Yes, we know it’s not from a barn but spend a moment suspending disbelief and imagine yourself in this car. It is the mid-1960s and every kind of racing is going great guns. CanAm is galvanizing fans with 1000 hp cars and celebrity drivers like Jim Hall, Parnelli Jones, and Dan Gurney. Carroll Shelby starts making cars. Trans-Am is formed. The 24 Hours of Daytona holds its inaugural race. Formula 1 expands allowable engine displacement to 3 liters. The Ford/Ferrari rivalry is in full swing. Into this thundering ecosystem, the Porsche 911, Jaguar E-type, Lotus Cortina, and Ferrari Dino 246 are born. Ah yes, that Dino. Here at RM Sotheby’s, available by sealed bid (auction closes February 17th), is one of the rarest sports racers in the world, a parent to the production Dino, this 1967 Ferrari Dino 206 S. One of thirteen examples clothed in Piero Drogo’s spyder bodywork, chassis number 032 raced in several Italian hillclimbs when new. It was sold and resold a number of times, until in the early 2000’s it crashed in a Ferrari Historic Challenge race. In 2003 it was restored for the first time in the UK. Its next restoration was at the Ferrari factory where it received its Red Book via Ferrari Classiche. Thanks to Araknid78 for this spectacular tip!

The Dino nameplate first came to life in 1957 associated with a V6 engine installed in a Formula 2 single seater; by the time this car hit the pavement, the motor had seen ten years of evolution. This car’s rear-mounted 2.0 liter V6 was fitted with Lucas injection from the factory and generated 220 bhp at full song. Top speed ran to 260 kph. Importantly, the description of this car indicates that Maranello’s Classiche department noted the car has “a correct type Dino 206 engine” which to me screams non-original. The five-speed gearbox is matching numbers.

The interior is all business, and you’d better be narrow! Gauges include a tachometer, oil pressure, fuel, and water temperature. Incidentally, the gearchange is non-synchro. Ferraris synthesize the tension between power and beauty perfectly: here’s the delicate door button, and the almost ridiculously fragile mirror. At the same time, these cars were fiercely competitive, placing well at Spa, the Targa Florio, and Nurburgring.

Bidders interested in the estimate on this car must call Sotheby’s. Fortunately, we have one prior sale to generate a guess at the number. In 2015 at Pebble Beach, Gooding sold a 1966 206 S for $2.31 million which was well below the estimate. That year represented a price top for many marques. Soon enough, we’ll know what the market thinks of this one. As a postscript, it’s worth noting that the fabulously popular Ferrari Dino 206GT and 246GT/S are derived from this very car. Introduced at the 1965 Paris Motor Show, the Ferrari Dino 206 Pininfarina Berlinetta Speciale sat on the race car’s chassis and was the precursor to Ferrari’s best-selling production car to that date.