206 GT weight

The 206 GT used a transverse-mounted 2.0 L all-aluminum, 160 hp (119 kW) @ 8000 rpm redline, 65 degree V6 engine, Dual overhead camshafts, 9.7:1 Compression ratio. Torque was 138 pounds*foot @ 6500 rpm. The crankshaft featured four main bearings. Induction was via three Weber 40 DCN/4 2-barrel carburetors. The 206 GT was the first car sold by Ferrari which used an electronic ignition, a Dinoplex C capacitive discharge ignition system that was developed by Magneti Marelli for the high revving Dino V6 engine (hence the name Dinoplex).[1]

The 206 GT frame featured a light-weight, 1980 pound, aluminium body, full independent suspension, and all round disc brakes. The 206 GT had a 90.0-inch (2,290 mm) wheelbase.

The 206 had a top speed of 146 mph (235 km/h).

152 were built in total during 1968 and 1969, in left hand drive only.

 

Thank you Gregg. I was the one who wondered about the weight of a 206. Also Interesting to learn about the sugar cane scales on Maui!

Word of mouth - and several reports from motoring journalists - has it that the Dinos (both 206 and 246) weigh considerably more than their specified curb weights. As I searched the web for the 206 GT curb weight I came up with the following information from about a dozen different web pages:

1.) Under 2000 lbs (907.18 kg), (as quoted by Michael Bayer above)
2.) 1040 kg (2292.81 lbs)
3.) 1044 kg (2301.63 lbs)
4.) 1140 kg (2513.3 lbs), with 5 gallons of fuel (Paul Frère in Motor, January 25, 1969)

All over the place, in other words. Your 2400 lbs is probably very realistic and typical for a 206 GT. I assume you had tools, spare wheel, etc. in the car when it was weighed. The figure given by Motor seems a little high, for some reason. Even so, 2400 to 2500 lbs is a long way from the sometimes quoted figure of 1980 lbs. Here is what Anthony Curtis writes about this subject in his book Ferrari Dino:
"With body panels of aluminium instead of steel, and aluminum, too, for the the cylinder block in place of cast iron, the 206 might be thought to have a major weight advantage over its successor, the 246. Indeed, the 206 is sometimes quoted as weighing no more than 2000 lb (909 kg) or 17.9cwt, but such figures must have been taken from early prototypes, because production models weighed around 2500 lb (1140 kg) or 22.4cwt, only 1 cwt or some 50 kg (110 lb) lighter than the 246."
He then goes on to analyze the reasons for the small difference, and concludes that the weight savings of the aluminum block and body skin was "valuable but modest".

Michael Bayer - It sounds like you are quoting the Wikipedia specs for the 206 GT. Interesting to note with those specs: Not only is the weight listed as the optimistic 1980 lbs, but the compression ratio also is higher than what was used in production. All the other web sites I saw, listed the compression ratio as 9.0:1. Does anybody know which one is correct?

Lars

 

I think the 246 weighs somewhere in the mid-2700lbs area, so a 206 coming in 300lbs lighter makes sense.

 

You're spot on. Road & Track's 1972 road test shows the 246 weighing in at 2,770 lbs.

 

"The 206 GT frame featured a light-weight, 1980 pound, aluminium body, full independent"...

After the seats, interior trim, engine, suspension are added, then the higher weight #s are more consistent.

In 1982, I missed out on a 206 for $19,000. Car always ran hot. It was later determined it had the wrong heads on it, from a 246.

Anybody here buy a 206 painted to resemble a 206SP in the early '80s out of Florida??


