[alfa] RE: Dinos morphing...

["Peter L. Krause" <pkrause@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't have any factual print in front of me, but IIRC, before 1975, Al
Garthwaite (Algar), Chinetti and Bill Harrah still controlled the bulk of US
Ferrari sales through their own and other small dealers by directly
importing the cars.

It wasn't until the late 1970's that Fiat assumed control of North American
distribution and named "Ferrari North America" (FNA) as the importer of
record. FNA was and is owned by Fiat.

The old man was convinced that the V-6 and V-8 cars were not "to the manor
born" and were merely an economic necessity and Garthwaite, Chinetti and
others agreed. When the Dino 308 GT4 began to languish in the showrooms
around 1977 after the initial rush had subsided, most dealers asked for and
received permission from FNA to paint the bottoms black "a la Boxer" and
begin calling them Ferraris. As much "stick" as the GT4 gets, it and the
Mondial were sales success stories for FNA.

There was a manufacturing change in 1977 because the early cars (1975-76)
had "Dino" in the door jamb plate (the official manufacturer name), "Dino"
on the instruments and a rectangular relief in the nose to accommodate the
wide Dino badge, as well as the Dino rear valance script. By the 1977 model
year, they all had five spoke wheels that said Ferrari instead of Dino,
Ferrari badging, prancing horses in the instruments and most had the "Boxer"
paint scheme. Quite a few of the early cars were "updated" subsequently. The
1978-1979 cars are most highly prized because many had sunroofs and the
build quality was quite good by the end of the model run.

I remember my first Ferrari, oops, Dino 308 GT4, 10854, a black 1975 US car
that I drove every day for several years, even went through a tobacco barn
wall showing off to a friend, thankfully without too much damage...

-Peter
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