Few cars scream seventies sex appeal like the Ferrari 246 Dino GTS, a model conceived to inject some welcomed sporting youth into a twelve-cylinder range which very much appealed to the marque’s older clientele. The emerging American market’s appetite for these gorgeous targa-topped Ferraris was such that just 401 of the 1,282 GTSs built were delivered in left-hand-drive specification to Europe.

How beautiful is that sultry body? It could only be the work of Pininfarina, which, in the emerging face of the angular geometric trends of the time, still managed to look fresh and contemporary. Arguably the best thing about the Dino is that it’s every bit as good to drive as it is to look at – something that can’t be said of every late-1960s/early-1970s sports car.

Every now and then, we encounter cars which stop us in our tracks and render us speechless. This 1974 Ferrari 246 Dino GTS is one such example. Why? If the beguiling photos don’t go some way to explain, then allow us to tell the story.

Finished in lesser-seen Bianco Polo Park (20-W-152) over a Nero (161) leather interior, this late-production E-series 246 Dino GTS – chassis number 06354 – left the Ferrari factory on 14 May 1973. Assigned with the Italian registration ‘CO 377607’, it was acquired for 6.1m lire by one Adelio Negri from Lecco on the south-eastern shore of Lake Como – a suitably glamorous home for a positively exotic car.

Our extensive research into the history of this Dino has revealed that chassis 06354 remained in Negri’s possession until 1978, after which point passed through the hands of two Italian dealers, Romano Pasini and Giacomo Campione. In 1979, Pasini re-registered the car in Reggio Emilia with the new number ‘RE 325555’ – the number it retains to this day.

April of 1981 marks the month this Ferrari was acquired by the Campanini family from Poviglio, which owned the major Fiat dealership Autosalone Ivo Giovanardi in Castelnovo di Sotto and boasted a large personal collection of desirable sports cars.

Remarkably, that’s where the short chain of this Ferrari’s owners ends. Used only sparingly, chassis number 06354 was dry-stored in the Giovanardi collection for over 40 years, the last 10 of which it has not physically turned a wheel. Perhaps more importantly, this Dino has never ‘been apart’, nor entirely repainted. We found no evidence to suggest that the 68,822km currently showing on the odometer are anything other than genuine.

And it’s this extraordinary time-warp originality that blew us away when we learned of the car’s existence and subsequently travelled to inspect it. You’re first struck by the thick film of dust that’s accumulated over the years, though equally striking is the inch-perfect shape of the gorgeous Pininfarina-shaped bodywork. 

And then there’s the interior, which, save for the dust and some discolouration in the places you’d expect the materials to age as such, looks as though it has been barely driven and smells utterly intoxicating. The seats, especially, still trimmed in their original Nero hide, are some of the finest we’ve ever seen. The proverbial cherry on the cake is the original Dino keychain dangling from the ignition.

Suffice to say, the chassis, engine, gearbox and body are all matching. And accompanying the car are the original leather-trimmed hardtop complete with its leather tonneau cover, the correct and original jack and leather pouch, spare wheel, logbook and E-series owner’s manual and spare parts catalogue.

It's a testament to the build quality of these Ferraris that 10 years after it was last started, all that chassis number 06354 needed to fire was new spark plugs and new fuel. To hear the soulful six-cylinder chatter once again after so long was an incredibly special moment.

Unmolested Dinos in lesser-seen colour combinations are growing increasingly few and far between. Chassis number 06354 presents an incredibly exciting opportunity for someone to acquire an example largely untouched for the last 40 years and unseen for the last decade.

We can see two viable routes for prospective owners of this 246 Dino GTS: undertake a zero-compromise nut-and-bolt restoration with a leading specialist or preserve the beguiling originality and enjoy this precious Prancing Horse for exactly what is is: a highly original example of the of the best sports cars of the 1970s. Either way, the next chapter promises to be a hugely exciting one.

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