One to Buy: ex-Clemente Ravetto / Pietro Lo Piccolo 1967 Ferrari Dino 206 S (SOLD)
Ferrari conceived the Dino 206 S as a Group 4 challenger to contest the 1966 World Sportscar Championship which was the first year for a new rule framework that favoured purpose built Sports and Prototype machinery as opposed to production-based GT cars.
To qualify for Group 4, Ferrari would have to build at least 50 examples of the 206 S, however, nation-wide industrial action meant workers were thin on the ground and only 16 cars were ultimately completed to standard trim.
Although this meant the 206 S went on to spend most of its career competing in the Group 6 Prototype class, Maranello’s little flyer scored a plethora of significant wins to include class victories at the 1966 Targa Florio, Nurburgring 1000km, Spa 1000km and Coppa Citta di Enna. It also proved enormously effective at hillclimbing and took an array of national and international victories soaring up European mountain passes.
One of these rarely seen cars is set to go under the hammer at Bonhams sale at the the Grand Palais in Paris on February 6th.
Chassis 022 was originally completed in Spyder trim and sold to Italian privateer Clemente Ravetto who ran it in a couple of events with his most notable finish having been second place overall on the 1967 Monte Pellegrino Hillclimb. The car was then sold to Pietro Lo Piccolo who campaigned it extensively and very successfully between 1968 and 1970. For 1969, Lo Piccolo had chassis 022 equipped with a super lightweight Montagna-spec. body of the type used by Scuderia Ferrari back in 1967. In this updated configuration the car went on to have its best results scoring seven outright hillclimb wins.
During the years that followed, 022 passed through the hands of several renowned French Ferrari collectors to include Jess Pourret, Pierre Bardinon, Jean-Marie Cauwet and, most recently, Jack Setton, with whom it has resided since 1984.
Reprinted below is Bonhams’ description:
ex-Clemente Ravetto, Pietro lo Piccolo, Bardinon Collection
Chassis no. 022
Engine no. 022
Bonhams is delighted to offer one of the most successful of the entire good looking family of Ferrari Dino 206 S cars – the ex-Ravetto, ex-Lo Piccolo chassis '022'.
It is offered here in the ultimate Dino 206 SP – sports-prototype – specification with simplified, lightweight Barchetta or Spider bodywork, as campaigned with considerable national Italian hill-climb success as late as 1970-71.
A potential visit to Ferrari Classiche or to one of the top-ranked specialist restorers around the world and an alternative set of as-original 1966-67 body panels could return this great car very quickly to its mouth-wateringly gorgeous looks in original Piero Drogo 'mini-Ferrari P3/P4' style...
Amongst all racing Ferraris the rare family of Dino 206 S and SP cars has the greatest intrinsic charm for its combination of exquisitely well-balanced, compact design and – most certainly – its vividly nimble agility whenever its inbuilt combination of lightweight, power and good handling can be fully explored.
FOOTNOTE
Aristocratic Sicilian gentleman magistrate-cum-racing driver Clemente Ravetto was the first owner of Ferrari Dino 206 S chassis '022' now offered here. He was a leading light of the Sicilian Scuderia Pegaso team, having campaigned Ferrari 250 GTO and 250 LM, and an E-Type Jaguar. He was the vice-prosecutor of the Republic of Vrone, and a Knight of both the Order in Malta and of the Italian Republic. He was an engaging and kindly man who remained widely popular and prominent figure until his death in 2010, aged 76, when his son, Dr Manfredi Ravetto, was general manager of the HRT Formula 1 Team, Hispania Racing.
Ravetto appears to have made his Dino 206 S debut on July 31, 1966, running under race No 470 in the major Trieste-Opicina hill-climb. However, the Ferrari factory invoice for his purchase of Dino '022' offered here is dated March 29, 1967, quoting 'Telaio' (chassis) '022' and 'Motore' '022' – finished in Rosso Corsa (Racing Red). The price charged for the car 'complete with five wheels and tyres') was 8,876,400 Lire.
Clemente Ravetto then entered the April 25, 1967, Monza 1,000Kms, co-driving this Dino 206 S – in its original ex-factory Drogo-bodied form - with fellow Sicilian aristocrat – and vastly experienced sometime Formula 1 racing driver - Prince Gaetano Starrabba di Giardinelli. But their race ended in engine failure.
