50th Anniversary Sees Ferrari Dinos Return Home
Report & Images from Etienne Vanaret
From June 28th to July 1st, about 170 Dinos responded to the invitation of the Ferrari Club Deutchland and Matthias Bartz, the Dino guru, to celebrate the Dino’s 50th anniversary for three days in the Bologna and Maranello area.
Dinos came from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Monaco, Switzerland, Thailand, Great Britain, and the United States.
According to Mr. Bartz and his famous Dino Compendium published in 2011, seven prototypes and pre-production models were made between 1965 and 1968 before the official production started in June of 1968. Six years later in June 1974, the first Dino 246 GTS was delivered to the United States. In the end the total production was 4,067 vehicles, including 154 of the 206 GT, 2,631 of the various versions L, M and E of the Dino 246 GT, and 1,282 of the Dino 246 GTS, the convertible version. For this incredible gathering, approximately two 206 GTs, 67 246 GTs, 43 246 GTSs, as well as 55 208/308 GT4s perfectly represented the diversity of production.
After the reception and various formalities of Thursday, Friday the 29th was devoted to visiting the Casa Enzo Ferrari museum in Modena in the morning, a visit to a winery in the afternoon, and then dinner at the Zuffa Cantina.
Saturday the 30th began with an early departure for Maranello. The first stop was in Fiorano for an impressive staging on the steering pad where all the Dinos lined up in the 50th Anniversary logo, visible from the Maranello sky. Then, all 170 plus Dinos performed parade laps on the track which was almost too short to accommodate all these cars at once!
In the late morning, the key event of the weekend was a visit to the Ferrari factory. Upon entering the main entrance on Via Grizzaga, the cars parked along the main interior road. After lunch at the employees' restaurant, the tour of the factory commenced. Finally, before returning to the hotel, all of the cars left the factory through the historic gate of Via Abetone Inferiore, creating an amazing show of all these Dinos; probably the most important and unforgettable gathering ever seen for the same Ferrari model. In the evening, a delicious champagne reception and dinner concluded the end of this superb meeting. To everyone’s surprise, Leonardo Fioravanti, who accompanied the group throughout the day, concluded the evening with a presentation of his book. Mr. Fioravanti is the designer who created the unique and timeless styling of the production vehicles. He is also known for his work on other beautiful Ferraris of the time, such as the 250 LM Special Berlinetta, the 365 GTB/4 Daytona, the 365 GT4 BB, the 308 GTB/GTS, and the 288 GTO among others, all during his 23-year career at Pininfarina.
On Sunday, sorry to see the weekend end, everyone was free to organize his return home.
Thank you infinitely to Matthias Bartz and the FCD for their patience, persistence and professionalism in organizing an event of this quality! The Dino, never replaced despite the expectations of the tifosi, well deserved this tribute.
