Alfredino "Dino" Ferrari was Enzo Ferrari's son and, by all accounts, the only person or thing the Ferrari founder ever loved more than cars and racing. In the '50s, Dino suggested that his father's company should build a small V6 for use in Formula 2 competition. But Dino died of nephritis in 1956 before the engine he had suggested and fostered would run. And long before, it would earn glory for winning the 1961 Grand Prix world championship with American driver Phil Hill piloting the Ferrari Dino 156 "shark nose."
So when Ferrari decided to put a V6-powered car for the street into production, it was no surprise that he would call it the Dino. It was called Dino to the exclusion of the name Ferrari. It was expected that Dino would become a second line of vehicles that would let the Italian manufacturer compete against such lowly marques as Jaguar, Mercedes, and Porsche.
The Dino road car first appeared at the 1966 Turin Auto Show: a midengine two-seater powered by a 2.0-liter version of the Dino V6 engine (the "206" part of the name indicates a 2.0-liter 6-cylinder engine). With an alloy body designed by Ferrari's usual collaborator Pininfarina, the 1967 Dino 206 GT was, if nothing else, gorgeous.
Source: www.edmunds.com
Images: Pininfarina
