Dino 246GTS vs Ferrari F355GTS: benchmark babies

By Aaron McKay

| 3 Jun 2026

Classic & Sports Car – Dino 246GTS vs Ferrari F355GTS: benchmark babies

Winning was always the true religion at Maranello.

As much as Enzo Ferrari promoted the ideals of power, exclusivity and heroism as the basis of his race and road cars, this mystique was expertly entwined to justify decisions already made.

Those revered tenets – the V12 engine, carts pulled not pushed and customers left sweating in waiting rooms – were ultimately trumped by the idols of championship points and sales performance.

Not that the haze of glamour and racing-driver fantasies ever faded.

‘Dino’s handwriting in enamel meant something else: experimental and, as it would turn out, the future’

Like jewels shining in vivid Azzurro and Giallo, ‘our’ 1974 246GTS and ’96 F355GTS are as naturally Ferrari as you could dream.

These two sparkling prophets of Maranello’s future success have the allure of landmark status: the Dino as the mid-engined progenitor that kick-started the company’s transformation into a true manufacturer; then 30 years later the F355 began a new era of escalating technical mastery over any who dared call themselves Ferrari rivals.

All exactly as planned.

The Ferrari F355GTS is the open-top version of the marque’s 1990s saviour

The Dino 206GT arrived in 1967 as a material result of both the Scuderia keeping pace with 1960s motorsport and Ferrari’s corporate graduation, first into a public company and then its takeover by Fiat.

Much as V12 racers of old spawned roadgoing GTs, the Dino V6 that shifted Ferrari’s nimbler racers into a more competitive gear – and the 1958 Formula One Championship – was destined for the public.

Developed for the 1.5-litre limit coming to Formula Two for 1957, the engine also served the smaller Ferraris intended for the technical circuits of the World Sportscar Championship.

The Dino 246GTS (closest) has flowing lines that contrast with the tight order of the 1990s Ferrari F355GTS

This was the territory of Enzo’s son, Alfredo ‘Dino’ Ferrari, who had already worked on the Scuderia’s V6s and V8s.

Vittorio Jano, formerly of Lancia and now developing a new, 60° V12 for Ferrari, joined the project.

Naturally, Enzo paid close attention.

The result was a daringly engineered wonder, with a 65° vee to house Enzo’s preferred straight intake manifolds, rebalanced with even firing intervals.

The Dino 246GTS is powered by a transversely mounted, triple-carburettor V6

The tragic death of Alfredo in June 1956 was all the more poignant when the engine bearing his name began a run of racing triumphs that would have established the first major step in Enzo’s succession plan.

It made its debut in the 1957 156 F2, arrived in bored-out, 2.4-litre form in the 1958-’61 246 F1 and powered a series of sports-racers in ever-developing states of tune.

But greater forces would secure Dino’s legacy – and the firm’s future – than these bittersweet moments on the track.

The requirement to homologate 500 engines for the 1967 F2 season provided the perfect opportunity for Ferrari to tease Fiat with a road-car merger: Maranello’s engines in a Turin-built sports car.

Leonardo Fioravanti’s influence on the Dino 246GTS can be seen in the side ducts

Fiat would ultimately take V6 production in-house for its Fiat Dinos, but this was palatable enough that in June 1969 Enzo was content to cede control of the road-car business to Fiat, taking $11million for 50% of Ferrari.

It was impeccable timing. That spring, deliveries had begun of the new Dino 206GT, a slinky sports car with the eponymous V6 sited amidships and a modest price that drastically redrew the boundaries of Ferrari’s target audience.

With the factory previously building 500-700 V12 GTs a year for its cognoscenti, Fiat could see the potential immediately and conspired to turn out Dinos in the thousands.

The Dino 246GTS has impressive grip

Enzo had experimented with the idea of a baby Ferrari: in 1959 he commissioned a Fiat 1100-based prototype that used an 854cc, four-cylinder section of a V12 and would become the 100-off ASA 1000GT.

So when Pininfarina presented its 206GT Speciale at the 1965 Paris Salon, Il Commendatore was receptive to the idea.

It certainly had impact, with a low nose rising dramatically towards a raked cockpit tightened by rounded sides – it more than closely resembled Piero Drogo’s sinuous Dino 166P sports-prototype endurance racer.

Lead designer Aldo Brovarone finished it off with rear buttresses that swept around a curved rear ’screen, while the influence of a young Leonardo Fioravanti was seen in the arrow-like side ducts.

The Dino 246GTS sits on Cromodora magnesium wheels

Tentative encouragement from Ferrari led to a refined version at the 1966 Turin show, where the nose-mounted light bar was replaced by wing-mounted headlights – the result found a harmony that was lost to Brovarone’s ill-proportioned 365P Berlinetta Speciale three-seater shown that same year.

