Dino (marque)
Italian automotive brand
Dino (Italian: [ˈdiːno]) was a marque best known for mid-engined, rear-drive sports cars produced by Ferrari from 1957 to 1976. The marque came into existence in late 1956 with a front-engined Formula Two racer powered by a brand new Dino V6 engine. The name Dino was used for some models with engines smaller than 12 cylinders, it was an attempt by the company to offer a relatively low-cost sports car. The Ferrari name remained reserved for its premium V12 and flat-12 models until 1976, when "Dino" was retired in favour of full Ferrari branding.
History
The name Dino honors Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari's late son, Alfredo "Dino" Ferrari, credited with designing the V6 engine used in the car. Along with engineer Vittorio Jano, Alfredo persuaded his father to produce a line of racing cars in the 1950s with V6 and V8 engines. The Dino script that adorns the badge and cylinder head covers was based on Alfredo's own signature. The Dino models used Ferrari naming convention of displacement and cylinder count with two digits for the size of the engine in decilitres and the third digit to represent the number of cylinders, i.e. 246 being a 2.4-litre, 6-cylinder and 308 being a 3.0-litre, 8-cylinder.
Single seaters
Dino 156 F2
The first race car to ever bear the Dino marque badge was the 1957 Dino 156 F2 single seater intended for the Formula 2 series.
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