THE FIAT DINO
In the mid-1960s, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) set new homologation rules for the 1967 Formula 2 series. For a race car to qualify for Formula 2, at least 500 copies of the engine had to be sold prior to the start of the series. This requirement was a difficult proposition for Ferrari; the company's street-car production was usually numbered in the dozens, not the hundreds. Undaunted, in late 1964 Ferrari approached Italian automaker Fiat and made a deal with its new president, Gianni Agnelli, to mass-produce an updated version of the V6. The engine would be shared by both a new Fiat sports car and a new Ferrari model -- Ferrari's first mid-engine street car. Both would be called "Dino."
By 1965, Enzo had finally, reluctantly relented to the demands for a mid-engine street car. The fact that Lamborghini was about to dazzle the world with the mid-engine Miura may have had something to do with it; Ferrari may not have cared much about street cars, but being one-upped by a rival was another matter. Ferrari decided, however, that the mid-engine car should be a Dino, not a Ferrari. It was a classic Enzo ploy, assuaging his ego by letting him reverse himself without seeming to reverse himself, and allowing him to make a great show of honoring his late son's name, while protecting his own from any negative reactions to the new car.
Pininfarina showed Dino 206 show cars at the Paris show in late 1965 and at Turin in 1966, but these were essentially new bodies on the chassis of the earlier mid-engine sport-racer prototypes, nowhere near ready for production. A more definitive prototype appeared at the 1967 Turin show, but the first Ferrari-built Dino 206 GT didn't go on sale until 1968. Fortunately for Ferrari's Formula 2 plans, the Fiat Dino Spider (also styled by Pininfarina) went on sale in late 1966. It was followed in the spring of 1967 by the bigger, four-seat Fiat Dino Coupe, this one styled by Bertone. Both were popular enough to more than enough to meet the homologation requirements for the engine; Fiat sold 7,651 Fiat Dinos between 1967 and 1972.
FERRARI'S DINO
Ferrari's Dino 206 GT used the same 1,987 cc (122 cu. in.) V6 as the Fiat cars, although it was rated at 180 horsepower (132 kW), rather than the 160 horsepower (117 kW) of the Fiat Dinos. Unlike the earlier prototypes, which had longitudinal (north-south) engines ahead of the rear axle, the production 206 GT's engine was transversely (east-west) mounted, sitting
on top of the transaxle and driving it through a series of spur gears. To keep the engine's center of gravity as low as possible, the top of the transaxle case actually formed the engine's sump. All of this made the powertrain far more compact than the earlier efforts, important for a small car with a wheelbase of only 89.7 inches (2,278 mm).
The 2.0 L V6 proved to be less than reliable in civilian hands, with problems with low oil pressure, vapor lock, and plug fouling. In 1969, its displacement was expanded to 2,418 cc (148 cu. in.), and the aluminum block was recast in iron. The 2.4 L engine had more torque than the 2.0 L, making it easier to drive on the street. It was also more durable and cheaper to build, although it was somewhat heavier. Power rose to 180 horsepower (132 kW) for the Fiat version, 195 hp (145 kW) for the Dino, which was renamed Dino 246 GT.
Although cheaper than any contemporary Ferrari, the Dino 246 GT was a very expensive car -- over $14,000, which was around 50% more than the hottest contemporary 911. On the other hand, the new Ferrari flagship, the 365 GTB4 Daytona, cost twenty grand in the States, so the Dino was at least somewhat more attainable. Of course, the Dino had virtues beyond its price. Not only was it fast -- 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) in less than 7 seconds, a top speed of around 150 mph (240 kph) -- it was nimble in a way the bulky, front-engine Daytona couldn't match. It was also beautiful, a virtual archetype of the modern sports car. Unsurprisingly, it sold very well by Ferrari standards, with some 3,700 built before production ended in 1974. A few purists sniffed that nothing with only six cylinders could be a 'true' Ferrari, but the Dino 246 is widely considered a classic.
STILO BERTONE
It was almost inevitable, then, that the 246's replacement, the Dino 308 GT4, would be seen as a retrograde step. Introduced in October 1973 at the Paris show, it was less compelling in almost every way than the 246 GT it replaced.
There are a number of theories as to why the 308 GT4 ended up the way it did, but many blame the influence of Fiat. The Dino project had been a kind of courtship between Enzo Ferrari and Gianni Agnelli; in 1969 they announced that Fiat had purchased a 40% interest in Ferrari. Enzo would retain 49% until his death, with an additional 1% given to Pininfarina. (Notably omitted from the press releases was the fact that the remaining 10% was granted to Piero Ferrari, Enzo's illegitimate son with his mistress, Lina Lardi, whom Enzo did not acknowledge until after his wife's death in 1978.) Ferrari had been shopping for a partner since the beginning of the decade. He had actually entered serious negotiations with Ford in 1963, although that deal had collapsed acrimoniously. The Fiat deal was more to Enzo's liking, leaving him in control of the company's racing efforts, but allowed him to step back even further from the road cars, which by most accounts he never really cared much about.