KevFla

 

I just weighed my 246gts - it turns out that it was not quite so easy as simply driving it onto a truck scale (maybe sugar cane truck scales are more accurate, but I wonder . . . .) I called several certified truck scales in the Seattle area to find out how accurate they were. All claimed that they were very accurate. When I asked for specifics, they told me +/- 200 to 250 lbs, which apparently is close enough for 20,000+ lb vehicles, but not so much for weighing a car that weighs between 2000 to 3000 lbs. When they found out what I wanted to weigh, they all said that I needed to do it at a race shop. I then called Vintage Racing Motors in Redmond, WA to see if I could get my 246gts weighed on a corner weighting scale system, and they said "sure," but that they were getting ready to send cars down to Sears Point for the Wine Country Classic vintage races, so they referred me to Speedware Motorsports, just across the street from them in Redmond. (VRM often uses Speedware for their chassis tuning and corner weighting work).

My 246gts (September 1972 build date, A/C, electric windows, Blaupunkt radio, full tank of gas, all fluids, standard Cromadoras with 205/70VR14 XWXs, mounted XWX spare in the forward well, targa top attached, no airpump, but including airpump tubes, but no tools/books/manuals or anything else in the trunk or passenger compartment and no driver) weighed a total of 2827 lbs.

The Front/Rear weight distribution was 42.5%/57.5%. The Left/Right was 50%/50%. The cross was 50.1%. They told me that they were surprised at the total balance of the car and that it was almost identical to what they'd want to see for general track use.

The work was a little tricky to perform properly as they had to make sure that the scales were level, properly "zeroed," and that the tires were properly sitting on the corner scales.

Also, it is hard to compare figures from the Ferrari factory with the figures that have appeared in various magazines over the years. In several cases the numbers given for curb and test weights do not make absolutely clear what was in the car at the time the cars were weighed. For example, the Dino 246gt road test that appeared in the May 1972 issue of Road & Track lists a "curb weight" of 2770 lbs and a "test weight" of 3100 lbs, but does not make clear what is included in those measurements. For sure, the R&T Dino did not have AC (which OMGJON recently weighed at 64 lbs). Some weights given in other magazines state that the measurements were taken with 50 miles worth of gas in the gas tank. I have a hard time imagining how anyone could determine how much gas was really in a Dino's gas tank to get anywhere near an accurate estimate of 50 miles of gas left in the tank(s).

BTW, that same R&T article says that the Dino's fuel capacity is 18.6 gallons (U.S.). About the most I recall ever having added was about 15 gallons. Has anyone here on FCHAT ever filled a Dino up with more than 18 gallons of gas? Anyone here know if the AC equipped Dinos have a smaller fuel capacity because of the chopped corner shape of the passenger side tanks (on U.S. cars anyway)?

I plan to weigh my new Dino 246gt on the same scale soon, and I will post a direct comparison.

I would hope that others in the 206/246 section will post similar details (including the build dates and equipment on the car when weighed) about their own cars' weights and measures.

One final note - truck scales in our area charge about $9.00 to $12.00, while it cost about $100 to weigh my 246gts at Speedware.

Mark

 

Great, interesting information, Mark. I am going to to weigh my 246GT and post the result here as soon as I have a chance. It, too, has A/C and radio (Becker Mexico), but it also has the air pump and all the smog equipment still in place. It will be interesting to compare the weights.

It was probably wise to weigh your car with full tanks. Otherwise the amount of gasoline in the tanks would be too much of a variable. I will try to do the same. If we assume that each gallon weighs about 6.3 lbs, it means that the full tanks of 18.6 gallons would add 117 lbs (!) to the weight.

It would also be nice if we could get somebody to post the weight of an L-series car. It would tell us how much weight was saved by having the door skins and all the opening lids made of aluminum.

Lars

 

As I recall, "test weight" includes the driver and on-board testing equipment.

 

I think I may have seen that generally in old Road & Track guides as to how to interpret their data, but it doesn't specifically state that in the article or in the whole May 1972 issue (I looked for it), and we still don't know how much gas was in the car, and whether the jack, tools, etc. were also in the car.

Mark

 

We move and fly quite a few cars every year. Often as many as two hundred can pass though our hands in a given year and have done so for the past 20 years.

