In the case of the Dino, they're not necessarily far off.

The "Dino" brand was created to market a lower priced, "affordable" sports car. Enzo Ferrari did not want to diminish the Ferrari brand with a cheaper, smaller engined car, and so "Dino" was created specifically to separate the brands. It had no Prancing Horse or Scuderia badging.

Nobody would say that? Well, Ferrari actually did!

In the first brochure for the 206GT they described the Dino as "almost a Ferrari". Can you believe that?

Hi, The Boxster is not a Porsche, it is the car that saved Porscha's @ss from being bought by the Chinese and then exporting cars to America named Cherry 911 Rice Turbo. :D

IMO Porsche should have been renamed BOXSTER :p ;) :) :rolleyes:

ok
 

hey why knock it? they are great cars.Not as good as the 911's but is ok

Then they were horribly misinformed. Remember in this era, sports cars were early 911, Fiat 124, MG. I'm sure these numbers are good against the 911 of the same year. saw one of the Fiat Dino's at Barett Jackson, I think it went for over 100, not a bad score. Saw the unit once at my fathers dealership awesome body style, I' love one. Certainly a respectable performer, not all Dinos were Fiats either, many were full blooded Ferrari.


From the web

The FIAT Dino motor had its genesis in the 1967 1.6-litre Formula 2 racing regulations. Ferrari's Dino V-six engine dating from the mid-1950s was ideal for the job, but the rules stipulated a 500-off, production-based block, homologation rules. As Ferrari at the time was building only 700 cars a year, this would mean virtually doubling production in just one year, and the company simply had to look to outside help. Enter the Fiat Dino, powered by a production version of Ferrari's quad-cam V-six, as an all-alloy two-liter. This allowed Ferrari to qualify its engine for F2 racing. The original quad-cam, all-alloy, 65-degree V6 found in the 2.0-litre models can trace its history back to the 1950s. The superb V6, four-cam, two-liter engine that powers the FIAT Dino lineage can be traced back to the Dino 166P sports-racing unit. While credit for the design of the V6 motor is often given to Enzo Ferrari's son, Dino, this is probably stretching the truth a bit. The younger Ferrari was indeed an engineer and possibly proposed the idea of making the V6, but it was more likely the legendary engine designer Vittorio Jano who was responsible for the actual design, but it was turned into a viable production road-car engine by Aurelio Lampredi, a one-time Ferrari employee.

The Fiat Dino 2.0 used a five-speed Fiat transmission to send power back to a live axle with a Watts-link-like leaf spring suspension. A coil spring and wishbone suspension was used up front. The result was a 130-mph car that would do 0-60 mph in around 8.8 seconds, very reasonable performance for the era.

The Fiat Dino was built as an elegant, curvaceous spider by Pininfarina. The spider is one of the prettiest designs to emerge from Pininfarina's studio in the 1960s ( I might be biased here but not the only biased person around ).

Actually, we're getting confused here (not to mention hi-jacking the thread - sorry ;) ).

There are actually 2 (arguably 3) cars 'named' the Dino. The 206/246GT (made by Ferrari) and the Fiat Dino (made by Fiat). The original 308GT4 was also badged a Dino, but only for a short time.

The Dino was actually the engine. An Alloy Block DOHC 65° V6. It was first produced with a displacement of 1987cc (considered 2.0L - '66-'69) and later with a displacement of 2418cc (2.4L - '67-'73).

Ferrari didn't have a platform in which to homologate the engine for formula 2 racing, nor did they have the production facility to produce one. So, parent company, Fiat designed a chassis and Pininfarina produced a Spyder body and Bertone produced the Coupe' body. This was known as the Fiat Dino and was produced from 1966-'73. It was never officially imported into the US, though a few hundred made it in. The Dino used in the Fiat was slightly detuned and marginally less powerful.

The Formula 2 regulations changed in the meantime, making the engine obsolete - Ferrari never competed with it in Formula 2.

Pininfarina in the meantime was urging iL Commendatore to produce a mid-engined street car. Enzo had always thought they were too dangerous for the General Public and so had refrained for years from producing one.

He finally relented, but insisted they "not use a Ferrari (V12) but a Dino (the V6)". This became the 206GT with the 2.0L Dino and later, the 246GT with the 2.4L Dino.

As mentioned, they also wanted to distance the Dino equipped cars from the Ferraris and so marketed it under the brand Dino. Enzo felt that only the V12 cars should be considered Ferraris.

But, when in the mid-70's, Ferrari realized they didn't have a branded car for sale in the US (their #1 market), they instructed their US dealers to rebadge the 308GT4 (originally the Dino 308GT4) as a Ferrari removing the Dino badge completely (you can see where the early cars had a concave rectangular indentation on the hood and rear hatch to accept the Dino badge). And also instructed them to fix the Prancing Horse above the Dino badge on the hood (keeping the Dino badge in place) for the '74 246GTs (the '74 is the only official Dino to have a Prancing Horse, except Pininfarina's personal 206GT). European dealers shortly followed suit, but on their own.

Many Ferrari badges were added later to earlier cars by their owners, but interestingly, in the past few years as Dino prices have skyrocketed, these owners are now pulling the Ferrari emblems to restore originality.