The 206GT’s third iteration for ’67 perfected the shape, with the V6 now mounted transversely to save 60mm in the wheelbase, plus a more rakish roofline.

Tests at the Turin Polytechnic Institute showed a 0.36 coefficient of drag.

Over this time, the Dino V6 had been refined, particularly through the mixed success of the 166P and 206SP racers, under engineer Franco Rocchi, and then made road-friendly for Fiat to begin production for its Dino Coupé and Spider range.

The Dino 246GTS has a short, faux-suede-topped dashboard

Upon arrival at Maranello, these all-aluminium, double-overhead-camshaft 1987cc units were reworked with a new exhaust system and repositioned triple Webers to liberate an extra 20bhp, for 178bhp.

With the latest Magnetti-Marelli Digiplex ignition, they were also remarkably tractable.

Paired with an aluminium body from Scaglietti, the Dino 206GT was a featherweight, low-slung sports-car shock to tifosi loyalists.

It majored not on outright power – it could barely out-drag a 212 Inter from the ’50s – but instead on what had increasingly mattered on the race circuit and, gradually, to the more illuminated enthusiasts.

Sliding levers for the climate control in the classic Dino

Beyond its mid-engined layout, that meant double wishbones all round and disc brakes, plus a first for Ferrari: rack-and-pinion steering.

Complete with Koni coil-and-damper units and anti-roll bars, this diminutive sports car was a league ahead of its anachronistic relatives under their protected Ferrari badges.

Smaller and slower, yes, but Dino’s handwriting in enamel meant something else: experimental and, as it would turn out, the future.

Only 152 206GT Dinos were built before the 246GT arrived in late 1969, when this rationalised iteration could take full advantage of Fiat’s ambition.

The Dino’s gearlever is positioned for LHD cars

The 246GT was in most ways a better car, and easier to build.

The Dino V6 was now 2418cc and used an iron block instead of Silumin alloy; power and torque were up to 192bhp and 165lb ft, while production processes and costs eased.

The steel shell was welded to the square- and oval-tubed frame, the wheelbase was up by 60mm and larger, 215-section tyres were fitted to five-bolt wheels instead of Rudge centre-lock items.

An ‘M-series’ Dino arrived in the autumn of 1970, further streamlining production with Fiat parts; in ’71, the E-series marked the point at which all panels bar the front lid had become steel.

The Dino classic car’s sculpted nose lifts at speed

With momentum building, production almost doubled that year, with Dinos accounting for 832 of Ferrari’s 1246 annual total.

This was still a small company – Fiat built 1.4 million cars in 1970 – so the 246GT’s journey to being a volume-selling rival to the likes of Porsche’s 911S was incremental and, ultimately, not entirely conclusive.

All in, 3661 246GTs were sold by the end of production in 1974, with 1274 of those being the open GTS that had been introduced in ’72, just as the Dino was homologated for the US market.

Although on price parity with Porsche and nearly half that of a Ferrari 365GTB/4, it remained a specialist car either misunderstood or beloved, depending on experience.

The Dino 246GTS has long, sleek buttresses

It doesn’t take very long to understand.

Descending into the Dino 246’s slender seat, the windswept curves of a sports-racer prototype extend from your short reach to the leather-rimmed Nardi wheel.

As the turn of a key fills three Webers behind you, there is the magic of a Ferrari even before it fires.

The low, thumping rhythm of its V6 has the same authority as Ferrari’s V12s when teased with the throttle, and although it’s now in action, there’s hardly a tremor through the robust structure.

Ferrari’s Dino 246GTS (closest) and F355GTS were both milestones, but which is best?

The delicate doors have snicked precisely into place, and it’s quiet enough to hear the light clicks of the climate controls.

The leather on the Daytona-style seats of ‘our’ restored 246GTS is too soft to creak.

The Dino feels tight and well-weighted at a canter, taking inputs faithfully – even the gearbox, once warmed.

The torquey V6 delivers a convincing shove with a gruff, rising tenor, smoothing out as the revs climb to reach an urgent pitch with four cams spinning keenly.

The Ferrari F355GTS echoes the Dino’s ducktail rear

Second to third is straight across the dog-leg ’box and delightfully closely stacked: a push satisfyingly equal to that of the clutch brings the 83mph ratio into play at an eager 5000rpm.

So flexible is the Dino V6 that you can just as easily work with the higher gears, making the fluency of the chassis more immediately apparent.

Measure out the throttle through a long-radius corner, with some lean on those Michelin XWXs, and the steering fills with fine response as the Dino’s delicate balance is keenly felt from the base of the seat.

The gorgeous Azzurro Metallizzato Dino 246GTS (right) sparkles alongside the Giallo Fly Ferrari F355GTS

The set-up is inherently neutral, but the softly sprung rear tends to exaggerate certain lateral motions, and there is a faint sense of the front losing incisiveness at speed.

