassis 03408; 1,274 is the figure almost every source repeats. From around chassis 4000 came the two options that define the model's upper specification: 365 GTB/4 Daytona-pattern seats and Group 4-style flared arches with 7.5-inch Campagnolo wheels, priced separately but ordered together often enough to become the shorthand 'chairs and flares'. RM Sotheby's puts the number of GTS cars built with both at fewer than 150. American cars were their own specification: an air pump and revised valve timing cutting output to 175 hp, recessed vertical amber indicators, corner markers and reflectors, and the chassis number stamped on the steering column, read through the windscreen. NHTSA's import rulings confirm a United States-certified 246 GTS for 1973.

Corrosion is the defining fault and the most expensive to put right, because it is structural rather than cosmetic. The Magneti Marelli Dinoplex capacitive-discharge ignition is the second recurring theme: the working test is a characteristic hum from the transformer core when the key reaches the on position, and silence indicates a problem. Specialist attention is generally recommended rather than roadside diagnosis. Timing chains stretch and become noisy; catastrophic failure is rare but a slack chain is not something to run on. Worn valve guides and tired pistons show as a smoky exhaust. Oil changes at 3,000 miles and tappet adjustment at 6,000 were the factory rhythm, and cars that have not had it show it. Second gear is stiff when cold on a healthy car and frees as it warms; grinding between first and second when warm means the synchronisers have gone and the gearbox needs rebuilding. Cooling is a persistent weakness, with electric fan failures and air trapped in the system; Hagerty's guidance is that around 195 degrees is normal and 225 indicates trouble. Wiring insulation deteriorates with age, and scorching behind the ignition switch is a serious finding. Motor Sport's 1989 catalogue of period irritations, weak second-gear synchromesh, unreliable electronic ignition, fragile door handles and slow window motors, has aged well.

Structure before anything else. The 246 is a steel body on a steel semi-monocoque and it rusts comprehensively: sills, floorpan, front luggage compartment, wheelarches, lower doors, the rear chassis and the suspension mounting points. Hagerty singles out the centre chassis tubes and the sandwiched panels behind the rear wheels, which trap water and hide what they are doing. A visual inspection is not enough; a structural examination on a lift, by somebody who has seen a rotten one, is the difference between a car and a project. Establish which series is in front of you and confirm it agrees with the chassis number: L-series cars run 00400-01116 on knock-off centre-lock wheels, M-series 01118-02130 on five-stud wheels, and the E-series from 02132, with the GTS starting at 03408. Confirm engine and gearbox numbers against the chassis, which matters most on a 206 and on any car described as chairs-and-flares, since both options were retrofittable and both now carry money; original factory invoices, as with the 2022 RM car, are the strongest evidence a car left Maranello with them. On American cars, look for the recessed vertical amber indicators, the corner markers and the column-stamped chassis number, and treat their absence as a question rather than an answer. Ferrari Classiche certification appears on several of the strongest recent auction cars. Interiors have almost always been retrimmed, so what matters is whether the retrim is correct.

As of August 2026 classic.com records a market benchmark of $400,980 for the 246 GT with an average recorded sale of $393,611 and a rising trend, against a benchmark of $620,203 and an average of $576,859 for the GTS. The open car has carried that premium consistently; Hagerty put the gap at roughly $50,000, which recent results suggest understates it. Tracked coupe results as of August 2026 run from $192,500 for a 1971 car in April 2025 to $643,000 for an 857-mile 1972 example on 14 August 2026. GTS results as of August 2026 run from $260,000 in August 2023 to a $1,106,000 figure recorded in June 2026 for a modified 'Evo 3.6' car, which is not a standard-specification comparison. Auction evidence fills in the middle. RM Sotheby's sold restored, numbers-matching L-series chassis 00908 for $434,000 at Monterey in August 2025 and an M-series car in rare Verde Germoglio for 331,250 euros at Paris in 2019. For the GTS, RM took $637,500 at Monterey in August 2026 for a late E-series car and $802,500 at Monterey in 2022 for chassis 06462, which carried both options and the invoice showing them; Gooding took $561,000 for a chairs-and-flares GTS at Amelia Island in 2015. Magneto's United Kingdom guidance places a 1971 coupe at 278,000 pounds fair to 448,000 pounds concours.