Fiat – Dino Aerodinamica (1967)

The Ferrari Dino 2 litre V6 engine came into being as Ferrari was planning to compete in the Formula 2 championship. This was a category where the governing body of motor sport – FIA – changed the homologation regulations for the 1967 season. The engine would have to be production based and come from a road car with at least 500 units manufactured per year. Maranello needed help big time because their total annual production figures wouldn’t even have come close to 500 cars in the mid-1960s. The solution was for the Ferrari-designed engine to be produced by Fiat in Turin. Fiat used the same Ferrari 2 litre V6 engine in its two rather upmarket sports cars and the engine was also installed in the Ferrari Dino 206 GT launched in the marketplace in 1968. The Fiat Dino Spider designed by Pininfarina was first marketed in October 1966. The coupé version was designed by Bertone and built on a wheelbase longer by 270 mm, and the sports car was first shown in early 1967. The Ferrari Modulo from 1970 was Paolo Martin’s best-known design but he also penned this prototype of the ‘Dino Berlinetta Aerodinamica’ for Pininfarina. The study was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in 1967, initially finished in a white livery. The lines of the prototype paid homage to the aerodynamic research carried out by German automobile designer and aerodynamicist Wunibald Kamm. The striking ‘Kammtail’ body was designed for aerodynamic reasons with a large vertical windscreen and looked very much like a shooting brake. The design was revised for the Geneva Motor Show in 1968 and given a much slimmer rear profile combined with a front apron styled with dramatic, retractable headlight covers. The concept was now painted ‘Rosso Dino’ and had pearl-coloured wheel rims, along with side air vents on the B-pillar. This study stayed in the Pininfarina collection until 1990 and the car remains to this day exactly as shown at the 1968 Geneva Motor Show, with less than 6,000 kilometres registering on the clock.