Perhaps that’s the price to pay for a pleasant ride and styling spared the interruptions of spoilers.

The F355 is more tied-down but still supple and delicate; it has more than an echo of the Dino’s spirit on the road, as much as it does in a study of its design.

‘The Ferrari F355GTS [behind] combined the visceral elements of a sports-racer with the flattering accessibility demanded by customers’

A low nose leads rounded shoulders over air intakes, the dramatic rear buttresses have a floating join above curved glass, and twin round lights give definition to a Kamm-style tail.

Though built in the subtly formed steel and rounded plastic bumpers of the 1990s, the family resemblance is there.

Being 200mm wider and with a 90mm longer wheelbase, it’s no surprise the F355 feels larger inside, but it’s a shame the seating position feels much further from the ground than in the Dino.

The plump, bolstered seat is forced to stand to attention at a taller dash finished in a mixture of matt leather and ABS plastics that, although many levels above the crimes of some 1980s supercars, still have a whiff of corporate parts bin rather than artisan’s workshop.

Two of the greatest mid-engined Prancing Horses go head to head

It fires with all of the obedience of a high-torque starter and Motronic fuel injection, instantly at a controlled buzz of an idle at 1000rpm.

The thin stainless steel of the four tailpipes shivers with blips of the throttle, as the 3498cc, five-valve-per-cylinder, 90° V8 hurls waspish noises down them.

Somewhere in its heart are the vague origins of the Dino V6, but with 375bhp and 298lb ft and a rev limit of 8800rpm, it has come a long way.

Then it takes off. Revs soar with an obscene, flat-plane-crank V8 howl that gains a devilish edge above 7000rpm.

The composer of this demonic reverie is hardly stressed, given the light throws of the gated, closely stacked six-speed ’box.

The Ferrari F355’s retro oval grille was part of the transformation from the 348tb

Speed becomes an afterthought as the F355 gathers its rhythm, blending flicks of the gearlever into the flattering agility of its chassis.

The steering, now power-assisted, is too light, but the front end delivers crisp and unflappable responses, and the rear stays just as true.

Full throttle needn’t unstick it.

That, when you read about the spiky 348tb on which the F355 was based, seems as unlikely as Ferrari finding itself needing such a fix in the first place, when you consider the sparkling success of the middle child: the 308/328.

The Ferrari F355’s howling V8 carries through the trees

Dino had beaten a path into the mainstream, and as Ferrari floated on Fiat money and the glory of three consecutive F1 constructors’ titles from 1975, the road was clear for two successors that would redefine the marque.

The immediate Dino replacement was the 308GT4, a Bertone-designed 2+2 that brought the fight closer to the 911 with a new V8 built on the old V6’s production line.

A year later, the 308GTB was Leonardo Fioravanti’s dramatic shape of a mid-engined junior supercar future that would give Ferrari some 15,000 sales before the 348tb replaced the 328 in 1989.

The Ferrari F355GTS has a curved rear ’screen, like the Dino 246GTS

Enzo Ferrari’s death in 1988 foreshadowed a difficult era for Maranello.

With a global recession around the corner, the collector-car bubble set to burst and a wave of new rivals on the scene, the 348 needed to be more than the object of desire that Ferrari had so successfully marketed through the go-go 1980s.

Released to a reception that was lukewarm at best, scathing at worst, the 348tb’s veneer of mystique was eroded by the rising talents of not just Porsche, with its new 964 Carrera 4, but also the likes of Honda’s mid-engined NSX – both doing more than just matching the Ferrari’s performance.

The Ferrari F355GTS is powered by a longitudinal, 40-valve V8

This was unacceptable, and to no one more so than Luca di Montezemolo.

Having begun his career at Ferrari in the 1970s, he circled back through senior roles at Fiat to become president at Maranello in ’91.

Di Montezemolo was determined to not only renew the F1 successes he’d presided over in the ’70s, but also bring the stagnating road-car business back to profitability.

The 348 was revised, a new 456 gran turismo was introduced and the F50 halo car was readied, but it is the transformative F355 that best represents this period of revival.

The Ferrari F355’s incisive front end is helped by trick dampers and aero

Such was its reception, each car might as well have been delivered with confetti.

And for good reason. It was based on the 348, but the F355 felt like a new car.

Only the roof, glass and front wings remained unchanged by Maurizio Corbi’s elegant, subtly retro styling, while engineers worked magic beneath.

The headline was an extra 70bhp from the new, 40-valve, 3496cc V8 – a parting gift from Paolo Martinelli before he went to lead the F1 engine department.

The Ferrari F355GTS shares switchgear with the V12-engined 456

Its valvetrain opened a third inlet out of time to promote a swirling mixture, whereupon individual throttle bodies and an 11.1:1 compression ratio produced such well-tuned combustion that its 109bhp per litre exceeded that of a McLaren F1.

