This car was originally made famous in the early scenes of the Italian Job movie, where 3 black Fiat Dino Coupe 2000s were used by the Mafia. The Fiat Dino was never officially imported into the UK and only ever built in LHD, making it a rarity over here.
The Coupe was styled by Bertone and the Spider by Pininfarina, giving the two cars totally different looks. Early cars used a 2L all alloy quad cam Ferrari engine with triple Weber carburettors rated at 160bhp, which was the same as used in the Ferrari Dino 206. After a couple of years the engine size was increased to 2.4L, still with alloy quad cam heads and triple carburettors, but now with a cast iron block and rated at 180bhp. This was the same engine as fitted to the Ferrari Dino 246 and Lancia Stratos.
The early 2L cars were built by Fiat, but whilst later 2.4L cars were also badged as Fiat they were, in fact, built at the Ferrari Maranello factory. The car is often referred to as a Poor Man’s Ferrari and many have been broken in the past just for the engines to be used in Ferrari Dino rebuilds.
This car was imported from Italy in 1978 and in 1980 it was converted to RHD by the then owner. The conversion consisted of replacing the steering system with a Fiat 132 power steering unit and removing the under-dash servo and installing two remote Lockheed servos in shielded bays under each front wing. The conversion was generally done well, except for the wiring.
The car was also fully reupholstered in leather, the carpets changed to black and the bodywork resprayed red.
The current owner bought the car about 15 years ago. The brakes were fully rebuilt and a long pedal travel problem traced to incorrect plumbing on the master cylinder.
The car was bare metal resprayed back to the original metallic silver colour that it came out of the factory with.
Since then, the car has been rewired, a number of electrical problems fixed and the suspension fully overhauled and uprated. Both cylinder heads have been gas flowed, fully rebuilt and fitted with new high lift performance camshafts. The notoriously weak second generation timing chain tensioners have been custom modified to improve reliability.
This car was revolutionary in its day but is often forgotten. Where else at the time could you get a quad cam engine, with triple carbs, electronic ignition, a 5 speed ZF gearbox, independent suspension and vented servo assisted brakes all round in the late 1960s and early 1970s?
With its RHD conversion we believe this car to be unique in the UK.