The best that never was...
Though the Dino 206/246 has become increasingly more desirable and it has appreciated well financially, the Dino brand has been at the heart of a bitter family feud for over 50 years. Many purists cling to history with a simple and convincing argument, the Dino 2x6 was never sold as a Ferrari, never had a Ferrari badge, and thus it is not a Ferrari. Pay no mind to the fact that it was manufactured by Ferrari or that the V6 engine was homologated for use in Formula 2. More importantly, try your best to ignore the fact that the rarest Ferrari ever is a 3-seater V12 Dino, the 1966 Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale "Tre Posti”.
Now before anyone reaches for their pitchfork, please understand that one-off or custom Ferraris that were built for royalty or celebrities or whatever do not rank on the list of rare Ferraris. The Tre Posti was not only a prototype, but more than one was produced, and one was sold and imported to New York by the legendary Luigi Chinetti. The other was originally kept by the Agneli family, signifying its importance to the Italian sports car dynasty. It was a real Ferrari with real badges, and it was advertised as such, being presented at various car shows.
If you can’t see the resemblance between the Tre Posti and the Dino, first try cleaning your screen and then reference the Dino Berlinetta GT (below), presented as the second prototype from the Dino brand, and eventually becoming the 206. If you cannot (or do not want to) see the resemblance now, then let history be your guide.
The Dino marque was created by Ferrari, named after Enzo’s late son, and used to produce affordable mid-engine sports cars. Instead of using a traditional Ferrari V12 power plant, the Dino sported only half of the cylinders. In fact, the Dino engine was the brainchild of Dino Ferrari himself, who suggested using a DOHC V6 for formula 2 racing in 1955! So the 206 was practically a pet project for the family.
Digging deeper into the Italian sports car legacy, the very first prototype was designed by the legendary coachbuilder and long-time Ferrari collaborator, Pininfarina. Not only, was the design one of the first overseen by Sergio Pininfarina, but it even received input from the firm’s founder, Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina. Under the gorgeous body was a Dino 206S race car, complete with the V6. The result was the 1965 Dino 206 Berlinetta Speciale. Enzo loved it, and it is easy to see why.
But while Ferrari was developing mid-engine sports cars under the guise of the Dino brand name, someone else was about to flip everything upside down- Lamborghini. Yes, Lambo presented the Miura’s rolling chassis in Turin about a month after the first Dino prototype debuted in Paris. But before the second Dino prototype was revealed in Paris the following year, the Bertone-designed Lamborghini Miura P400 prototype was fully launched in Geneva. The first mid-engine 12-cylinder “supercar” was born.
Pininfarina had surely been following the development of the Miura, because they decided to make their own V12 mid-engine supercar, using a chassis similar to the Ferrari P2 race car. Sounding familiar? Pininfarina had already been developing the Dino, so why not try it with a V12? After making some minor changes to the second Dino prototype’s exterior (glass roof and vents), they developed the 1966 Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale "Tre Posti”. It had a single windshield wiper fixed in the center along with a roll bar and dry sump lube system. And yes, most notably, the Tre Posti had a center driving position with 3 total seats, 26 years before the McLaren F1.
Considering that the Tre Posti is indeed a production car, I believe it was the first ever with a 3 seat layout. Some may point to the Alfa 6C made by some gifted Croatians, but that wasn’t a production car. To further prove my point that the Tre Posti meets the standard, reference Luigi Chinetti Jr.’s recent interviews about the car when he put it up for auction few years ago. He confirms the history of the car, which was bought by his father after seeing it parade around the world’s most popular auto shows.
In May 1967 the Tre Posti was purchased for $21k- approximately $160k today. Chinetti was clearly on board with Pinifarina’s mission to compete with the Miura, and he tried to market it in New York, selling it to a banker. The story goes that the buyer had trouble driving and parking the Tre Posti in the city and he also wanted the luxury of air conditioning, so he returned the car after 10 months and purchased Ferrari’s top-selling 365 GT 2+2. But Chinetti was not deterred, and he sold it to someone more comfortable with race cars- Jan De Vroom. But after he too returned the car to Chinetti, the the Tre Posti’s future was dealt a final blow.
