The ultimate italian coachbuilder site
The ultimate italian coachbuilder site
The Fiat Dino Coupé was one of the great coupés of the 1960’s, the result of a Fiat decision to create a sports car fitted with a Ferrari V6 engine.
The Fiat Dino Coupé: The Dino was born from an agreement between FIAT and Ferrari, signed because of the Maranello company’s need to quickly build a sufficient number of Dino engines (so called because they were derived from a 1956 project by Enzo Ferrari’s late son, Alfredo, known as Dino) to obtain Formula 2 homologation for the Ferrari Dino 166 F2. Thus, alongside the more expensive Dino 206 GTs, the production of more affordable (though still expensive) FIAT-branded versions was decided. In reality, the technical sharing between Ferrari’s ‘Dino’ and FIAT’s was limited to the V6 engine. The Dino 206 GTs were not marketed under the Ferrari badge, but under the Dino badge, without Ferrari lettering on either the engines or the bonnets, and without the prancing horse, which was reserved for the 12-cylinder Ferraris. Carrozzeria Bertone was commissioned to create it by the Turin manufacturer in 1964, but the new Dino Coupé took a long time to come to life. The final version came out in 1967, when it was presented at the Geneva Motor Show in March. The new car was accompanied by the Dino spider which Fiat had entrusted to Pininfarina, and the two top range sports cars created by the two great Italian masters were a superb addition to the Fiat range, which was increasingly aiming towards a more international clientele. The Fiat Dino Coupé, with its clean, sober styling, was fitted with a 160 Hp 2000 cc Ferrari V6 engine. In 1969, with a Bertone restyling, the engine was increased to the 180 Hp 2400 V6, mounted directly at Maranello on the bodies produced by Carrozzeria Bertone. In total 6,000 units of the Fiat Dino were produced by Bertone between 1967 and 1972.
There are in the history of companies, just as in the history of nations, certain fateful episodes, which have an influence on the course of events well in excess of their actual importance. Chrysler’s request to Ghia to build for them, to their design, a special body on a Plymouth chassis, is one of these episodes.
The beginning of Bertone Bertone was founded in November 1912, when Giovanni Bertone, then aged 28, opened a workshop specialising in the construction and…
