Hi there! I will be driving my new(ish) to me Dino for a longish trip. I have only fully filled it up twice based on the fuel light coming on and gauge indicating low. However the second time it only took 9.5 gallons, and the first time I unfortunately did not pay attention but I think was similar. I figured out how to reset the trip odometer partway through burning my first fill-up, so I don’t have much info on how far that 10 gallons got me. I think maybe it was around 120 miles, which would make sense since I have not been doing much freeway driving, but this is an estimate. Long story short, does anyone have insight as to accuracy on the gauge (ie is Emory really empty?? On my car seems like not), and how far a tank of gas will go? Specs say 17 gallon capacity and 15 mpg = 255 miles. Your insights are appreciated! Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
Patrick Ottis once told me to think of Dino gauges as guidelines rather than rules. That having been said, my fuel gauge has been quite accurate. Note that as the tanks empty, the sender sloshes around a bit so the needle will move around more when your below 1/3 or so, and you may see the warning light flicker. Last time I drove from Menlo Park to Concorso it was about 2/3 tank for 180 mile round trip, so your numbers are in the ballpark. Worst case you fill up when your gauge is reading halfway and you'll be fine.
I’ve gotten 300 miles on a tankful. What I watch is if the fuel needle moves when cornering, indicating there’s still enough fuel to make a difference. I agree - Dino instruments are guidelines rather than rules!
Over the years, of all the crazy stuff posted and chatted about, I can’t ever remember this ever having come up. What a cool new thread.
The usual YMMV warnings apply. On a long expressway ride, the Dino gets decent mileage. Around town, not so great. On the track...
I agree with everyone about looking for the flickering red warning light to start thinking about getting fuel. I have owned my Dino since '74 and when I have made mpg hand calculations, they were in the 12-15 mpg range.
As a follow-up, the trip went perfectly. And after about 110 miles, the gauge showed about 50%. I filled it for the trip home and it took 7.5 gallons, which means 14.7 MPG- sounds about right! I think a was not paying proper attention in the past. Thanks all! Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
In 1984, I remember that I drove my Dino 246GT very carefully with the reserve tank light on for about 1 1/2 at night on a lonely country road with no petrol filling station in sight and eventually to my relief, I was able to fill up. I can't remember how much fuel it took but I'm sure she was almost bone dry. I will never do that again!! Sam
Greg, Topped right up, my L-series is just under 19 US gallons, owners manual says 70 liters which is 18.5 US gallons and I'd see just under 300 miles on a tank. I'm sure it's over 300 miles if I cared to run it dry... Note that the owners manuals quote imperial gallons in their conversions, so those MPG numbers are higher than the US. The reserve lights are all over the place. To figure out the reserve I waited until the light came on 100% (not flashing on corners) then filled the tank and subtract the quantity from 18.5 gallons to know how much is left. In my case it was about 4 US gallons and a 60+ mile range before spluttering. Your 9.5 gallons to top up seems low for the US gallon, seems to be about half the capacity? Andrew
I drove about 180 miles round trip to Concorso yesterday and used just over half a tank. Almost all highway, so pretty good mileage.
Sorry I am a little late to the thread. I have owned my 72 gts since June 1981. In that time I have recorded every tank of gas and have calculated the mileage on every tank. Ok …. Ok, I missed 2 or 3 times in the past 40 years when I was distracted by curious onlookers with questions about the car. On July 6, 1981, my first full fill-up, I put in 8.7 gal for $12.68. That is right, $1.46/gal. I got 16.55 mi/gal. The highest mileage I have ever gotten, 22.5 mi/gal. was was on 8/20/81 and the lowest on 8/18/04, 6.9 mi/gal. In general the mileage has varied between 10-20 mi/gal usually dependent on whether the driving was stop-and-go or highway. Hope this helps. To be safe, I use my trip mileage gauge and just fill up between 150 and 200 miles as the fuel gauge does start to waver just below the half-way mark, and is difficult to read ….. as the gas begins to slosh around in the tank.
Dino246gts - quite impressive... and you are to be commended for having the wisdom to hold on for 41 years. I suspect that you and I are the oldest living; longest owning, owners. Bought my first in 1978, 2nd in 1981, and 3rd in 1983. Kick myself for selling the first purchased, but, still have the 2nd and 3rd. Jim S.
You've just be annoited King. We all face east and bow three times. Worthy of a Classiche certification (your DNA, that is). Where did you purchase it? Where (what state or country) are you in now? Did it cost less than $12,000 (the cost of my 1st two Dinos)? The only virtue in being old is that only the elderly could have purchased a coastal home or a Dino at that time, but no longer. Jim S
While I've only had mine since '84, I know what Seinfeld means when he describes some cars as "Dead Man's Cars". So good, you only give yours up when you die.