On the face of it, the blame-Fiat theory makes sense, because the new Dino, dubbed 308 GT4, had all the overtones of corporate decision-making. Where the 246 GT had been a pure two-seater (and a cramped one, at that), the 308 GT4 was a 2+2, stretched more than seven inches in wheelbase to make room for a pair of tiny "occasional" rear seats. The logic was presumably that a 2+2 would sell better than a two-seat coupe. It's difficult to envision Enzo caring a whit for such considerations, so it may well have been a dictate from Fiat.
Still, both Piero Ferrari and Marcello Gandini, who styled the 308 GT4, have claimed that Enzo took a great interest in the development of the new Dino. They also say that he was solely responsible for the second controversial decision: assigning the styling of the new car not to Pininfarina, but to Carrozzeria Bertone. Bertone had built Ferraris before, but not in nearly twenty years. Piero says that Enzo was pleased with the styling Bertone had produced for the Fiat Dino Coupe, and thought Bertone would also be an appropriate choice for the 2+2 308 GT4. Even if that were true, it would still have been a curious decision, since Bertone was strongly associated with Lamborghini. Marcello Gandini had recently penned the spectacular Lamborghini Countach, and some historians have even alleged that his design for the 308 GT4 was a previously rejected Lamborghini concept.
Under the skin, the 308 GT4 was essentially a stretched version of the earlier Dinos, also with a transverse, mid-mounted engine. It had a tubular steel chassis, welded to steel body panels; American models had heavier bracing front and rear to meet U.S. safety standards. Bigger than the 246 GT, the 308 GT4 was inevitably heavier, weighing nearly 3,000 pounds (1,330 kg) in European trim. Cars bound for the U.S. weighed about 300 pounds (135 kg) more than that, thanks to their bulky and not terribly attractive 5-mph (8-kph) bumpers. The extra bulk was hardly compensated by the rear seat, which was a torture chamber for anyone bigger than an eight year-old. It was more helpful as a place to stash a briefcase or a picnic basket, although the new car also boasted a reasonably sized trunk behind the engine compartment.
SIDEWINDER EIGHT
The big news is that the Dino V6 was gone, replaced by a new 90° V8. Ferrari had used V8s in racing before, but this was its first production eight. The V8 displaced 2,926 cc (179 cu. in.), although Ferrari preferred to round up to a full 3.0 liters. Like the V6, it had two overhead camshafts for each cylinder bank, although the cams were now driven by rubber timing belts, rather than chains. With four dual-throat Webers, the European engine claimed 250 horsepower (184 kW) at a lofty 7,700 rpm; the smog-controlled U.S. version rated 240 horsepower (179 kW).
Despite the extra weight, the V8 made the 308 GT4 about as fast as its predecessor. It was capable of 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) in about 6.5 seconds, with a top speed of over 150 mph (240 kph). Its handling was appropriately adroit, although the suspension was tuned for understeer, sacrificing some of the 246 GT's agility to make the 308 less prone to rotating its tail at the limit. Lifting the throttle in a tight turn on slippery surfaces could still make it spin, but it took considerable effort. As a further safeguard against oversteer, steering lock was very limited, which made manoeuvring in tight spaces frustrating.
The U.S. version, heavier and less powerful, naturally was somewhat slower than the European cars. In June 1975,
Car and Driver's Patrick Bedard achieved 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) in seven seconds with a 1975 model like our photo car, running the quarter mile (402 meters) in 15.4 seconds at just over 90 mph (146 kph). That was decent for a smog-era car, but Bedard warned that the Dino was no match for the meaner
Corvettes and Porsches, advising buyers to avoid stoplight confrontations and rely on their looks to get by.
Unfortunately, Dino 308 GT4 owners couldn't be any more confident of winning a beauty contest than they could a drag race. Compared to the more graceful Pininfarina Ferraris, even the somewhat brutish Daytona, its styling was severe. Trying to cram a 2+2 cabin into a mid-engine sports car rarely ever looks very good -- the raison d'être of mid-engine layouts is to keep the front and rear overhangs as short as possible, which makes the bigger cabin of a 2+2 look stubby and chunky. Mostly, though, the fault was with stylist Marcello Gandini and his fascination with wedge shapes. The 308 GT4's sharply creased lines and slab sides also gave it none of the voluptuous surface detail of Pininfarina's best efforts. The result was an awkwardly proportioned car, with little to draw the eye.
THE FORGOTTEN FERRARI
European response to the 308 GT4 was frosty. It fared somewhat better in the States, simply because for a time, it was the only new Ferrari model certified for sale in the U.S. The Daytona was gone by time it bowed, and Ferrari never bothered to federalize the fearsome 365 GT/4BB and 512BB "Berlinetta Boxers" (the cars that finally put paid to Enzo's hesitation about offering a 12-cylinder mid-engine road car). The painful spectacle of Ferrari dealers with no actual Ferraris to sell was probably the major reason that, in July 1975, the factory started adding the Ferrari badge andcavallino emblem to the 308 GT4.
