Rare Dino racer coming to Bonhams’ Paris sale

By Lizzie Pope
News
 | 17 Jan 2020
Classic & Sports Car – Rare Dino racer coming to Bonhams’ Paris sale

This one-of-18 Ferrari Dino 206S/SP Sports Prototype is set to cross the block at Bonhams’ ninth Grand Palais Sale – and no, you probably can’t afford it.

A lightweight 1966 example, it’s one of the rarest of ‘customer’ Ferraris and has a successful motorsport career behind it that includes a strong finish at the Targa Florio.

And while the auction house isn’t disclosing its estimate (it’s available on request), we suspect that means it’ll be well out of reach for us mere mortals.

Classic & Sports Car – Rare Dino racer coming to Bonhams’ Paris sale

Perhaps its most famous exploit was on the 1970 Targa Florio (above), where then-owner Pietro Lo Piccolo swapped his Alfa Romeo TZ for this Dino and teamed up with co-driver Salvatore Calascibetta, achieving an 11th-place finish, second in class.

However chassis 022’s life began in the custodianship of aristocratic Sicilian gentleman magistrate-cum-racing driver Clemente Ravetto, and it made its competition debut with him on 31 July 1966 on the Trieste-Opicina hillclimb, then in its original, ex-factory Drogo-bodied form.

Next was the 1967 Monza 1000km, where Ravetto shared driving duties with fellow Sicilian aristocrat and sometime Formula One racer Prince Gaetano Starrabba di Giardinelli; progress was curtailed by engine failure.

Ravetto and 022 then claimed second in that year’s Monte Pellegrino hillclimb, before he sold the Ferrari to the aforementioned Lo Piccolo, then the race-driving President of the Unione Provinciale Panificatori and leader of the Palermo commercial confederation.

Classic & Sports Car – Rare Dino racer coming to Bonhams’ Paris sale

Classic & Sports Car – Rare Dino racer coming to Bonhams’ Paris sale
Classic & Sports Car – Rare Dino racer coming to Bonhams’ Paris sale

Former ’bike racer Lo Piccolo campaigned this car for three seasons and took it to victory in the 1970 Italian Championship, in addition to its Targa Florio finish.

With Lo Piccolo at the wheel, the Dino claimed fifth at the Coppa Bruno Carotti race in June 1968, before scooping a class win and fifth overall in that August’s Coppa Citta di Enna.

He then clinched a victory at the Cefalu-Gibilmanna and Val d'Anapo-Sortino hillclimbs, and second at the Citta d'Orivetto, before it was updated ahead of the ’69 season with the Spider or Montagna body, which it still wears today.

And the new year brought more success, with six more victories among his competition success, followed by victories on 1970’s Coppa Faro, the Trofeo Ludovico Scarfiotti, Monte Pellegrino and Val d'Anapo-Sortino hillclimbs, plus 14th on that year’s Mugello 500km.

Not even an accident that saw it backed into the trackside barriers at high speed could deter Lo Piccolo, who soon had the car repaired and back in action.

Classic & Sports Car – Rare Dino racer coming to Bonhams’ Paris sale

Classic & Sports Car – Rare Dino racer coming to Bonhams’ Paris sale
Classic & Sports Car – Rare Dino racer coming to Bonhams’ Paris sale

Classic & Sports Car – Rare Dino racer coming to Bonhams’ Paris sale

After a lifetime as a successful privateer racer, this Dino 206S changed hands a few times and then entered Jack Setton’s private collection, where it has remained, diligently cared for, for the past 36 years.

It will be sold at Bonhams’ Les Grandes Marques du Monde au Grand Palais sale in Paris, which is timed to coincide with Rétromobile, on 6 February.

READ MORE

Le Mans Ferraris star in new Maranello exhibition

Fiat 8V Supersonic, Miura and DB5 lead 230-strong single-owner sale

This astonishing Lamborghini Countach could be yours

The best classic car events of 2020