Popular lore has taken an out-of-context quote from Enzo Ferrari that “a Ferrari is a twelve-cylinder car” to mean that Il Commendatore thought any car with fewer than twelve cylinders was not worthy of the Ferrari badge. And thus, the Dino Ferraris aren’t real Ferraris.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Dino was the name of Ferrari’s only legitimate son, who died young at the merciless hands of muscular dystrophy. Dino himself was named after Enzo’s father and older brother, both of whom died when Enzo was a teenager. The “Dino” badge wasn’t an insult—it was an honor. And it adorns two of the best-driving Ferrari road cars ever created.
In this episode of Revelations, automotive journalist Jason Cammisa explains the history of Enzo’s Double Ds—the 206/246 Dino and the 308 GT4 Dino—and how they each foretold the future of Ferrari’s road cars, both in layout (mid-engine sports car) and in the engine itself (with the 308 GT4’s flat-plane-crankshaft V-8.)
