20 replies to this topic

[Rainstorm]

Hi,

The subject of the thread says it all: I would appreciate any information about Dino.

Thanks,

Rainstorm

[Rainstorm]

what, no one??

[Don Capps]

Rain,

In my Rear View Mirror column for the next few dozen weeks - just joking! - I will make extensive references to the Dino in its various 156 forms as I cover the 1961 season.

The 246 & 256 versions are another story for another time.

Any particular aspect of the Dino that you are interested in?

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[Rainstorm]

Don, I'm interested in the human being which goes by the name of Dino Ferrari, not the car after whom it was named. Sorry for the confusion

[PDA]

Son of Enzo. Died young, I think of Leukemia but don;t quote me on that. The Dino engine and cars were named after him.

[ZippyD]

Supposedly he was Enzos' pride and joy. He was slated to take over the company and follow in the "old mans" foot steps. I go along with PDA that he died of Leukemia. The test track in Fiorano was also name for him.

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"I want to say something, not about the others but about myself."
"I used to go pieces. When I saw something like that I could hardly go on."
"But I'm older now. When I see something really terrible I put my foot down. HARD! Because I know the other person is lifting his."
"What a terrible way to win."
"Cher mademoiselle, there is no terrible way to win. There is only winning."

[Don Capps]

In the last RVM column I touched upon Dino Ferrari:

Although credit for the vee-6 was generally given to Dino Ferrari at the time, it was done so more as consolation for a grieving father than as a matter of strict fact. At the end of June 1956, Dino Ferrari died from the lingering effects of muscular dystrophy complicated and accelerated by nephritis. At the time of Dino’s death, Scuderia Ferrari were working on an engine for the new F2 which was to take effect the next year. While Dino did participate in some of the discussions concerning the engine, the actual design was that of Vittorio Jano.

Alfredo - hence "Alfredino" or "Dino" - was born to Enzo and Laura Ferari on 19 January 1932. He received a degree from Corni Technical Institute, Modena and then studied in Switzerland. He later enrolled at the University of Bologna. Dino was heir apparent. In Switzerland, his thesis was the design for a 1.5-litre, three-valve (two intake, one exhaust), 4-cylinder engine. Frail as a child, Dino suffered poor health and, as noted above, died on 30 June 1956.

I hope this helps.

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[rolando]

This is an old thread but I'm interest in more info about Enzo's son, I remember having read about him in an early 80' Road & Track issue about the Ferrari 246 Dino written by Phil Hill, though the Alfredino Ferrari info was provided by no other that Doug Nye, so I hope he or anybody else can add some more stories to this thread.

[rdrcr]

I hope this helps, I found it interesting also.

Alfredo Ferrari, called Dino (from Alfredino, = little Alfredo) was brilliant since he was a little kid. When he was a child he used to follow his father into the Maranello factory and watch what of exciting and interesting was happening there. He began to love that yellow shield in the red background and understand that everything there, was part of him. The most fantastic thing for his child's eyes were the engines. A mysterious steal box with such a power inside to explode, like his young little heart. Maybe there was an unconscious link between his disease and his natural genius for projecting engines.

He was suffering of a terrible disease that paralyzes the external mechanisms of the body, that paralyzes the power of the movements, while the heart's power inside is high and alive.

Some people said that Dino was a rare genius, cleverer than his father too. Probably he would be an engine projectionist only but for sure his talent would project something of important if he would have the chance to do it.

One day the 11 years old Dino went to Maranello with his father. There was an engine on a test bank. They approached to it and Enzo began to talk with a mechanic while the Dino's eyes were more and more opened wide between the surprised and the excited. The young boy took a corner of the Enzo's jacket and pulled it: "Papà [daddy], one day I'll build one by myself too, isn't it?".

Photo taken by the Enzo Ferrari personal album: the first man on the right is Dino showing his project to two mechanics and to his father (the second man on the left).

Enzo Ferrari was so happy that stood in silence for the surprise and a little tear dropped down by his cheek.

