This sports-prototype Ferrari was an ex-works/North American Racing Team entry in the 1962 endurance World Championship race series. It is one of a mere handful of surviving Dino ‘SP’ rear-engined sports-racing cars campaigned by the Maranello marquee.
This design had been masterminded by Ing. Carlo Chiti and in effect, it employed the Dino 246 4-cam V6-cylinder engines which had just been made redundant by the close of the long-lived 2.5-liter Formula 1 Grand Prix class at the end of the 1960 season. For rear-mounted use in the new sports-prototype chassis, these engines had now been modified to accept a new transaxle-type gearbox mounted in unit on the rear end of the crankcase.
Chassis 0806 began life on February 24, 1962, when it was ‘signed-off’ as the second of only two Dino SP V8-engined cars built at Maranello. It and its sister 0798 were equipped initially with 2-cam, 2.4-litre V8 power units, which had been originated by Ing. Chiti for a ‘248 GT’ program which had been shelved after his abrupt departure from the company at the end of 1961.
This 90-degree V8 engine, with four Weber carburetors, was rated at 250 bhp at 7,400 rpm, and it drove via a standard 5-speed and reverse transaxle gearbox. Both these new V8 cars, in common with their 1962 series V6 sisters, wore low rear deck bodywork, still nostril-nosed but much cut down from the 1961 form. With this new V8 engine installed, 0806 had been entered for its debut race, the Sebring 12-Hours in Florida, USA, on March 24, 1962. While works prepared, it was to compete as one of US importer Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team entries, and was initially allocated to none other than the contemporary standard-setting driver of his era, Stirling Moss, co-driving with Innes Ireland, winner of the last preceding Formula 1 Grand Prix.
From one legendary Ferrari collection the car passed to another in 1984, and has thus spent the past 27 years pampered in the company of some of the Maranello marquee’s most revered old battlehorses.
SCM Analysis
Detailing
| Vehicle: | 1962-63 Ferrari 196SP Dino |
| Years Produced: | 1962-1963 |
| Number Produced: | 4 |
| SCM Valuation: | $1,250,000 |
| Tune Up Cost: | $1,000-$1,200 |
| Distributor Caps: | $250 |
| Chassis Number Location: | Stamped on chassis tube above transaxle |
| Club Info: | Ferrari Owners Club, 8642 Cleta Street; Downey, CA 90241. 562/861-6992 |
| Website: | http://FerrariOwnersClub.org |
| Alternatives: | Abarth 2000SP, Porsche 904, Chevron B-8 |
The car described here sold for $1,285,000 including commission at the Brooks Auction held August 28, 1999 at Quail Lodge in Carmel, CA. Ferrari sports/prototypes, the “P cars” are an exclusive group of race cars whose production spans the pivotal period in Ferrari’s competition history where wire wheels gave way to alloys and alloy bodywork gave way to fiberglass.
V6-powered sports-racing Ferraris were produced in a variety of configurations: front engine, mid-engine, two-cam and four-cam. This car, 0806 has undergone several mechanical iterations and is currently turned out in its most reliable and successful, two-liter trim with the most attractive bodywork available to this series of car.
The 196SP’s big brothers the 275, 330 and 365 are valued at over $4,000,000. With the best examples possibly worth twice that figure. Cars like this 196SP are seldom offered and it is difficult to pass judgment on the fairness of the sale price if directly comparable sales are our only guide.
Bottom line? At the low end of the SCM price guide, the buyer has acquired what is reported to be an excellent example of one of the most desirable series of sports-racing cars ever built.—Michael Duffey
It’s about time soomene wrote about this.