246 GT v. GTS, why so many of the latter?

I was wondering the same thing. Maybe the coupes are just so beautiful nobody has the heart to get rid of them.

 

the area being offered definitely comes into play. there are more dino spyders on the market because they have gone up in value more and there are more dino spyders in the us than coupes, as more us spec cars were spyders. to look at cars being adverstised internationally, you are most likely looking at site in english and based accordingly. the japanese market absorbed a great number of 206 and type l cars, some of which have come back to the english speaking world. however, there are very few japanese dealers that advertise in english media. furthermore, coupes were being greatly phased out of the production line in 73 as the dino spyder was more in demand. i would have to believe that the coupes were the cars that one hears about being left to "rot" versus the spyder because of this. also the coupes tend to be the cars that one sees more often for restoration. not that we see a lot of doggie dino's around, but they are generally coupes when you do see them.

i agree with jon that the coupe definitetly has a better sillouette, but i doubt someone is not selling based on the sillouette. if you have to or want to sell, the car moves on down the road. as far as i know, john corbani was the really great enthusiest that drove his car anywhere and everywhere, if there are others, they sure are quiet.

 

personally, i find the coupe an amazing shape-taking the roof off is like misplaced punctuation in a beautiful sentence...

(i'm sure i'll get a beating for this!)

phil

 

Could there be a more beautiful man-made object that the coupe in profile?
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My understanding is as tx246 says-- The GTS was a US thing. Europeans preferred the GT. And back when the yen was so strong a lot of Dinos moved from the US to Japan. Since the Japanese preferred the GT, MANY of the relatively few GT cars in the US moved to Japan at that time and have never come back.

So if you were looking solely at cars for sale in Europe and Japan you would find many more GT versions.

 

I think (as a former coupe owner) that

1) more spiders survived than coupes in the 80's when they were not appreciated as highly as today. Some were parted out to help restore spiders.
2) early production was small and only coupes. When production ramped up, it shifted to more spiders and a lot of them were sent to the US
3) more coupes left the US to go back overseas in the 80's. Other markets appreciated the coupe more.

In the US, spiders were always more expensive than coupes. This became even more exaggerated in the 90's when Dinos suddenly became sought after. If you're going to take the time, energy and money to restore a car, it made more sense to do it to a spider than a coupe. So, spiders had a greater chance to be restored before coupes.

It's just my theory but it's based on what I saw as a Dino GT owner in the 80's and early 90's.

 

you also have the handful of coupes that were converted into spyders

 

I don't think so, but then, I'm completely biased! Does anyone know the total production of coupes with the later bumpers, front pan and parallel-action wipers? My blue Dino, built in Oct. '72, has the later equipment. My red Dino, built in June '72, has the earlier equipment. Also, it's interesting occasionally to see a later Euro Dino with all Euro equipment except the bumpers, which are later US-spec. One final query: does anyone known the VIN of the last US coupe? Dinos seem to have started the trend at Ferrari wherein, as a series nears its end, production is devoted more heavily or even exclusively to spiders. I believe that the 348 Spyder was the first example of this following the Dino. Fred

 

One aspect I love about the GT is the clear view from outside the car looking through the quarter windows and the curved portion of the backlight. Also, you can't beat the visibility when driving as you look over your shoulder out the right side of the car. Still, that being said, a Dino GTS would be a welcome resident (or even temporary guest!) in my garage! There isn't really much NOT to like in a Dino of either flavor! Fred

 

I can testify to the fact that outward vision is an issue with the GTS. The roof buttresses create a huge blind spot that negates the clever curved rear glass. Lane changes require advanced planning, and intersections where the roads meet at less than a 90 degree angle require unbuckling the seat belt so as to be able to lean forward.

Then there's the issue of stowing the top behind the seats, where it forces me to move the driver's seat slightly further forward than normal. (I usually leave it at home.)

Having said all that, and even in view of the fact that the coupe is undeniably somewhat better looking, I wouldn't trade my GTS for anything. To drive along the coast here on a cool April day with the roof off is sheer ecstasy.