Because of the value, most of the Dinos we buy and sell are shipped by ocean. I did find in one of our old car jackets for a 74 GTS a shipping document for a flight and it was weighed by Luftansa. The cars when flown have to contain less than 1 gallon of fuel and you are not allowed to ship any spare parts or extra items unless listed on a separate manifest. The jacket had negatives of the car as purchased and it showed the tool roll and jack roll and a spare but no books. Some type of Becker radio and two small door speakers. Nothing else in the car at least in the photos. Shipping weight as recorded by the airline was 1,319.5kgs.

That works out to roughly 2,909lbs.

We had a 72 Euro Dino Coupe that went to Italy nearly ten years ago. I do not have photos or good records of how the car was configured but the Alitalia shipping document shows 1,190kgs. I am assuming the car had its spare but likely little to no gas as well.

That works out to roughly 2,623lbs.

I am assuming the GTS must have some extra reinforcements in the body/frame to stiffen the car out without a roof which might account for some of the extra weight.

I have never weighed a 206GT but if the one we recently bought comes to the States, we will weigh the car and I will provide the figures for comparison.

I had always assumed the 206GT weighed approximately 2,200lbs. This was based on one here on the West Coast that was club raced 15 or so years ago by the owner and the car was grouped in an old "autocross" class by its dry weight. It appeared to me to be totally stock and did not have a roll bar, fire system or any special equipment. Apparently not required at the time but likely necessary in today's world. Anyway, he was grouped in with cars that weighed 2,000 to 2,200lbs and had an engine size of 1,800cc to 2,000cc.

Not sure if any of that is accurate or relevant today but thought it interesting.

Bill

 

Bill -

It would be interesting to get a few 206 and 246s weighed with full tanks, no tools/books/etc., but with the mounted spare in the front well to compare/contrast with the data that I provided. Also, it would be interesting if you could tell us whether the cars were weighed on a corner weight system and what the F/R, L/R, and cross percentages were.

Finally, anyone here know what the fuel tank capacity is for a 206?

Mark

 

As many things Ferrari in that era most of the factory supplied numbers are suspect Actually the Fiat supplied numbers are generally closer to true for the Dino siblings than the Ferrari supplied numbers on weight, horsepower and even oil pressure.,

 

I also believed that the 206 weighed around 2,200 lbs, and was surprised to read reports about the higher numbers. That is the reason I asked if anybody had weighed a real world 206 GT. Based on the information in this thread so far, it appears that the 206 GT is indeed quite a bit lighter than the 246 GT but that all Dinos weigh a little more than what we have been led to believe.

Those shipping weights are interesting, Bill. The 2623 lbs for a 72 Euro GT with empty tanks sounds completely correct.
2909 lbs (ouch!) for a 74 GTS sounds high but could also be correct, with A/C (most likely), air pump and associated plumbing, books and tools, etc., as compared to the 2827 lbs for Mark´s 72 GTS.

If one were to look for a reason why the production Dinos never were successful on the race track, and why they are almost never seen in vintage racing, the answer would be right here. They were simply a bit too heavy. In race trim, a Porsche 911 of the same vintage and same displacement would probably be at least 200 to 300 lbs lighter. That sort of handicap is difficult to overcome, even with the potent engine and superior balance of the Dino. Dinos do make wonderful road cars, though.

Relatively speaking, the 206 GT still comes out looking quite good, being the lightest and, perhaps, the most raceworthy of the Dinos.

Lars

 

This has been most illuminating as it mirrors the discrepancies in that era's 12 cylinder cars claimed vs real weight, top speed and horsepower. I will endeavor to weigh my 2.4 Dino Spider and see how reality compares with the as new claims as a contrast to the 246's

 

Interesting stuff. I wonder what reinforcement tubes they changed/added to form the 308GTB chassis as a my steel GTB weighs in at 2910lbs with almost half a tank of fuel, a/c, and spare. 2844lbs shipping weight for a Euro glass GTB with no fuel, spare, and a/c. Then again, I would think the 308 drivetrain weighs a good 50-60lbs more on its own.