1972 FIAT Dino 2400 Coupe

Incredibly, this is effectively a one owner car from new.

Even more incredibly, that owner flew to Italy with his wife in 1972 in order to buy it and then drove it home to Yorkshire.

We even have the receipt for the flight tickets.

He paid £3,174.63 for the car at a time when £3,069 would have bought an AC Cobra 289 and, for a mere £2,117, you could have had a 4.2-Litre Jaguar E Type.

Clearly, he really, really wanted a FIAT Dino 2400 Coupé.

It is now being offered for sale, 50 years later, by his daughter-in-law.

It’s quite a story – and the best person to tell it is Bill, the man who bought it and wrote the following words some years ago.

“Perhaps I must be one of the very few owners, who having fallen in love with the Coupé from it's very first appearance in 1967, resolved to get a new one by hook or by crook.

I truly believed it to represent a pinnacle of automotive engineering, being years ahead of its time in concept, design & style. From then onwards the road could only be downhill!

In those days, acquiring a new Dino was no easy task. They were never imported into the U.K., nor were they made with R.H.D.

So, I set about learning Italian, so that I could smooth my path towards a Dino. I began to correspond with an agent in Florence….I had to become a member of an Italian motoring organisation in order to buy it, as they were not allowed to sell them to other than Italian nationals at that time. Accordingly, through the British Embassy, I became a member of the Automobile Club Firenze in order to qualify.

Came the great day, taking delivery was a tremendous thrill - one that I shall never forget. No sooner had I become a member of the Automobile Club Firenze, I proceeded with my agent friend to the bank to collect £3000 worth of Lire…and we made haste towards FIAT FILIALE di FIRENZE consumed with anticipation.

Getting to know that Dino, by myself on a beautiful day, with the whole of Tuscany to go at was a wonderful experience - guaranteed to make any businessman forget his worries!

The car was part of me, and soon I had tremendous confidence.

I arrived at the hotel entrance, where I left her - slap in the middle of the steps - and joined my wife and friends.

It was the proprietor who noticed her first. From the reception desk, he exclaimed loudly, ‘Ahh, zee Dino.... Zee best car in zee world!’.

Explaining my parking worries, he insisted that I leave the car right in front of the entrance on every possible occasion…it happened everywhere she went. Most hotels had a turnout on her arrival - in France, in Switzerland, and even in the U.K.

This car has never been raced (except on European motorways!), leading a comparatively civilised life as a family/business transport - but with the capacity to surprise some of today's supercars, even now.

There were only 2414 made of this particular version of the 2.4 litre - many of which rusted away, as did other Italian cars of that era (due to the poor quality Russian steel). This car was rust-proofed as soon as it arrived in this country, which undoubtedly saved it.

There are now 336 known to exist worldwide by the FIAT Dino Register, of which less than 20 found their way to the U.K.

The Register believes that I am the only person left worldwide who has had one from new and still has it.”

So, here we have a Yorkshireman (unsurprisingly described as being ‘quite a character’ by his daughter-in-law) who decides he’ll stop at nothing to get his hands on a Dino, learns Italian, joins an Italian Automobile Club, flies to Florence, collects the car, drives himself and his wife back to Yorkshire and spends the rest of his life looking after it with a passion, pride and diligence few people could hope to emulate.

We have driven the car and can report that it goes like a thoroughbred - swiftly and with plenty of enthusiasm - steers and handles with poise and balance, and stops when you want it to.

Everything feels properly sorted and screwed down. Nothing feels out of place, tired or vague.

We entirely concur with L.J.K. Setright, the eccentrically bewhiskered contrarian and grandee of automotive journalism, who wrote the following of the FIAT Dino in 1970.

“The Dino is not quiet, far from it. The engine produces a curious harsh scream rather like the trumpeting of an angry elephant. The higher the revs and the wider the throttles the greater the noise, but there is never any temptation to ease off the throttle. Instead, the car begs to be driven hard, responds superbly when so driven and appears capable of keeping it up more or less indefinitely.”

Quite so.

It is a joy to drive this car.

Having been unwell for a while, Bill told his son that he’d dearly like to take the Dino back to Italy at some point while he was still able to make the journey as a passenger.

In 2007, the pair of them successfully made the return trip to Florence and the Tuscan hills.

It was a personal motoring pilgrimage that completed the circle of Bill’s part in this wonderful car’s history.

Bill passed away around 6 years ago and the car was handed on to his son, David, and then his daughter-in-law, the vendor.

Overall, the bodywork is good and there are no dents, creases or warps of any real significance anywhere, only a few shallow indentations around the fuel filler cap.