The unloved 2+2 was thoroughly upstaged by the new two-seat car, the 308 GTB, which debuted at the 1975 Paris show. Styled by Pininfarina, the GTB was about the same size as Bertone's 2+2, but it had infinitely better proportions. It was as pretty and sensual as the 308 GT4 was severe, and its shape survived well into the eighties. (Its lift-roof GTS version also became the world's most recognizable Ferrari model, thanks to its starring role on the popular TV seriesMagnum, P.I.) Tellingly, the production 308 GTB never wore the Dino badge, which was abandoned completely in May 1976.
In Europe, the 308 GT4 was supplemented from 1975 by a 208 GT4 model, with a 1,991 cc (122 cu. in.) version of the V8 that put the car in a more favorable tax bracket. The 208 GT4 had 180 horsepower, and could run 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) in about 8.5 seconds, with a top speed of around 135 mph (217 kph). About 800 were sold in total, most of them in Italy.
You might expect that the debut of the far more popular 308 GTB would have meant the end of the line for the 308 GT4, but it lingered on for several more years. Apparently, someone (probably the Fiat management) thought Ferrari should have at least one "affordable" 2+2 -- another indication, like the unceremonious cancellation of the Dino brand, that Enzo Ferrari was no longer paying much attention to passenger-car production (if, indeed, he ever had). In 1978, the engines were detuned for emissions purposes, dropping to 230 hp in Europe and 205 in the U.S. Otherwise, the cars otherwise continued almost unchanged until December 1980. Total production was 2,826, which was still enough to make it one of the best-selling models in Ferrari's history. It was replaced by the Mondial 8.
The 308 GT4 was not a bad car, at least by the questionable standards of mid-seventies sports cars, but it had the same weaknesses as any other Ferrari (spotty build quality, limited practicality, a choppy ride, horrible fuel economy, exorbitant repair and maintenance costs), without their redeeming virtues (blazing speed, badge snobbery, fabulous looks). The latter was the real killer; if it had been as gorgeous as the 246 GT, history would happily overlook everything else. The 308 GT4 certainly looked exotic; it just didn't look like a Ferrari. If you didn't know better, you could mistake it for a Lamborghini Urraco, or even the significantly cheaper De Tomaso Pantera -- not a thought to warm the hearts of a Ferrariste laying out big money for Maranello's latest. As a result, it is not particularly desirable to modern collectors.
Your author, ever one for the perverse, finds something oddly appealing about the 308 GT4's redheaded-stepchild status -- it's the least-adored scion of perhaps the world's most revered automotive family. On the other hand, it must be said that we would also be amused by the idea of making a hot rod out of a Checker Marathon, for similar reasons. As a notable oddball, the 308 GT4 scores highly, but in other respects, the last Dino remains a hard car to love.
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NOTES ON SOURCES
Our principal sources for this article were "Ferrari 308 GT4" by the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide (7 May 2007, HowStuffWorks.com, http://auto.howstuffworks. com/ ferrari-308-gt4.htm, accessed 3 September 2008) and Pete Lyons and the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide, Ferrari: The Man and His Machines (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd., 1989). Information on the Fiat Dino came from "Fiat Dino: a poor man's Ferrari" by André Ritzinger (original date unknown, RitzSite, http://www.ritzsite.nl/Fiat_Dino/01_Fiat_Dino.htm, accessed 3 September 2008). Background on Enzo Ferrari himself came from Brock Yates, Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine (New York: Doubleday, 1991). Details on the 208 GT4 came from the Cars from Italy pages "Ferrari 208" (2008, CarsFromItaly, http://www.carsfromitaly.net/ferrari/f_208.html, accessed 3 September 2008) and "Ferrari 308" (2008, CarsFromItaly, http://www.carsfromitaly.net/ferrari/f_308.html, accessed 3 2008); the Ferrari GT4 Wikipedia® page (http://en.wikipedia. org/ wiki/Ferrari_GT4, accessed 3 September 2008); and Mark Wan, "Ferrari 308GT4 (1973)" (no date, AutoZine.org, http://www.autozine. org/ Archive/Ferrari/classic/308GT4.html, accessed 1 September 2008).
Road tests consulted for this article included Patrick Bedard, "Fantasy Cars for Everyman," Car and Driver, June 1975, reprinted in R.M. Clarke, ed., Car and Driver on Ferrari (Cobham, Surrey: Brooklands Books, Ltd., 1985), pp. 91-95; Paul Frère, "Dino 308 GT4," Road & Track, September 1974; "Dinos: Is newer better?" Autocar, 16 August 1975; "Ferrari Dino 308gt4," Road Test, March 1976; and "Autotest: Ferrari Dino 308GT4 2+2," Autocar, 13 March 1976, all of which are reprinted in R.M. Clarke, ed., Ferrari Dino 308, 1974-79 (Brooklands Road Tests) (Cobham, Surrey: Brooklands Books, 1982).
by Aaron Severson
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