When did Dino Originality Become "de rigueur"?

For the concours guys, it's always been there.

I think once Dinos were recognized as real cars, real Ferraris, the "stigma" attached to the "almost a Ferrari" went away. And, as they climbed in value, the originality became more important.

Only having bought into the club about 6 years ago, I never was around for the "slap a Ferrari badge or six on the car" era.

Supposedly, a fairly decent number of these cars had "FERRARI" smacked on the trunk at the dealers in order to help them sell originally.

So, to pin an exact date on the switch from gilded to original would be hard to do, but it certainly has accelerated even just since I've been here, which is maybe 4-5 years?

DM

 

i think you also have to consider the dino guys that have since spent a good amount of money repainting cars. most of the dino guys were comfortable with what they had. however. it was the way THEY got the car. as we have seen repaints, most of that stuff had been removed and painted over.

i think that the majority of "ferrari" deco was added sometime back in the 80's, although there are a good number of cars that had "ferrari" added before delivery. i have delivery records for one of my dino's and part of the negotiated arrangement was to replace the dino horn button with a ferrari button. thank god he didn't have a ferrari script addede as well

 

I'll bet it correlates with the advent of Viagra.

 

Am I mistaken, or aren't virtually all vintage cars prized for their originality? At a concours or in a book, modified or altered cars are always considered something less than ideal.

If it's just for looks, repaint, redo, rebadge -- go to town. But for shows, it seems to me that originality means a lot - or should have its own category, which it often does!

Another aspect of originality is that it reduces the mysteries about what has been done to the car or how many changes were made, no?

 

They were harder to find, Doc.........just about ALL of them were added with Horses in the day.

There was even a Tech Bulletin on the later 308GT4s to add them to sell off the dealership floor!

As noted, if you have the modern values to support a full repair and repaint it makes more sense to pull the extra stuff off in doing so.....

 

It's important to have a truly original car for reference. WSpeer settled (I think) the trivial issue of the right hose for the fuel breather cannister with his untouched engine compartment. It's a difficult problem for the owner, who now can't "improve" or play around with his original car and must preserve it for posterity!

 

i wouldn't say that, especially since this car has painted mirrors (vitironi's) and a painted hard top. i talked to "first owner", and although it is one of the last dino's made (08468 -25 from last), he bought the car "used" in late 1974. the first owner is an architect (most known for the recent taco bell designs). the "first owner" bought the car with painted mirrors and hard top when it was less than a couple of months old. the car as it exists today is as it was when he bought it. he bought it in hollywood in late 74 and drove it back to kentucky and had owned it for more than 15 years.

the car went though a couple of small auctions in the 89/90 period, but was bought by someone that had it for another over 15 year peiod. that person only drove it around the block every week for years until he died. i bought the car from his son.

i am not about to attest that this car is "as delivered", but it is, other than brokers, a three owner car. the first two owners owned the car for over 15 years, i have owned the car for over three years.

this car can't be used as absolute source/reference, but it is a good indicator of what was........
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What happens when folks remove / disable smog gear. Do judges care or even check? I have never seen an add for a car that mentions the subject either. Curious.
John

 

At the couple of regional FCA shows I went to with my Dino, no one cared. I even told one judge it was missing, but he was too busy drooling over my complete set of books and tools.

I'm told that at the national level it matters. but, our pal Tom Shaughnessy could give us the definitive answer.

DM