Thank Frankel it's Friday: 206 GT to 246 GT – the ultimate Ferrari facelift

And it seems this mild consternation stems from the fact that Ferrari has always done things in twos: as the 458 begat the 488, so too did the 360 give birth to the 430, the 348 to the 355 and the 308 to the 328. Now there are a couple of things to say here: first Ferrari has notalways done things in twos, and facelifting a facelift is not unprecedented as the Testarossa/512TR/F512M evolution bears witness. But what about the Dino 246 GT? People appear not to be mentioning it so much because rather than being a comprehensive update, the 246 was just its 206 parent with a bigger engine. Wasn’t it?

Not even close. In fact despite their startling visual similarities, you could argue that the greatest change in all these mid-life rethinks was that which turned the 206 GT into the 246 GT. And you don’t need long behind the wheel of either to know it.

Indeed whereas today the mantra with most facelifts of normal cars is to make as few changes as possible, especially to any expensive components, while making the car at least appear extensively renewed, Ferrari took a different approach with his first two road going Dinos. The brief appears to have been ‘change as much as you possibly can with as few people noticing as possible.’

So we’ll deal with the stuff I think most people know already: the expansion in engine capacity from 2.0-litres to 2.4-litres, the fitment of a fuel filler flap and the deletion of the 206’s rather lovely three-eared wheel spinners.

But the engines were actually completely different, for not only does the 246 engine have a different bore to the 206, but a different stroke too. And a lower compression ratio. And different carburation. Most significantly, it’s not even made from the same material, the 206 being an all alloy unit, the 246 employing a cast iron block. And though both used five-speed gearboxes, their ratios were bespoke to each.

What about the cars they sat in? They’re pretty similar, surely? Actually, their chassis and bodies are even more different than their powertrains. It is perhaps reasonably well known that the 206 body was entirely aluminium while that of the 246 was steel (except for the bonnet); I think it less common knowledge that they share not a single dimension in common, so no panel from a 246 would come close to fitting a 206. Specifically the 206 is shorter in both outright length and wheelbase, narrower and lower. Which of course means the tubular steel chassis beneath is completely different on both cars too.

The list of detail changes is enormous including, but not limited to, different exhausts, steering wheels, gloveboxes, ventilation, locks, handbrakes and so on. The 206 even had magnesium cam covers. The 246 did not.

Why Ferrari decided effectively to entirely redesign the 206 after barely a year in the market place would appear to be a move both to increase performance and reduce production costs, and it certainly worked: just over 150 206 GTs were built, compared to over 3,500 246 GTs and GTSs.

To drive they are as different as their specifications suggest; and now you’re expecting me to say the 206 GT is the real hidden gem here, the lightweight, purest and original incarnation of Ferrari’s vision for a new road car brand named in honour of his late son. Except I’m not. 

As you would expect, the 206 is a really interesting car to drive but in all honesty (and money issues aside), I’d have the 246 GT every time. The big surprise to me was how much slower the 206 felt: I always assumed the weight saved by its aluminium body and engine would more than offset the claimed 15bhp deficit to the 246 GT engine. But it’s not even close: for a start and for reasons I don’t really understand, the weight difference between them is not what you expect. There are lots of different claimed weights out there but a quorum of more reliable sources puts the difference at less than 50kg. Second, I suspect the 180bhp claimed for the 206 GT is perhaps somewhat hopeful. Certainly the same engine in the Fiat Dino built on the same line in the same Fiat factory developed 160bhp with no apparent differences between the two.

To me the 246 GT’s power was better matched to the superlative chassis fitted to both cars. You don’t always need to be up around the red line in the later car and, surprisingly, it sounded even better too.

So there it is: however comprehensively Ferrari has updated and upgraded the 488 to create the F8, 50 years ago it went to even greater pains to turn the interesting curio that was the 206 GT into one of its greatest ever road cars, the stupendously wonderful 246 GT.