 

The GT and GTS really are different cars. Think of a Series I Jaguar (coupe or convertible), a 356 (coupe or cabriolet), an early 911 (coupe or targa), a 63-67 Corvette (coupe or convertible), an MG (coupe or convertible), etc. In each case, I would always choose the coupe, yet my brother would pick the open top car every time. Just looking at one version versus the other evokes different emotions, let alone the very different feelings when driving one or the other. For me, a sports car has a fixed roof........it is just part of the DNA. Fortunately for those in the coupe camp, with the exception of the 300SL Gullwing, the coupe is always more affordable!

 

I enjoy leisurely cruising in a convertible, but for more spirited driving, I prefer a coupe. The Dino Spyder could have profited from some additional bracing. I know that the threshold rails and the "basket handle" were designed to enhance structural rigidity, but I have seen several Spyders with cracks in the paint around the bottoms of the buttresses. I once was given a parade-lap ride in a GTS at a Lime Rock FCA event, and could actually see the windshield move from side to side, this on a very smooth track at 50 mph. I once took a GTS out for a short drive near my home, with the top attached, and could occasionally see daylight where the front of the targa top met the windshield header. I know that convertibles are of necessity less rigid than closed cars, but I was surprised by these occurrences nonetheless. Have any GTS owners been terribly bothered by this? Fred

 

I've never been bothered by it.

A 70s vintage open-top car will never have the structural rigidity of a coupe version, but I think that the GTS scores quite highly in this regard, at least in comparison to its contemporaries. In the February '74 issue, Road & Track ran a comparison test of five open sports cars, the MB 450SL, Jag V-12 E-Type, Porsche 911 Targa, and 246 GTS. Here's what thay had to say on that subject:

"The Dino is an exceptionally solid car - even better than the Mercedes in this respect. Washboard surfaces brought out a few squeaks in the 450SL (only with the hardtop off), but none in the Dino's body."

By the way, this was R&T's overall verdict (after a disclaimer to say that these were five very different cars):

"But we can pick out some favorites by types. As sports cars the Dino rates best and the Porsche only slightly lower; both promise better-than-average reliability."

Just in case you're curious, in the performance criteria, the Dino's straight-line speed was mid-pack (8.0 sec. 0-60), but its cornering and slalom speed (.85 g and 54.9 mph) blew the competition away.

 

I still have that R&T issue, and keep it readily at hand, along with the May '72 issue, in which they did a road test of the 246 GT. They've also done two more recent Salon spreads on Dinos, one being a Dino/early 911 comparison article, with (I believe) one or both of the cars belonging to a fellow Dino FChatter. Fred

 

The answer is "no!"

That right there is automotive perfection.

 

Peter- The answer is really pretty simple. The first US legal cars were built in 1971 as 1972 models. I had one, 2984. If you look at total production of US spec cars, there were more spiders built than coupes.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I CURRENTLY have data on 937 UK RHD sales over the past 25 years. There were circa 733-742 UK RHD Dinos delivered but of course many are sold more than once over the period.

Of these:

598 (64%) were GT
336 (36%) were GTS
3 (less than 1%) I couldn't tell from the source data

To put into some context, some 32% of UK Dinos delivered were RHD, (sources : http://www.pirro.com/english/All.Ferraris/Events/CFSS.97/Ferraris.at.CFSS.htm
or Per "Ferrari Dino" : Anthony Curtis) so without doing the maths rigorously, it does look like GTSs are not significantly more likely to be offered for sale in the UK.

Can't speak for anywhere else but if someone wants to collate the data....

jg
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Absolutely!

 

I would like to see a photoshop of the overhanging buttress of the GTS overlaid onto the GT, which has a practically flush backlight. I think that one of the later prototypes had this feature. Fred

 

Just out of interest, what's the price difference between a gt and a gts...having just bought my euro gt, I thought I got a bloody good deal, but maybe it was just because it was a gt!

 

How about a photoshop of a Dino speedster / cabriolet version?

 

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70949&highlight=price&page=3

shows the answer is about 20%

 

Add 10K for chairs and flairs.