Some names are too heavy to carry lightly. Maranello knows this better than anyone, which is probably why it has chosen not to say Dino out loud for nearly five decades. And yet the name keeps circulating, in collector circles, at auction houses, in the daydreams of people who love Ferrari but can’t quite afford to stable one.
Dino wasn’t a brand strategy. It was a person. Alfredo Ferrari, Enzo’s son, died in 1956 at just 24. Before he did, alongside engineer Vittorio Jano, he managed to convince his famously stubborn father that V12 engines weren’t the only path to glory, that a V6 or V8, smaller and lighter, could win races and eventually win hearts on public roads too. The badge carried his signature. The cam covers did too.
The Dino project was conceived as Ferrari’s more accessible alter ego. The 206 GT of 1967, the 246 GT and GTS of 1969, the 308 GT4 of 1973, Mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, bodywork by Pininfarina and Bertone. Cars that today fetch prices equal to or greater than many Ferrari models of the same era.
By 1976, the Dino nameplate was officially folded back into Ferrari. Silence since. Even when Maranello returned to the V6 configuration with the 296 GTB, no one dared whisper the old name in the press release. A commercial decision, maybe.
Then a Modena-based designer named Luca Serafini, working under the handle lsdesignsrl, decided he wasn’t going to wait for Maranello’s blessing. His digital concept reimagines a Ferrari Dino Targa for the present tense: two seats, mid-engine layout, a visual language that references the 206 and 246 without cosplaying them. No powertrain specs were revealed, no rear end shown. The render did what a good concept is supposed to do: it made people ask the question again, loudly.
Ferrari currently offers the 296 plug-in hybrid and is preparing the Amalfi grand tourer for a 2027 debut. An entry-level lineup that is entry-level in name only. Enough to permanently close the Dino chapter? Or is there still a market for a lighter, relatively attainable sports car wearing that name without embarrassing it?
