After reading the tale of the Junkyard Ferrari, we keep dreaming of finding a long lost Ferrari, but even if we did happen to come across one, we would never be able to afford to buy and restore it. Reader Jim S. is always sending in great finds and this pair of 1967 Fiat Dino Coupes he sent in might not get the blood pumping like a Ferrari would, but they come close and are actually obtainable by most regular car guys. They have been sitting in this field in Utah for a number of years and are going to need complete restorations. The seller is selling them as a package deal here on eBay, with a BIN of $8k.
While the Fiat Dino isn’t a Ferrari, it isn’t too far off. After the death of Enzo’s son Alfredo, Ferrari set about building a Formula 2 V6 as a tribute. To get the engine homologated for racing, Ferrari turned to Fiat, who had the means and facilities necessary to build the engine on a larger scale. Fiat gave Aurelio Lampredi the job of turning the race engine into a road going motor and they handled the manufacturing process in house. While this means the motor isn’t a true Ferrari factory built motor, the final product is very close to the original design and offers all the great sounds and performance that one would expect from a Ferrari. The new motor was fitted to Ferrari’s Dino line, their first series of mid-engined cars, and Fiat installed it in their own Dino.
The Fiat Dino was the company’s flagship model and offered a much higher standard of quality then the average Fiat. That being said, they are still Fiats and are prone to rust and reliability issues. These two Dinos are in surprisingly nice shape for having been left outside, but they both have issues. The red one above is in rougher shape, but has its original motor and transmission. The green one’s body is in better shape, but still has rust and is missing its motor. Between the two cars, hopefully one could build a complete car.
Restoring these cars isn’t going to be cheap, but it still wont be as much as a Ferrari would. Typically, restoring a Fiat is a labor of love, but these cars are starting to become sought after and their values reflecting that fact. If these ones look too rough for you, there is another one on craigslist that Robert J. just sent in. While these will never create the hype and excitement that a Ferrari would, we think these have great potential.
I always would have liked to have one of these, but boy, oohh, boy these are rough.
HOWEVER , these are rare enough definitively worth fixing BOTH of them…
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sure looks like a labor of love.
I hope the right person will get it, before it goes through half a dozen flippers……
This is just a guess, but it looks to me like these cars didn’t restore themselves out in that Utah field, and might even have deteriorated a bit. Or is that foam supposed to show through the upholstery?
The Alfa BB had a for sale listing for 2 Dino coupes, one running, one not, almost exactly 2 years ago, asking $9,995 for both. Someone (OK, it was Gullwing Motors) bought the one that was running for an undisclosed amount and then offered it for $13K.
You can get complete, decent running Dino Coupes for little more than the price of these two in the Utah field, and to me that would be a far better deal.
sad and beautiful all at once…
Pretty car, worth saving but not as nice as the spider. I once had the 130 coupe, which some idiots would insist to me had the same engine as these (it didn’t). But I have a question for the learned folk on this site. I remember hearing years ago the crankshaft was common to both engines and Dino owners would buy up the 130 saloon for this part alone. Can anyone confirm this?
Don, I could be wrong but I doubt that the crankshafts are interchangeable. The Dinos had 1,987, and later 2,418 cc engines. The Fiat 130 had 2,866, and later 3,235 cc engines. I don’t know what the part #s are, but I doubt that the same crank could serve in engines with such different displacements. The bore spacing would also likely differ, which would prevent the cranks from interchanging.
I think I remember hearing from years ago that you could use a Fiat Dino crank in a same-displacement Ferrari Dino engine, but not having owned any of these cars I never checked that out. If true, it’s pretty likely that the Fiat Dino crank would cost a lot less than the Ferrari Dino crank.
Thanks Dolphin,
I always assumed Fiat used the same Lampredi block, but much modified for the 130, bored out with a completely different head. As much as I pride myself on car spotting abilities, my technical knowledge is sorely lacking.
I agree. I’ve seen cars for 14k in good shape. I think he’s a bit high on the price. Pretty neat cars though.
A few years back (okay, 15 years ago) I knew of one of these that was for sale for $5k. And it was NICE. Ran, had good paint, etc. Hard to see the justification for these two. I’m guessing the owner figures someone will pay the $$$ he wants for these just to have spare parts for a running car.
Missed it by a day. Scooped by BAT!
Yep, we noticed that right after posting this. We try not to step on each other’s toes, but it can happen on occasion.