Something rare, Italian, stylish, and with an engine designed by Ferrari, but you don’t have to raid the 401K to afford it.
That would describe the Pick of the Day, a low-mileage 1967 Fiat Dino coupe powered by a 2.0-liter V6 created by famed engine designer Aurelio Lampredi, and nicely styled by Giorgetto Guigiaro while at Bertone, and with an asking price under $50,000.
That seems like a decent buy for this spicy Italian, which has around 40,000 miles on its odometer and looks to be in good condition and ready to drive. The Gladstone, Oregon, dealer advertising the Fiat on ClassicCars.com says the car was well-maintained by its latest owner of 21 years, who had the car stripped to bare medal and repainted in its original color of Blu Medio, which looks very nice even though the photos could be better.
The Fiat Dino, which also came as a Pininfarina-designed convertible, is not to be confused with the Ferrari Dino, an entirely different sports car even though they were powered by essentially the same V6 engine. Both the front-engine Fiat and the mid-engine Ferrari Dinos were named in honor of Enzo Ferrari’s son, who suffered from muscular dystrophy and died at 24.
The Ferrari Dino is no doubt the more-dramatic-looking coupe, but the Fiat Dino has a clean and sporty appearance that’s hard to fault. On this Fiat for whatever reason, Ferrari badges have been applied to the trunk lid, wheels and steering-wheel center, a definite poseur move that would need to be rectified immediately. Pretty embarrassing, really. There is certainly no shame in driving a Fiat Dino for what it is without pretending it’s something else.
As the seller notes in the ad description, just 3,670 of these coupes were produced by Fiat from 1966 to 1969. They were created to help Ferrari homologate its V6 engine for Formula 2 racing, which required a minimum of 500 road-going examples sold to customers to qualify. Ferrari turned to Fiat because the larger-volume Italian automaker could more easily produce such a number in a shorter amount of time.
The asking price for the Fiat Dino is $47,500, which is a fraction of what Ferrari Dinos are going for these days. Just a note to whoever the next owner might be: be sure to pry off those foolish Ferrari badges before you drive it for the first time. Be proud of your rare Fiat!
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day
