One to Buy: ex-Corrado Ferlaino / Pierre Bardinon 1967 Ferrari Dino 206 S
The Dino 206 S was conceived as Ferrari’s challenger for the under two-litre Group 4 Sports car class that came into effect as part of revamped FIA regulations for 1966.
In preparation, the Maranello firm had campaigned its diminutive Dino 166 P and 206 P throughout 1965, during which Ludovico Scarfiotti had used the latter to claim that year’s European Hillclimb Championship.
Unfortunately, Ferrari never came close to completing the 50 cars required for Group 4 homologation, partly because of industrial strikes that were rife in the Italian automotive industry at the time. Nevertheless, the beautifully-styled Dino proved an enormously effective machine even though it routinely had to compete in the more extreme Prototype category which had no minimum production requirement.
Ultimately, only 18 cars were built to true Dino 206 S trim while a handful of additional chassis were clothed by Pininfarina as state-of-art styling concepts.
One of these 18 highly sought after machines, chassis 032, is currently on offer at the Girardo & Co. showroom in Oxford.
Originally delivered to construction magnate Corrado Ferlaino in 1967 (the same year he purchased a minority stake in Napoli FC that by 1969 had grown to 33%), chassis 032 was equipped with the ultimate 270bhp Tipo 233 fuel-injected V6.
Following his acquisition of the Dino in July ‘67, Corrado Ferlaino entered his his Dino Spyder alongside co-driver Antonio Maglione for that month’s Mugello GP: an eight lap 530km dash around Tuscany that was round nine of the 1967 World Sportscar Championship. Having retired with mechanical issues on the opening lap, 032 reputedly went on to contest a handful of Italian hillclimbs.
Corrado Ferlaino sold chassis 032 in October 1969, after which the car went through the hands of three Italian owners before taking up residence in the esteemed collection of Pierre Bardinon during 1979.
More recently, chassis 032 was subject to a two-year restoration at Ferrari Classiche and is today offered superb condition throughout.
Reprinted below is Girardo & Co.’s description:
Chassis no. 032
Engine no. 4
The last of only 18 Dino 206 Ss built by Ferrari, of which only 13 were configured in open Spyder form
One of only two Dino 206 Ss fitted with the ultimate-specification Tipo 233 S V6 engine
Entrant in the 1967 FIA World Sportscar Championship
Ferrari Classiche certified, following an exhaustive two-year restoration undertaken by the factory in 2014–15
Featured in the stables of the world’s most prominent Ferrari collectors, four of whom own – or have previously owned – 250 GTOs
An achingly beautiful 1960s Ferrari thoroughbred competition car, directly inspired by the hallowed 330 and 412 prototypes
The subject of a comprehensive report issued by the foremost Ferrari expert Marcel Massini, verifying its provenance
The Ferrari Dino 206 S
When Enzo Ferrari declined Henry Ford II’s bid to buy his eponymous company, he did the world a big favour. So enraged was Ford that, in a subsequent bid to beat Ferrari on the track, some of the most beautiful racing cars ever conceived emerged from Maranello in retaliation – the mid-engined 206 S included.
The car’s sinuous Drogo-built bodywork – akin to that of the more powerful 330 P3, only shorter and smaller – was shrink-wrapped around a spaceframe chassis, itself harnessing the ingenious Dino V6 designed by master engineer Vittorio Jano together with Enzo’s son Alfredo.
It’s so achingly pretty that it’s hard to draw your eyes away from its opulent and perfectly proportioned body. There simply isn’t an angle from which it doesn’t dazzle, something you certainly can’t say about today’s prototype racers.
Ferrari had hoped to build 50 examples of the 206 S in order to homologate the car for Group 4 racing, but owing to political unrest and financial woes that would ultimately lead to the Fiat merger, only 18 were built, hence the letter P (denoting Prototype) was added to its name.