1956 was one of the most important years of the Enzo Ferrari's life. In Fact in that year the Maranello factory began to increase its car production going from 81 to 113 cars produced. The reason of this success (in 1961 Ferrari would have produced 1246 cars!) was the fact of a sure and reliable production system and the effort of turinese chassis designer Pininfarina.

1956 reserved to Enzo Ferrari a big pain too.The biggest. Dino died in their Modena home on 30th June 1956. His body after a short fever "stopped to work" turning off slowly, like a consumpted engine. The day after, in the French Grand Prix, Peter Collins won running with a black string on his arm and said "Mister Enzo, this is a gift for you and a dedication to Dino". Enzo Ferrari never forgot this "gift".

That's why for years and years Enzo Ferrari always wore a black tie, meaning the deep and never ending pain for his only one son so loved and too soon lost.(later Enzo Ferrari would have another son with another woman than his wife: Piero Lardi Ferrari, actual honorary president of the Ferrari company).

Enzo remembered Dino in many ways. Titling the Imola track (near Maranello) to him ("Circuito Dino Ferrari"), and that engine: the one that Dino was projecting for F1, a V6, a full Dino's idea and ended by Vittorio Jano. The cars powered by that engine model were all called "Dino", like the Dino 246 F1 that became world champion driven by Mike Hawthorn in 1958.

http://ferrari-club....ticles/dino.htm

[bira]

Originally posted by rdrcr
How tough is it to use Goggle? I hope this helps, I found it interesting also.

Richard I think the people who post on the Nostalgia forum in the look for information, are usually looking for that extra info that you won't find in a straight up search on Google

[cabianca]

Since Vittorio Jano was the dean of Italian race car designers, and the Dino engine has several of Jano's signature features, the idea that a student designer had much to do with the conception of the Ferrari V-6 engine of the late 50s is hard to swallow. None of the published versions of Dino's final illness hold much water according to medical theory, so this whole matter remains another Ferrari mystery. Once again, Ferrari's tendencies to make his life into an opera (and a best-selling one at that) obscure what really happened. If anyone can give some explanation of what medical condition supposedly dogged Ferrari's first (as far as we know) son from a young age and finally consumed him, I would be very interested to hear any facts not previously published.

[Michael Müller]

Would like to add a photo, it shows Dino in the Grand Prix car # 02C at the factory in early 1949.

[dmj]

I know that at least one boy was named Dino because of Dino Ferrari. And I know exactly who he is. Me!

[Doug Nye]

May I post a Dino pic many may not have seen before? It's of the kid in one of the Scuderia's trucks in the mid-1930s

.

I have always thought this a charming 'people picture' - and poignant in hindsight since Mum and Dad invested so much in his being...and then postwar it all went horribly wrong. I had it from what I consider to be four reliable sources - one published, three personal interview - that Dino's core illness was indeed muscular dystrophy (myopathy), and that the end-game in his case was accelerated by the secondary onset of nephritis and ultimate kidney failure, which his system could not fight.

It was believed - though I'm not sufficiently up-to-date to know if this has been disproven in recent years - that myopathy tended to run in familes, and was passed on through the mother. This belief is extremely significant in OMF's case, since Laura seemed to have fulfilled an Italian father's greatest ambition - to have given him a son and heir - and yet here would develop the belief that she had simultaneously passed on to that son and heir an early demise...

If one was writing about all this with a Hollywood movie in mind, perhaps this gave rise to the celebrated 'hereditary syphilis' rumours...although there could well be something in that, too...

Given OMF's competitive nature and ready-intellectualising, one can imagine he could have fretted himself into a rare old state around this taproot as poor Dino weakened into the 1950s.

Two people close to the throne told me independently that this was at the core of the celebrated antipathy between Mr and Mrs Ferrari which shaped so much of Ferrari lore through the later-'50s into the '60s, involving the Palace Revolution late in 1961 which saw Chiti, Tavoni and other key men shown the door - spawned ATS - ushered Forghieri into a top role - and so much more...

