From this specialization resulted a still existing friendship to marque expert, Matthias W. Bartz. The both Matthias, being occupied in the same professional business at that time, exchanged numerous details of cars ever since, especially when it came to identify Dinos.
One of the most curious stories finally led to the display of Dino 206 #00306 during current Techno Classica.
#00306 is one of the only 150 206 Dino ever built, all of them being European LHD specification. The car was completed on Jan. 2nd, 1969 and delivered new to Chinetti the same month.
Chinetti's plan was to promote the new model as a reliable car during the 12h of Sebring in March 1969. Driven by Sam Posey and Bob Dini on race #38, #00306 finished 36th overall and, what else, first in class, beating a Porsche 906. The car remained with Chinetti's NART-team until 1974 before it was purchased by Bob Jama who "transformed" the little Dino into a bad look-a-like of a red 206 S with oversized flaps and yellow rims.
Jama sold the car in 2011 to Mershons of Ohio who put it for sale on eBay on March, 5th 2011. That was where another piece of strange "identifying myth" started. Matthias Bartz and Matthias Urban discussed the car and Bartz and a good friend of him sat the whole nights to identify the car and when they checked the pictures of the rollbar in detail, they found a piece of duct tape on the rollbar that was identical to the position on the Sebring-car.
Matthias Bartz placed the bets on eBay and as he seemed to be the only one who knew about the car's famous history, he placed it carefully, won and paid 116,000 USD for the car - a bargain compared to the history of the car.
Bartz, his friend and Helmut Eberlein are best known to bring back cars to former beauty and just before Techno Classica, Matthias Bartz finished a total restoration of 00306 that was shown on Eberlein's stand in the livery and beauty as seen on the day when it picked up its short racing career.
This article is accompanied by one of our famous Slide Shows, what else?