The 'Humble' Fiat with Race Derived Ferrari V6 - Fiat Dino Coupe

[Fanalone]

New video today on YouTube by Number 27:
https://youtu.be/WT_rzvPfzRc

[Fanalone]

Here is his video of the Spider (The pre. Pininfarina`s private car) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OpiAHq7tw4&t=29s

[Tobi]

I like the provocative heading of the video
No question that the Coupe is the most elaborated car featuring a Dino engine. It is very underrated. But questioning if it's the best Ferrari is pretty far out on a limb

[Argonaut]

What I like a lot is that it reflects my experience with the coupe. First, you think, it is kind of ok but not outstanding... the driving position is something you need to get used to and so on and so forth.
But then, if you are becoming aquainted and letting the engine rev it gets your enthusiasm more and more. This was the same discovery phase I was undergoing.
Nevertheless, the coupe is quite heavy in comparison to the spider and therefore, you can feel that this great engine has more problems to move the car forward. But who cares anyway. It is a jewel.

[Vravolta]

Yes the Coupé is heavier than the Spider, but to be frank, today, any EV will have a better performance than the best Dino. So the question is no longer the performance figures but the feeling. The same debate occured when Porsche switched from 964 turbo to 993 turbo. In all domain, the 993 turbo was better: 430 bhp vs 360, twin turbo vs single, 4WD vs RWD. But driving a 964 was a damned better experience than driving a 993, not because of the absolute performance, but because of the sensation.

I find Spiders a bit weird because of their current price vs quality of interiors compared to Coupés. Spiders don't have the kind of refinement one can experience on Coupés. And also, on Coupés, you have more time on each gear to benefit from the marvelous sound of the engine. So, to me, the global experience is better on Coupés, especially on today's road conditions where high speed driving is just an old dream and cruising is what we experience 99.9% of the time. And indeed, when we see how they sold compared to Spiders in the times where both cars were only seen as Fiats, we know what was the public's choice, based on the experience and not the fame. Price was not in favour of the Coupé, so this can't be the explanation.

Then, why are today Spiders more sought after? Probably because their design has a Pininfarina look that makes Spiders closer to a "Ferrari" in people's minds: A Coupé without badges will rarely be identified as a Ferrari. A Spider will. But I^m not convinced the price difference is justified by the difference in experience. However, all this is just very personal and I'm convinced that Spider owners wil have a different view on this

[Tobi]

By the way, the list price of the Spider was lower than the one of the Coupe

[abarth4]

There's a saying in the collector car auction market.... "When the top goes down, the price goes up" That being said, in the collector car auction market, price rarely has anything to do with reality...

[Vravolta]

There's a saying in the collector car auction market.... "When the top goes down, the price goes up" ...

The tricky thing with Dinos is that the Coupé is not at all the same kind of car than the Spider. Nobody (that doesn't know Dinos) will bet even a cent that the Spider is the convertible version of the Coupé. The assumption above is totally true for the convertible version of similar cars, but is difficult to apply on Fiat Dinos.

New Coupés were indeed 5% more expensive than Spiders and had a much better level of trimming: all Coupés had power windows, this was available as an option only, for 2nd serie Spiders. A wooden dashboard was installed on all Coupés. This was metal on early Spiders and only became wood for the 2nd serie. A classy velvet interior was used in Coupés. This was sky for Spiders. Only Coupés could be equipied with air conditionning. The overall quality of the interior was much better on the Coupé. So, this means that Spiders were designed to be one step under the Coupé, a kind of access level to the Dino world for young people that couldn't afford paying for comfort and didn't need 4 seats.

Another clue of this is that we have photos of Bertone's personnal car that was a Dino Coupé. I've no information that Sergio Pininfarina ever had his own personal Spider. We also have pictures of Giani Agnelli driving a Coupé. I haven't seen such a thing with a Spider. So really, in the 1970's, if you were an established and respected italian active in the car business, you wanted to have a Coupé. The Spider was intended for your son or for the "wanabees".

We have difficulties to see this today because the price of Spiders is so high that they have been upgraded to much better materials and reassembled with better tolerances than from factory. So the current positionning has become more or less equivalent to the Coupés.

I'm not at all trying to bash Spiders, just explaining what those cars were, back in the days when one could buy one new.

[beebee246]

Hi,
Both Pininfarina and Agnelli owned 2400 spiders.
Pininfarina owned BS1239. He gifted it to Bernard Cahier, and it’s shown in Mike Morris’s book with USA number plate DINO 1 ( it never left Europe!)
Cahier sold it to Graham Bryant, and Graham sold it to me in 2003 via Talacrest (Ferrari specialist, U.K). I sold it about 2006, and it’s still in the U.K.
Agnelli owned BS1476 which ended up in the U.K. with ( I think) a cigarette company executive) it was sold in about 2000 to Matt Higdon and is still with him here in the U.K.
Having owned 26 coupes and spiders, about equally split, I love all 4 versions. Each have different attributes, some good, some not so. I currently have 2400 spiders, so you can see where my current allegiance lies!
Then again I have a 1953 Austin woodie wagon. Go figure!
Cheers, Brian Boxall 1319/1470

[Argonaut]

This Woodie wagon is the real challenger for Dinos