I bought my GT when I was 24 in 1974 when I was working as a lowly government engineer making $6K a year. While that yearly income is considered poverty now, back then, money seemed to buy more. I was renting a tumbled-down old wooden house for $150 a month and rented the upstairs for $75 per month. The beauty of this old house was that it had a rickety one-car detached garage in the yard that was only standing up due to the fact it was leaning against a very sturdy tree. Having a garage of any kind was a major requirement for me. A group of us guys was into 911's and I would party at their group house almost every weekend. They had all come back from Nam and were working as engineers putting in the new subway lines in DC. They each had 911s along with a few full-size Broncos. I traded in the MGB I had in college for a used 911T in 1972. The salesman had talked me out of a used 911S so of course, over the next two years, I spend way too much money and time converting my T into an S. I learned how to wrench on my 911 by working with a friend who was racing his 911 in C production. At one of our parties, one of the guys mentioned that if he ever had the money he would buy a Dino. I had no idea what a Dino was so he pulled out a copy of the April 1974 Motor Trend which had an article on mid-engined sports cars which featured a beautiful ( guessing Viola Dino Metallic 106-A-7) GTS. I still have a copy of that Motor Trend. The next day I searched the Washington Post automobile sales section and amazingly found an ad for an almost new ’73 GT. Loving my 911, I thought I would just kick the tires and try to get a test drive with no real intention of buying. There was no way I could get a loan for the $13K asking price. I met up with the seller, who was 23, in the underground garage of his apartment building. He climbed in the passenger seat and we took a test drive around Bethesda. I loved the sound of the exhaust, soft and nicely damped ride, and the light handling— but was not impressed at all by the lack of acceleration. This gave me the relief I needed to walk away without regret. As I was mumbling-“Thanks for the drive”- he mentioned that he was getting married and felt he could no longer drive a sports car since they were planning on having a family—or something along those lines. Then came the punchline— “Give me $1800 and take over my lease and the Dino is yours.” Screw my disappointment over the lack of acceleration—I had to have that Dino. It turns out that his father was the president of the Maryland National Bank. The young man had wanted to attend the F1 race in Monaco and needed to have a Ferrari so he could park (and smoodge) in the Ferrari-only section. To do that, he and his father arranged with Luigi Chinetti to take delivery of a silver Dino at the factory and drive to Monaco for the race. Then do some touring and have the Dino shipped home to Maryland. When he showed up at the factory the workers were on strike so they did not have his Dino ready for delivery. So they told him to go out into the yard and pick out any GT that took his fancy. He picked a red one. Of course, he wanted a Ferrari emblem on the Dino so the factory put one on the top lip of the trunk. Within a week I had given him $1800 and had the lease signed over to me. It took me another week to find out why the motor had no acceleration. I had spent the first week pulling off the pollution bits because the air pump clutch had seized and had broken the slender torque rod wrapping the wires around the pump. While doing that, I had decided to reset the timing and found there was no advance. I pulled the distributor apart and found that a small compression spring that fits under one of the dome-headed rods in a pivoting rotor weight was missing. Because of this, the rod was cocked and jammed in the hole preventing the weight from swinging out. A friend had a Sun distributor machine and I set the distributor’s advance curve using a cutdown spring from a BIC Click ballpoint pen. I notated the curve in my owner’s manual- which is filled with my handwritten notes. Not great for the next owner- but great memories for me. I sold my 911 pretty quick- and used all of the money from that sale to buy a 1955 Porsche Speedster which I kept for over 30 years and a ‘1958 Bug which became my winter car. Restoring 356 Porsches became my passion along with restoring and tracking Ducati Corse WSBs. I have owned three different air-cooled 911’s but always loved 356’s much more. My summer daily is still my ’61 cab that I built out of spare parts and built up for Autocross. Kat and I took it on our honeymoon 33 years ago. With a set of Hoosier’s, it is a hoot to drive in the mountains. In 1996 the paint on my Dino was cracking up pretty badly. Rust was coming through on the rocker panels and in the front bottom pan. It amazed me that it had deteriorated so fast since- although I drove it year round-I had only been caught in the rain a few times and I parked it in a garage. I never thought I would own a car so long that it would need restoration while under my care. A friend of mine who owns a high-end restoration shop, kept telling me to restore my Dino. Eventually, he gave me a space in his shop so I could do that. It took me one year to strip, repair the rust, and paint it— but over 10 years to complete the restoration in my tiny single car garage and in my new place in the mountains of NC. There are so many memories and antidotes I could share (spinning the Dino on ice and running into a large snowbank on a sunny winter day) but feel that I have rambled on long enough. 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For some reason I assumed these cars would get much better fuel mileage. Not so great for such a slippery looking shape. Fred W.
((There are so many memories and antidotes I could share (spinning the Dino on ice and running into a large snowbank on a sunny winter day) but feel that I have rambled on long enough.)) Mark? Some of us come here for the anecdotes. Keep posting