Every team or company personality contacted who knew Dino has recalled him as having been a very pleasant and engaging young man - obviously pale, awkward in his movements and increasingly fragile - a useful ally with his father's ear - but straightforward and open, not a politician...a promising engineer, and one with a keen eye for car body style (as in definitive sports-racing 750 Monza for example)....but not yet capable of detailing a racing engine design...

DCN

Photo from The GP Library

[rolando]

Originally posted by Don Capps

Alfredo - hence "Alfredino" or "Dino" - was born to Enzo and Laura Ferari on 19 January 1932. He received a degree from Corni Technical Institute, Modena and then studied in Switzerland. He later enrolled at the University of Bologna. Dino was heir apparent. In Switzerland, his thesis was the design for a 1.5-litre, three-valve (two intake, one exhaust), 4-cylinder engine. Frail as a child, Dino suffered poor health and, as noted above, died on 30 June 1956.

I just finished reading Brock Yates' book about Enzo Ferrari, the author doubted about Dino's academic degree and thesis, Did he really do the thesis and the degree in Switzerland?
It seems that there aren't any evidence...

[Gabrci]

Something I never knew... did Piero and Dino know each other? Did they even know of each other?

[D-Type]

Bear in mind that Piero was born in 1944 so he would have been only 12 when Dino died.

[chdphd]

Richard I think the people who post on the Nostalgia forum in the look for information, are usually looking for that extra info that you won't find in a straight up search on Google

+1

[Gabrci]

Bear in mind that Piero was born in 1944 so he would have been only 12 when Dino died.

I know, but I'm not able to answer my question with that

[TrackDog]

Bear in mind that Piero was born in 1944 so he would have been only 12 when Dino died.

I know from reading Yates' book that Piero did visit the factory from time to time as a young boy; Laura Ferrari had to be someplace else when he did so, because she'd chase after him screaming, "Bastardo! Bastardo!". It's hard to imagine Dino not picking up on that...



Dan

[RStock]

I know from reading Yates' book that Piero did visit the factory from time to time as a young boy; Laura Ferrari had to be someplace else when he did so, because she'd chase after him screaming, "Bastardo! Bastardo!". It's hard to imagine Dino not picking up on that...



Dan

I have heard Yates tell that same story , and how Piero would have to hide when she was around . But I always had the impression that Piero was around 20 years old before he started hanging around the factory , which would have been well after Dino's death . He made mention of his grandmother telling Enzo that Piero wanted to work at Ferrari , and to let him be there . This is from a recent interview with Piero

"She (his grandmother) always told my father that my wish was to work in the factory ." Piero says , "After she passed away he told me to come every week to the factory ."

I don't know the timetable on that because I don't know if Piero means Enzo's mother , or Lina's mother when he says his "grandmother" . I'm assuming he means Lina's mother , as I've read that Enzo didn't tell his mother about Piero and his relationship with Lina . It was said Enzo kept the two families completely seperated , but spending time with both , and even more with Piero after the death of Dino . And I have heard Piero refer to Dino as "my brother" in interviews . But i don't know if they ever met .

And as for Dino and the V6 , he did work closely with Jano , but I thought his main contribution was insisting that the engine be a V-6 . That Dino had the concept and framework , and Jano and he worked together hammering out the final product . But it needs to be kept in mind , Dino was rather ill at this point .

I think it's worth noting that by all accounts I've seen , Dino was a genuinly good bloke . I've seen Phil Hill say nice things about him . Peter Collins seemed to think a lot of him , and was perhaps Dino's closest friend . I've seen accounts of how Collins stayed at Dino's bedside many hours when Dino was suffering and close to the end . He would tell Collins , in so many words , to "go , do things fun , don't worry sitting here with me" , but Collins stayed anyway .

It seems Dino had all his fathers good attributes , plus some better ones . I often wonder how Ferrari would be today if Dino had lived a long life . I've always felt he was going to be a good one , perhaps even better than his father at running the show . I can't help but think we were deprived of seeing something special with Dino's demise .