Ravetto reappeared in the car in June that year, finishing second on home soil in the Monte Pellegrino hill-climb, just outside Palermo, Sicily. And it was to one of Palermo's most prominent personalities that Ravetto then sold '022', for 1968.
Pietro Lo Piccolo was the race-driving President of the Unione Provinciale Panificatori and leader of the Palermo commercial confederation. Lo Piccolo's father had founded a major bakery business, which prospered under the management of Pietro and his brother Francis
Lo Piccolo had raced motorcycles before turning to four wheels in karting, and then motor racing, initially in 1965 with an Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ, followed – in 1966 – by a Giulia TZ 1600. After acquiring '022' from Ravetto he would campaign it for three years, ultimately winning the Italian Championship in 1970.
Having that far driven the Alfa Romeo TZ in his home island's International Targa Florio, he entered his Dino '022' in the 1970 Targa – co-driving it with Salvatore Calascibetta. They finished a 11th overall and 2nd in class. By that time '022' had been updated into the Spider or Montagna body form in which it is now offered here.
Pietro Lo Piccolo was also an enthusiastic aviator and competed in air races, including the Tour of Sicily, while in down-town Palermo he was a familiar figure cycling to his office because he couldn't abide being stuck in traffic...
His career in Dino 206 S '022' began with 5th place in the Coppa Bruno Carotti race at Vallelunga, Rome, in June, 1968. That August saw him win his class, 5th overall, in the Coppa Citta di Enna race around Lake Pergusa, Sicily, and he then won the September '68 Cefalu-Gibilmanna hill-climb, followed in October by victory at Val d'Anapo-Sortino. He placed 2nd in the Citta d'Orivetto event before the broadly Ferrari 212 E-type Montagna lightweight sports body - custom made for him in vetroresina (glass fibre) - was fitted to the car for 1969.
Pietro Lo Piccolo then drove '022' to win six important National events that new season; the San Benedetto del Tronto-Acquaviva Piceno hill-climb, Monte Pellegrino-Polerna, Trapani-Monte Erice, the Coppa Nissena, Val d'Anapo-Sortino and Camucia-Cortona events. He raced the car in the Coppa Citta di Enna at Pergusa, finishing 6th and placed 3rd in the Coppa di Tolentino.
This most capable and talented gentleman driver then entered '022' for its most important motor race – the 1970 Targa Florio, round 5 of that year's World Championship of Makes endurance racing series. Lo Piccolo and Salvatore Calascibetta co-drove their Dino 206 S under the Scuderia Pegaso ('Pegasus' – the winged horse) banner, to finish 11th overall and 2nd in class, headed in that category by only the works-supported Alfa Romeo T33/2 of ex-works Ferrari driver Jonathan Williams/Giovanni Alberti.
Lo Piccolo in '022' went on subsequently to win the 1970 Coppa Faro, the Trofeo Ludovico Scarfiotti, Monte Pellegrino and Val d'Anapo-Sortino hill-climbs. In the July 19, 1970, Mugello 500Kms public road-circuit race he finished 14th overall, and between the Pellegrino and Val d'Anapo hill-climbs he also suffered a nasty and highly untypical accident during practice for the Coppa Citta di Enna at Pergusa, backing '022' into the trackside guardrail at very high speed. The car was well repaired, however, as evidenced by its October 12 victory at Val d'Anapo.
In its later life the car was acquired by the renowned French Ferrari connoisseur Jess G. Pourret – and in 1976 it passed into the legendary Ferrari Collection of Pierre Bardinon at Mas-du-Clos, Aubusson, France. He subsequently passed the car on to Jean-Marie Cauwet of St Maur, France only to re-acquire it in later years.
Eventually, in 1984, this Ferrari Dino 206S passed into the hands of its present vendor, Jack Setton, – in whose suitably renowned and respected private collection it has since been preserved for the past 36 years.
Here indeed is one of the most successful examples of the beautiful little Ferrari Dino 206S cars – blessed with a wonderfully Italianate racing history – and offering tremendous potential for a truly discerning and enthusiastic new owner/driver...