I admit that i was one of the many that didnt like to say Porsch-a cause i thought most who pronounced it that way seemed pompus and douche-bag like haha, but since i mentioned that in a thread on this forum awhile ago... I've changed my ways and now say Porsch-a correctly and no longer say "Porsh". I figured, its a brand that desires respect so i can atleast pronounce the name the way it was intended to be pronounced... Long story short, im a douche-bag lol ;)

Lil B,

cool post, I did see where the Dino prices have spiked. Believe it or not the Fiat version is a great looking car. I could have bought one for nine grand in 1974. Being in high school, that was out of the question. Saw one on Ebay once at 80K and unsold.

To get back on track:

When I had my Dino (246GT), and people said it wasn't a real Ferrari, it didn't really bother me. After all, you can find photos of the Ferrari assembly line with Daytonas and Dinos coming off right next to each other. Then I had a 308 and people said it wasn't a real Ferrari because it didn't have 12 cylinders. Next was my 512bbi, but it wasn't a real Ferrari because it wasn't front-engined.

My point is, you will never win with some people There are a minority who feel it necessary to knock someone else's choice to validate their own sense of self-worth. Their punishment is having to live in that skin.

I, too, am sadly in that camp - but I pronounce it "douch-a" bag.

the next time you hear someone saying the 986 is not a real Porsche or "the poor man's Porsche" here's some ammo from Wikipedia....

Within a year of marketplace acceptance in the United States, the original Boxster was the recipient of many awards, including those listed:

* Car & Driver – One of the 10 Best Cars of 1997
* Automobile – Automobile of the Year
* Motor – 1997 Performance Car of the Year
* Autocar – Best Roadster in the World
* Motorweek – 1997 Drivers Choice for Best Sports Car
* The Philadelphia Inquirer – Best Sports Car of the Decade
* Newsweek – One of the Best New Products of 1997
* BusinessWeek – One of the Best New Products of 1997
* American Marketing Association – Best New Product of 1997
* Automobile Journalists of Canada – 1997 Car of the Year
* Automobile Journalists of Canada – Best Design of 1997

The Boxster has been on Car and Driver magazine's annual Ten Best list eight times, from 1998 through 2003 and 2006 through 2008.

The Boxster S (986s) was rated as one of the top ten Porsches of all time by Excellence magazine.

The Boxster (in both 986 and 987 guise) is evo magazine's recommended buy in the 'Sports Car' category and has been ever since the model's introduction.

This happens to me semi-regularly at work. People let me know that they would have bought a 911, or at least the 987S if they were me. This used to happen to me ALL the time when I was poor and drove a V6 Mustang. “Oh, that’s not a V8? I would have gotten the GT.” This also seems to happen when people talk about the military. Just one example: a while back, some girl asked me what I did in the army. I told her I was Infantry, 82nd Airborne. She came back with, “oh, too bad you weren’t a Ranger, then I would have said you were cool.” I almost punched her in the throat.

This seems to be just human nature – all the more reason why I am fine with the Box having only two seats.

I had a dear friend who loved all italian cars. He owned a pristine '68 Fiat Dino Spyder which won it's class at the 2004 Concorso d'Italiano at Pebble Beach. photo below: http://www.concorso.com/website%20up...r_fiatdino.jpg

Owen also owned a pristine Ferrari 275 GTS (which he autocrossed!) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/185275227/sizes/m/ , a Daytona Coupe', a Caterham Seven, a Fiat 124 Spyder, and a Sun Int'l. conversion Lotus Elise (1st Gen w/ a 2.0L Honda Vtec engine - one of the 1st legal Elise's imported into the country, 7 yrs. before Lotus introduced it here w/ the milder Toyota engine). Owen believed in driving these cars the way they were meant to be driven.

Sadly, Owen passed away from cancer barely in his mid-50's a year ago next week. All of us who knew, drove and wrenched with Owen miss him terribly.

I ran into my ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend downtown in Austin while I was valeting my car. She came up to me and said "hi" and the first thing that came out of her boyfriend's mouth was, "that's a chick's porsche." I said, "Oh, which porsche do you have?" He was silent. My Ex started to laugh a little and he got pissed. He grabbed her arm and took off to the bar.

Later, she texted me and told me he had an impala and had a broken light. Oh well. Us Porsche owners always come out looking like the champ. Of course, unless they have a ferrari or something.

You have alot of self control. I probably would have looked for his car in the parking lot and pissed on the door handle. :troll:

LOL chig!!! Good for you!!! :dance:

Lil B, at least your friend lived an exciting life,he did die too young. I'd like to drive a Ferrari once before I die but I feel very privileged to have a Boxster. I'm working on my dads 124 Spyder, I'll post some pics in the spring, 1971 54,000 original.

Hi,
I got news for 'em - they're ALL Porsche.
... and that's "Porsch-aah".
"Porsch" is a structure attached to the front of a house.
I waited my entire life to own this car - they can kiss my *ss.
I liked the part about pissing on the door handle - good idea!
Larry

Wow, this thread really touched a nerve. Huh?






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