For sale: the last Ferrari Dino 206 S prototype racer

Plans were for 50 cars but in the end, Ferrari only ever built 18 and this is one of them. RM Sotheby's is hosting the private sale of this rather delectable 1967 Ferrari Dino 206 S, considered one of the last ones ever built.

Named of course, after Enzo Ferrari’s son, the Dino 206 S sported a smaller version of the engine that powered Ferrari’s Formula One cars and indeed Mike Hawthorn to a world championship.

And because it’s a Sixties Ferrari, the 206 Dinos wore those smaller F1 engines in various guises; at first playing with around 220bhp, then up to over 250bhp and finally settling on the tipo 233 engine delivering 270bhp. This car is wearing the latter. A rare car made even rarer, then.

According to RM, it’s also the last of 13 ‘Drogo Spyders’ built. Apparently Pininfarina bodied two Dino 206 S cars, three were coupes, and the remainder bodied by Modenese coachbuilder Piero Drogo of Carrozzeria Sports Cars. That gorgeous bodywork, essentially a scaled down 330 P3, featured alloy panels and fibreglass over a welded tubular semi-monocoque chassis. And of course, that lovely V6.

How’s this for a fun fact: this particular Dino 206 S was originally sold to one Corrado Ferlaino of Naples, “an Italian engineer and property developer who would later become famous for taking ownership of the Italian football team Napoli”. And guess who Signore Ferlaino brought into his new team? A certain Diego Maradona.

Oh yes, the car. It raced in Italian hillclimbs but then later become a garage ornament, passing from owner to owner – even spending time in the UK where it was crashed during a Challenge race and subsequently restored – before heading over to the States.

“Offered publicly for the first time in over a decade, chassis 032 presents its next owner with an extremely rare opportunity to acquire what is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful sports racers of the 1960s,” explains RM Sotheby’s.

Price on request, of course, but considering plans were for 50 cars and in the end Ferrari only ever built 18, expect that price to be something in the region of ‘quite large’.