What do you drive? Oh, it\u2019s an old Fiat\u2026 Not a winning drinks-party reply in the one-upmanship stakes \u2013 until you step outside, slip into a seductively curvaceous two-seater and disappear with a strident blare of engine noise that could only come from a race-bred motor. This old Fiat will turn heads, for it\u2019s a far rarer sight on Britain\u2019s roads than a common old 458. And yes, that was a race-bred noise it made as you streaked off up the road, for like its half-brother the 246 Dino from Maranello, Pininfarina\u2019s voluptuous curves enfold the little V6 derived from Ferrari\u2019s Formula 2 Dino engine. <\/p>\n
Handed to Fiat\u2019s production lines as a way of producing enough engines to qualify for racing in F2, the little motor, initially 2-litre and then upped by 400cc, found a home not only in the better-known 206 and 246 Dinos but also in two Turin enterprises \u2013 a 2+2 coup\u00e9 shaped by Bertone, decent enough to look at but not a pulse-raiser, and the lovely Spider such as Cheshire Classics has on offer. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s had a cracking job done on the engine,\u201d says vendor Damon Milnes, \u201cand it has a huge history file that reads like a directory of Ferrari and Fiat specialists. There\u2019s record of paintwork and some minor jobs but no major work. Basically it\u2019s a sound car that feels taut, as though it has always been well looked after.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seems the car\u2019s lady owner kept it at Ferrari specialist Talacrest, who exercised it for her when she wasn\u2019t using it. Fiat claimed the package as a two-plus-two, but frankly the \u2018plus two\u2019 element probably makes a better perch for your groceries than your offspring. <\/p>\n
Despite that American incantation about cubic inches, bigger ain\u2019t always better. While an earlier 2-litre car like this one rides on leaf springs supporting a rigid axle, the extra urge of the bigger motor brought independent rear underpinnings of coil springs, an angled steel arm and a transverse link. On the other hand the smaller unit has an alloy block, and enthusiasts still argue the trade-off between balance and bhp. But either looks equally attractive: those arching front wings plunging to that ground-hugging twin-headlamp grille give it a mean look, like a big cat on the prowl, and the details are pure Ferrari \u2013 in that a lot of them come from the Fiat parts shelf.<\/p>\n
For fun fresh-air motoring with prancing horses under the bonnet if not on it, one of these little beauties is a temptation, if left-hand drive isn\u2019t a problem. \u201cFrankly you\u2019d be hard-pushed to find an RHD example, especially as good as this,\u201d says Damon. And anyway, that nostalgic Nardi wheel is on the correct side for Continental meanderings\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":750,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[167],"issue_decade":[121600],"issue_year":[121675],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/53728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/750"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/53728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224093,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/53728\/revisions\/224093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53728"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=53728"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=53728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}