For this car, Porsche was the marque trained in its competitive sights. While the 206 S garnered many podiums and class victories on the international endurance racing circuit, including at the world-famous Targa Florio, its legacy was carved in European hill-climb events.
Chassis no. 032
The descriptors ‘first’ and ‘last’ always prick the ears of collectors, which is why we’re so thrilled to be offering this 1967 Ferrari Dino 206 S, the last of 18 to have left Maranello and a mere 13 in open Spyder configuration. As the final example built, chassis number 032 bears the distinction of being fitted with the ultimate – and thus most powerful – version of the hallowed Dino V6 engine fitted to these cars. Kicking out a healthy 270HP, the fuel-injected Tipo 233 S engine was fitted to only two 206 Ss.
The Naples-based engineer-turned-property magnate Corrado Ferlaino acquired chassis 032 new in July of 1967, promptly entering the car in round nine of the FIA World Sportscar Championship at Mugello. We have some wonderful photos on file of the car in action. It’s fair to say Ferlaino probably had other things on his mind: it was around this time he assumed a majority stake in Napoli football club and set about changing the trajectory of the beloved Italian team. In fact, in 1984, Ferlaino was instrumental in the club’s World-Record signing of ‘The hand of God’ himself, Diego Maradonna.
After contesting a number of domestic Italian hill-climb competitions, this Dino 206 S was returned to Ferrari to be serviced at the end of 1968. Ferlaino sold the car in 1969, though it remained in Italy for a decade, passing through the hands of three further custodians. The French industrialist Pierre Bardinon acquired chassis number 032 in 1979.
Bardinon had spent the 1960s and 1970s building what is commonly held to have been the greatest collection of road and competition Ferraris ever seen. Il Commendatore himself was once asked of his desire to create a Ferrari museum. He replied that there was no need, for Monsieur Bardinon had already done so at his home in France. The compliment was telling of the breadth and historical significance of his collection of Enzo’s prized models.
This Dino 206 S remained in Bardinon’s Mas du Clos collection for over a decade, during which it was exhibited at La Leggenda Ferrari at Imola in 1989. A small number of significant Ferrari collectors subsequently enjoyed tenures as chassis 032’s owner, including Robs Lamplough and Brandon Wang – both men who counted 250 GTOs on their Ferrari resumes.
Carlos Monteverde bought this Ferrari in 2002 and, over the course of his 10-year ownership, campaigned the car extensively on the historic motorsport circuit. In addition to successful outings in the Ferrari Historic Challenge and Goodwood Revival, Monteverde exhibited chassis 032 in the prestigious Cavallino Classic Concours in American and the Ferrari Owners’ Club Concours in the United Kingdom.
Upon entering the collection of its current owner in 2013, this Dino 206 S was sent to Ferrari Classiche in Maranello to be comprehensively restored. The two-year project, carried out with reference to original factory archive material pertaining to both the model and this specific chassis, was nothing short of exhaustive. Upon completion, chassis 032 was issued with its full red-book Ferrari Classiche certification binder, confirming the car’s provenance, correct-type V6 engine and matching-numbers chassis and body.
Few people dispute that the sultry 330 and 412 P cars are among the most arresting Ferraris of all to look at. We’d go further and suggest there is only a handful of cars ever built that boast such sheer, unadulterated beauty. The diminutive Dino 206 S embodies almost all of that visual allure, simply wrapped up in a smaller – and considerably more approachable – package. Throw in that delectable V6 Dino engine and you’ve got what is, quite rightly, held among the most desirable 1960s Ferrari competition cars of them all. And that’s quite the list!
Chassis number 032 bears further distinction, not only as the final example of the mere 18 built, but also with its ultimate-specification engine, period World Sportscar Championship provenance and its unbroken history, as confirmed by the accompanying report by Marcel Massini. In today’s ever-discerning market, perhaps it is the exacting factory restoration and subsequent Ferrari Classiche certification that tick the greatest boxes.