Fixed to a 30% stronger chassis was an even wider track than the 348, which employed softer springs and stiffer anti-roll bars working with the latest adaptive dampers inherited from the V12 456, adding vertical acceleration sensors to its repertoire of electronic control.

There were also the effects of more advanced computer modelling on the aerodynamics, with the nose spoiler now reducing front tyre turbulence, plus rear venturis to help provide balanced downforce between both axles.

At Ferrari’s Fiorano test track, it was 7 secs a lap quicker than the 348, and a whopping 4 secs faster than the outgoing 512TR flagship.

The Ferrari F355’s gated, six-speed manual gearbox

But the resonating fact about the F355 was that it took everyone’s breath away. It looked, worked and went like the wildest Ferrari fantasies manifested.

Competitors, journalists and customers were in no doubt that the new car was a winner.

Crucially, when they came to realise their dreams, they found an easier clutch, light gearshift, power steering and ABS.

The expected Spider and targa-style GTS arrived in 1995, and in ’97 there was marketing gold in the ‘F1’ automated-manual gearbox.

Now, you could shift your F355 just like Michael Schumacher – and go nearly as well as him.

The Ferrari F355GTS shares its balletic poise with the Dino 246GTS

At £88,965 for a Berlinetta and £94,840 for a Spider in 1995, the car that now accounted for 70% of Ferrari sales put the company back in profitability that year.

No matter that it was £20k more than an NSX – that was yesterday’s news.

And Porsche’s new 993? Nice, but even the £130k 911 turbo S was out of its depth.

No wonder the 360 Modena that followed was a further rationalised echo of the F355’s talents: an all-new chassis and aerodynamic look, but with even faster F1 gearchanges, traction control and an interior that defied the supercar compromise. And so it has been ever since.

The F355’s V8 revs to 8800rpm

The F355 bridged these worlds, combining the visceral elements of a sports-racer with the flattering accessibility and practicalities demanded by customers waiting expectantly in air-conditioned dealer lounges, barista coffee in hand.

The Ferrari magic was no longer just that honed by the traditional octet of test drivers on the well-worn roads of Emilia-Romagna, but a new team refining drivability by computer modelling.

More than 30 years later, many now cast the F355 as the ultimate sweet spot of the V8 Ferrari supercar pantheon.

The Dino 246GT was smaller and slower than contemporary Prancing Horses, but it left an indelible mark at Maranello

And yet a final drive in the Dino reveals still more vibrancy of spirit, as higher revs, faster changes and the flow of its chassis towards the edge of adhesion coalesce in a fine, brilliant point of balance that feels exactly right.

In that intimate cabin, as the carburettors bite with each stab of throttle and those sculpted wings flicker reflected scenery, something more than nostalgia beats rational thought: nothing quite matches the original formula.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: HR Owen Ferrari London; Rardley Motors; Merrist Wood Golf Club

Factfiles

Ferrari Dino 246GTS

Sold/number built 1969-’74/3661
Construction steel tubular frame, steel body with aluminium bonnet
Engine iron-block, alloy-heads, dohc-per-bank, 12-valve 2418cc V6, three Weber 40DCN carburettors, 9:1 compression ratio
Max power 192bhp @ 7600rpm
Max torque 165lb ft @ 5500rpm
Transmission five-speed manual, RWD
Suspension independent, by double wishbones, coil springs, telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering rack and pinion
Brakes vented discs, with servo
Length 7ft 6in (4201mm)
Width 5ft 7in (1702mm)
Height 3ft 9in (1133mm)
Wheelbase 7ft 6in (2340mm)
Weight 2770lb (1258kg)
0-60mph 7.1 secs
Top speed 149mph
Mpg 17
Price new £6620 (berlinetta, 1974)
Price now £300-500,000*

Ferrari F355GTS

Sold/number built 1994-’99/11,265
Construction tubular steel frame, steel body with aluminium bonnet
Engine all-alloy, dohc-per-bank, 40-valve 3496cc V8, Bosch Motronic fuel injection, 11:1 compression ratio
Max power 380bhp @ 8250rpm
Max torque 268lb ft @ 6000rpm
Transmission six-speed manual, RWD
Suspension independent, by double wishbones, coil springs, telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering rack and pinion
Brakes vented discs, with servo and ABS
Length 13ft 11in (4250mm)
Width 6ft 4½in (1944mm)
Height 3ft 10in (1170mm)
Wheelbase 8ft ½in (2450mm)
Weight 2976lb (1350kg)
0-60mph 4.6 secs
Top speed 173mph
Mpg 17
Price new £95,509 (berlinetta, 1996)
Price now £75-150,000*