Beschreibung
1968 Fiat Dino Spider 2000
• Fully restored at great expense
• Later 2. 4 Dino engine fitted with correct ZF gearbox
• Fast, beautiful and a noise to die for
• Everything done, everything working – ready for summer touring
• Very reluctant sale - may p/ x interesing classic
The car is UK road tax exempt (the S registration indicates when the car was imported from Italy - before DVLA rules on age related plates)
More pictures and videos here:
- details above details below88/
These cars have been a hidden secret for many years, offering seductive Pininfarina styling, and open top motoring with a howling Maranello sound track for a tiny fraction of a contemporary Ferrari. But to just view them as a wannabe Ferrari sells these incredible cars very short. They are wonderfully classics in their own right, offering the cognoscenti a driving experience like few others…. and they are much, much rarer that a 246gt!
Fiat Dino’s have suffered over the years for being affordable to buy but potentially ruinous to restore. Many cars lost their engines to damaged 246GTs and ended on the scrapheap. However now that value are much stronger people are investing in returning these cars to their former glory and revelling in what they have to offer.
This car was discovered as a barn find in late 2004 and was in a pretty sorry state after being stripped for a rebuild in the early 1980s its former owner sadly passed away and the car was left dismantled. I collected the car and started on a seven year rebuild process.
Bodywork.
The car had been stored in an open sided barn so was structurally quite sound. However I had the shell rotissered and blasted prior to having all of the panel work restored. New panels were sourced from Superformance and the rear suspension pick up points, a notorious weak spot on live axle 2000 spiders were checked and welded were appropriate. The bodyshell was then sent for a full respray in a deep and lustrous Rosso Corsa – replacing the car’s original flat green paintwork which was visible under and earlier poor quality red respray. Currently the body work is still in its totally rust free condition and even after some 2000 miles of post restoration driving is free of any nicks, chips or flaws
Engine.
The beating heart of any Dino and a very complex and costly problem if not running correctly. My car has a later 2. 4 iron block Dino engine fitted rather than the troublesome early 2 litre all alloy unit. This engine is much more powerful and has much more torque and when correctly set up is a very tough and durable unit. When the engine swap was completed is unclear, however fitting 2. 4 motors to 2l cars was a common main dealer fix for some terminally overheating 2 litre cars.
I have spent a fortune on getting this engine rebuilt and perfectly set up so it starts on the button, idles flatly, pulls strongly and will happily sing all the way to its 7700 rpm red line. All of the notorious weak spots of this engine, namely the distributor, Magneti Marrelli Dinoplex ignition and the trio of Webers have had extra attention lavished on them. The distributor has been mechanically overhauled twice – and then fully stripped and completely rebuilt to ensure perfect ignition. A modern optical electronic ignition was rebuilt into it retaining all of the Dinoplex under bonnet items (which are now for show only). The carburettors were all totally stripped and every internal component replaced and the car is now set up to start without the aid of a manual choke and there are no characteristic Dino pops or bangs anywhere in the rev range. All of this set up work was carried out by Mike Stirland of MDS services and very widely renowned Ferrari expert.
The engine was rebuilt with all new internals from Superformance to included high compression pistons – the result is a very strong, very powerful engine that makes this particular Dino a very fast and viscerally thrilling thing to drive. Needless to say the noise is to die for!
In addition to the engine rebuild a full stainless steel exhaust system was fitted to the car as well as a bespoke ITG airfilter.
Suspension and Brakes
The suspension was fully rebuild with all parts either enamelled or powder coated. All bushes and joists were replaced as well as a full set of six new Koni dampers. The front springs were tested and were replaced with uprated 2400 items to cope with the extra weight of the 2. 4 engine. A local rally and track expert then set the car’s geometry and balance up so that it drives true and straight and the cornering is secure with little or no understeer that blights some re-engined 2litre cars.
All the brake callipers were overhauled and a full set of new discs and pads were fitted. The car has very strong braking performance for a car of this era and really inspire confidence when pressing on!
The 5 Cromodora wheels were fully refurbished and period correct Vredstein tyres fitted. All the spinners have been repaired and fully re-chromed
Interior and Exterior Trim
At an early stage of the rebuild a decision was taken to rebuild the car without bumpers as I felt that the heavy wraparound chrome bumpers on the 2 litre cars ruin the car’s delicate lines, particularly its sharknose profile. In addition the car’s bumpers were in a terrible state that made salvaging them almost impossible. If one wanted to replace the bumpers new ones would have to be fabricated and chromed (budget about £1k per bumper.) I much prefer the car without them. The windscreen surround on the car was very badly corroded as whatever alloy Fiat used in 1968 seemed to turn to dust! In the end after numerous attempts by London Chroming to revive it I had to commission a new one at very considerable expense! All of the exterior and interior brightwork was chromed by London Chroming, the best in the country (in my opinion!)
The interior was fully re-trimmed in a period correct vinyl. The Cognac colour really compliments the red paintwork. The dash and console surrounds were repaired rather than recovered as I wanted to retain some of the car’s patina – I’m unsure as to how successful this has been and I may consider having the console re-trimmed at some point.
Summary
This project was commenced with a view to never selling this car – but life always has other plans. Finding a Dino Spider that has had this level of restoration work is almost impossible and certainly not on this side of £45 - £50K prices are really beginning to firm up as the classic car world realised just what these cars offer. This is a car you can own and drive with confidence that there are no major bills waiting for you – just look after her!
This Dino was built to drive – not to show, it is not a factory correct, matching numbers trailer queen; it is meant to be driven. Everything has been restored, replaced, honed and set up to provide many more summers of very pleasurable driving.
So many happy memories are forever seared onto my consciousness of the sun on my face, the view over those blood red wings and the operatic howl of that engine. Truly a regrettable sale so I would be keen to hear P/ X offers from any Fiat Dino Coupe owners looking to change to a spider!
