Don McLean’s „American Pie“ topped the charts and we wore our hair at shoulder-length. Funny enough the favoured car-colours of the 1972 are en vogue today again. I was infected with the Cavallino-virus already and by the birthday boy’s Berlinetta surprisingly enough, driven by Tony Curtis in the TV series “The Persuaders”. To be precise, this was 246 GT Dino Series L with the Serial Number 00810.
March, 9th was the opening date of 1972’s Geneva Motor Show and a car that was no real Ferrari was launched, the 246 Dino GTS. To be honest, in my personal view the design was not the best because the GTS lost the balanced shape compared to the Berlinetta, however, the Dino, if GT or GTS, must be voted as one of Pininfarina’s best designs ever. A total of 1,274 GTS have been build and the difference between GT and GTS, apart from the Targa-roof, was the missing window behind the B-pillar and an additional weight of 30 kg. Dinos show a wheel base of 2,300 mm and an engine displacement of 2,418 cm³. The engine was produced by FIAT and offered 194 hp. The engines were used on FIAT Dinos and Lancia Stratos as well. The base price of a GTS at launch was around $14,000. Today a purchase of a good GTS requires around $260,000.
#03408 was the first GTS produced; with #08518 the production was finished in 1974 before the summer break. The first US-Version of the GTS was # 03762.
#03408 was the Geneva Show car, accompanied by #03432. #03408 was sold new in Switzerland after the Motor show and stayed there ever since until today.
Reference literature about Dinos are the Books by Dough Nye –“ Dino: The Little Ferrari V6 & V8 Racing and Road Cars 1957- 1979”- and the “Ferrari Dino V6 Compendium” published recently by Dino-Guru and friend Matthias W. Bartz. Both books are highly recommended. Denny Schue’s Dino Register www.dinoregister.com is the best online reference and it is operated by… me.
You might already know, subscribing to F-Register.com will give you a full overview about the Dino Serial Numbers.