Enzo believed a mid-engine V12 was too dangerous for the road and he remained unconvinced on the Tre Posti, especially after it was traded in for a 365 GT. For these reasons, it is easy to claim that the glorious Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale "Tre Posti” is not a true Enzo-approved Ferrari production car, but that denies its place in history… and its bill(s) of sale! Pininfarina had lost this battle, but the Dino design was carried into the Dino 206, thanks to the talented Leonardo Fioravanti, who is officially credited with the production design.
The Ferrari 288 GTO, F40, 308, and Testarossa were all designed by Fioravanti, so the 206 is in very good company. But the question remains- if the development of the 206 was so close to the heart of Ferrari, why was it so unloved by Ferrari fans? I think the biggest speed bump in this relationship is the Dino brand’s connection to Fiat.
Ferrari has had a long financial history with Fiat and the Agneli family, and when Ferrari needed to homologate the Dino V6 engine for use in Formula 2, they turned to Fiat and made the Fiat Dino. Introduced in 1966, before the Ferrari Dino, the Fiat Dino used the same V6 engine in a front-engine, rear-wheel drive format. Ferrari needed at least 500 Fiat Dinos to be produced so they could use the engine, so the Dino 206 started as a Fiat, before becoming a Ferrari race car. This may seem like a small technicality, but Fiat’s impact on Ferrari’s models has not traditionally been well received. Fiat has been associated with increased production numbers, lower-quality parts, and more mass-market appeal, which is counter to the Ferrari brand. In 1969, Fiat’s shadow over Dino grew even larger after Ferrari sold a controlling stake of itself to Fiat.
Fortunately, The Dino 206 and 246 models were successful enough to have a successor, the Dino 308 GT4. But after replacing the V6 with a V8 and having the bodywork designed by Pininfarina rival, Bertone, the Ferrari connection was wearing thin. The GT4 did not sell very well, so in 1976 the Dino badges were replaced with Ferrari ones, and the first Ferrari mid-engine V8 was sold. The GT4’s V8 would go on to be used and adapted in Ferrari models for the next 30 years, but that still wasn’t enough for many Ferrari fans to fully embrace the Fiat-tainted Dino. The follow up to the GT4 was the Ferrari Mondial, possibly the least favored Ferrari model of all time. Considering all of this, it is easy to see why Dino was so unloved by Ferrari fans for so long.
Nowadays Dinos are increasingly sought after, especially V6 models. Their values have appreciated greatly, and even the front-engine Fiat Dino Spider is being sold for as much as $150k in some cases. As for the V12 Tre Posti, Chinnetti turned down an offer for over $22 million in 2014, so it would seem that the Dino brand is finally being respected as it should be. And even though Enzo thought a mid-engine V12 was not safe for road use, he eventually caved and made the 365 Berlinetta Boxer (BB).
2 years after the Tre Posti was paraded around the world by Pinifarina, the Ferrari P6 concept was debuted with a 500bhp 60 degree V12 mounted in the middle! This would eventually become the BB, Ferrari’s Miura competitor. The Boxer ended up having a Flat-12 instead of a V12, making it over 100hp less powerful than the P6 concept, but the Boxer was no doubt a Ferrari and it paved the way towards the Testarossa and other mid-engine 12-cylinder Ferraris.
On the surface it may seem like the Tre Posti was a failed pipe-dream, but upon further review you find a car that is 26 years cooler than the McLaren F1 and coveted by Italian motorsport royalty. Furthermore, the Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale "Tre Posti” is more rare, more powerful, and arguably better looking than the Berlinetta Boxer… and it’s a Dino.
Written by Jack Booker
