Just wanted to share something I found very amusing that happened on the Friday night before Halloween. I was parked on the side of the road finishing a cell phone conversation. I noticed a couple on the sidewalk coming down the street. The woman was costumed, tall with beautiful long legs. She shouts out over the volume of my engine, "Beautiful Dino!". And I shout back surprised, "How do you know it's a Dino?". She didn't hear my question and proceeded to give me a big smile and a thumbs up. This made me wonder how many women know about the Dino. Oh, I just remembered a past weekend at the LA Zoo, I was wearing OMG's Dino shirt. And over my shoulder a voice says, "here, I think you'll like this". A guy proceeds to show me his cellphone with a picture of a red Dino. "I just took it yesterday in Pasadena. I noticed your shirt and thought you'd like it".
Late 70s during one of my Euro jaunts, I stopped at a road side cafe in a little French village, two kids ran out to look at the car. The father came out too and he reminisced about the the racing Dino's, recalling local races in the early sixties, all banned now for safety reasons. The Kids sat in the car and just stared. One of them uttered its like a space ship papa"! We laughed. The father asked if he could just sit in it and maybe move it up a few feet and back, I gave him the key and pointed out that first gear was; the idea of selecting first by pulling the stick back, made him laugh almost as much as sitting in RHD car. He moved forward all of ten feet, then turned and asked where reverse was. Finally he and the kids got out of the car and as we were sharing a roadside cafe', he turned to one of his kids and said" when we get home, tell you mother that I drove a Ferrari today"!
That one's coming but first........... Mid 80s Outside a supermarket in NJ, as I was walking to the car, my arms loaded with groceries, I saw an older couple looking at the car. The lady asked if she could stay to hear me start it as she had never heard the sound of a Ferrari. The Dino was hot on a hot summer day. I silently hoped it would not give me any trouble. I floorded the acceleartor and spun the engine,a few spins and it fired. I came off the throttle and to a steady idle. No flashy revving here. When I asked her to sit in it, her face glowed and for a moment it seemed she had shed at least 20 years. It is a gts and the top was off. I suggested to her husband that he sit first and she sit on his lap. I was laughing and did't think thy'd take me up on it, but they did! I drove them around the car park, as I turned to join the main road, a Cop pulled us over and did what cops do. The lad, fumbled for the door handle and somehow got the door open, left her husband's lap and exiting the car began to lambast the cop for spoiling her first trip in a Ferrari.
I believe that the "beautiful dino" is an approachable beauty, the shape is friendly. People find it easy to approach a Dino, but tend to look at the bigger ones with a certain trepidation.
The Dino is curvaceous and feminine. So many new designs go for aggression. And yes, the size is a big part of it.
That is true, dignini, need4speed. People give me the thumbs-up, wave, or smile when I'm in the Dino. It is beautiful; people appreciate it, but aren't intimidated by it. I don't get the same effect in a Porsche GT3; people in cars stare ahead, and boy racers gun their engines, threatened. I truly believe the Dino is the most beautiful car that came out of the Ferrari factory.
Yes, but remember that my (UK) car has the Ferrari script just above the number plate. The shape obviously attracted them and I guess at closer inspection they saw the name. I do not believe they identified it by model.
I don't think that I've ever intimidated anyone in either of my tiny Dinos, but two young men in a jacked up old Corvette once pulled alongside me and challenged me to a drag race. I told them to pick on someone their own size! A few weeks ago, a good friend, who owns a 328 GTS, an F355 Berlinetta and an F430 Berlinetta, stopped over. I was getting ready to put the Dinos away for the winter. I asked him to park on my lawn, parallel to the street. He did so. We then went for a ride in one of the Dinos, and when we arrived at my house, I pulled the Dino in front of his F355. The Dino looked positively cherubic in front of the much larger F355. The F430 even makes the F355 look small by comparison! There is no doubt that the size and shape of the Dino are large components of its mass appeal. Other than a Lotus Elise /Exige, there's nothing really sporting on the market in such a small package anymore. As for the interior, the ellipse of the instrument binnacle has always reminded me of a spacecraft. The dash design is timeless, and the entire interior has the feel of a glass-enclosed cockpit. It never gets old drivng a Dino! Fred
Nice story! My wife actually leaned over my shoulder the other day and, upon seeing UroTrash's new avatar, she goes: "Ooooh - buy me that!" I look at her and go... you want a Dino? You do realise they're about 3-times the cost of the 348 I desperately want, right? She goes: "It's so cuuuuuute!" Sigh. I'd better start saving up for one of those too... At least it's a little more achievable than the 330 GTO she said she wanted last time. All the best, Andrew.
Another story, although not really matching the thread title. When Germandino and myself stopped at a gas station on a tour this year, a young guy came over and commented on the nice color (Verde Germoglio) of GermanDino's car and said that he loves old sport cars and just bought the same beautiful car. Before i could congratulate him on the good choice he had a close look at the front of the car and then asked what "Dino" stands for and if this is a special type of Opel GT, as he had never seen this before and his just aquired Opel GT didnt have a Dino badge. I had a hard time to keep my face straight, that was kind of unexpected.
How lovely was that ) Just 20 miles south of Rüsselsheim (location of Opel s main factory) or you could say: in the middle of nowhere.... one more: in East Germany three different people on the street identified my 246 GT as a Melcus from the 70ties (model RS1000) http://www.melkus-sportwagen.de/home-melkus-race-cars_en.html