The panel gaps and shut lines are probably every bit as consistent and even as they would have been when the car was new.

The paintwork is very good in places, less so in others.

Notably, there is some spidery crazing to the paintwork on the roof.

The wheels are showing some bubbling under the silver paint.

All the external trim looks to have held up pretty well and the chrome is in decent nick.

The lights, lenses and badging are in good order.

There is some rust and flaking visible in and around the wheel arches on both sides and in places along the sills.

There is some bubbling and micro-blistering on the leading edge of the bonnet and one or two scratches and scuffs on the o/s/r wing.

There are a few paint chips on the n/s/f wing, the bonnet and the driver’s door.

The car’s interior is as authentic and original as the rest of it and has a pleasing patina to it throughout.

The blue fabric seats have survived the passage of time with commendable stoicism and, although they’d benefit from a good clean and general sprucing-up, remain comfortable, supportive and functional.

There is a very small tear in the fabric at the top of one of the rear seats.

The black vinyl door cards are good, as are the wood and veneer inserts on the dashboard and door inserts, save for a scuff on the passenger door insert.

The red carpets and mats are in good condition.

The headlining is intact and taut but could do with being shown a damp cloth.

The locking mechanism on the driver’s seat belt doesn’t work properly.

There is some apparently superficial rust dust visible within the door hinges and jambs.

As far as we can tell, all knobs, levers, switches, buttons, dials and instruments do what they’re supposed to do.

The boot, which is in good condition, contains a spare wheel, some tools and box of various spare parts and bits and pieces.

Some of the rubber trim around the lip of the boot has worked loose.

Despite the presence of some rust in the wheel arches and sills, the undersides of the car seem to have derived a good deal of long-term benefit from the rust-proofing that the car received when new and which, we imagine, may well have been refreshed when the car was restored in 1989.

As far as we can tell, everything looks to have a decent amount of structural integrity.

Ditto the engine bay, where all seems clean, dry, present and correct.

Clearly, though, you’ll want to take a look for yourself.

The car’s mileage today is 107,433 kms, or 66,755 miles – which makes it a very low mileage 50-year-old car.

We know from the weighty box of history with the car that Bill was in regular and frequent contact with Mike Morris, the foremost expert of the day on FIAT Dinos and the Secretary of the Worldwide FIAT Dino Register.

Bill’s copy of Mike’s book, ‘FIAT Dino: Ferrari by another name’ has an inscription from Mike that reads, “For Bill…a long time Dino owner and a ‘true believer’, with best wishes, Mike Morris.”

We also know that the car was serviced, fettled and tweaked recently by the UK’s current foremost Dino whisperer, Mark Devaney of 24Hundred, in preparation for this auction.

And we know from a letter that the car was restored in 1989 and had further work carried out (some of the parts are itemised) in 2008.

Recent work includes refurbished carburettors and brakes, and new hoses.

Apart from that, actual service records are pretty thin on the ground.

However, the vendor recalls that the car was always serviced and maintained by the best available people and believes that the absence of receipts and invoices in the history probably reflects the fact that they might well have been processed through Bill’s company’s accounts department.

She also fondly remembers a rather spirited row between her father-in-law and mother-in-law when the latter found out just how much the former had been spending getting the FIAT serviced at a Ferrari main dealer.

Ouch…but a pretty good indication of Bill’s no-expense-spared love for this car.

The car comes with a sizeable box of cuttings, manuals, brochures, letters, documents, the odd receipt or two….and its original Florence registration plates.

It also comes with the signed and inscribed copy of the Mike Morris book mentioned above.

You may be interested to learn that a copy of this now out-of-print tome recently sold for around £600.

Please visit the documents section of the gallery of this listing where you will find photos of this and other paperwork to support our claim that this car has been maintained to a very good standard.

If you’d like to inspect the car prior to placing a bid – something we would encourage – then please use the Contact Seller button to arrange an appointment.

Not so long ago, a FIAT Dino 2400 Spider sold at a US auction for the extraordinary sum of $390,000.

Ironically, the Spider was significantly cheaper than the more luxuriously appointed Coupé when new.

The point is that the FIAT Dino’s star is rapidly ascending and these now very rare cars are only going to get rarer and more valuable.

This car is pretty much unique in that it has 50 years of one-owner/one family curation.

It is highly authentic and original and, while by no means concours, it’s in strong all-round condition and is a delight to behold and drive.

This could well be one of your last chances to get your hands on a ‘Ferrari by another name’ before their prices soar off into the stratosphere

We’re happy to offer this superb vehicle for auction with an estimate in the range of £35,000 - £45,000.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; we are open weekdays 9am-5pm, to arrange an appointment please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.