1968 Ferrari 166/246 Dino Formula 2

Raced by the Works SEFAC Scuderia Ferrari team in the 1968 Formula 2 championship

Raced under the Works Ferrari banner by the six-time Le Mans winner and eight-time Formula 1 Grand Prix victor Jacky Ickx

Raced under the Works Ferrari banner by the five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell

The first competition Ferrari chassis raced by Derek Bell and the car that earned him a Works Ferrari Formula 1 drive

Secured three pole positions during the 1968 Formula 2 championship

One of two Dino Formula 2 cars by the Ferrari factory in period to ‘Tasman’ specification, which included a larger 2.4-litre engine, a straight-cut five-speed gearbox and a limited-slip differential

Raced by Derek Bell in the fiercely competitive Tasman Series in Australia and New Zealand in 1969

Pictured alongside the sister Works 166 Dino F2 inside the factory gates in a Ferrari press image ahead of the 1969 Tasman season

Formerly owned by Lord Anthony Bamford and Dudley and Sally Mason-Styron, among the United Kingdom’s most prominent Ferrari collectors

Eligible for a raft of historic motoring events, including the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the F2 Classic Interseries

Ferrari in Formula 2

A comparatively short Formula 1 calendar coupled with far fewer contractual and sponsorship obligations and an abundance of potential prize money meant other motorsport series were incredibly popular in the 1950s and ’60s. It was not uncommon to see the sport’s most famous names – the likes of Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt – contesting endurance motor races, hard-fought touring-car bouts and even the Can-Am Challenge Cup across the pond. None was perhaps quite as popular among drivers (and constructors), however, as Formula 2.

Nineteen sixty-seven saw the Formula 2 championship strike out on its own and run as a standalone series separate to its senior counterpart. Ferrari, which up until that point had only dabbled in the second-tier single-seater category, saw cause to mount a Works assault. There just so happened to be a stumbling block.

You see the international Formula 2 rules dictated that the engines used by competing cars must be six cylinders in specification and derive from a homologated GT production car. A production car of which more than 500 had been built. Even in the latter half of the 1960s, Ferrari could only dream about producing entry-level (read less expensive) road cars in such volume.

So, with production of his sultry new six-cylinder Pininfarina-designed 206 Dino GT underway, Il Commendatore swallowed his pride and approached Fiat in Turin, with a view to ‘making up the numbers’. A deal was struck that resulted in Fiat using the V6 engine for its own more affordable and less exclusive Dino model. And so the homologation rules were satisfied. Enter the 166 Dino F2. 

Realised very much in the same spirit as its 312 F1-67 Formula 1 car, Ferrari’s first purpose-built Formula 2 car was a real jewel. Its sleek, diminutive scarlet cigar-tube body clothed a semi-monocoque and tubular-steel spaceframe chassis. Harnessed at the rear was the 1.6-litre Dino V6, which revved to an ungodly 10,000rpm and produced in excess of 200bhp – ample, considering the car’s scant 425kg kerb weight.

Chassis number 0010

One of two new 166 Dino F2s prepared by the Works SEFAC Scuderia Ferrari team for the 1968 Formula 2 season, chassis number 0010 made its competitive debut in the curtain-raising Gran Premio de Barcelona, held at Montjuich Park in Barcelona. It was assigned to the young Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. You know, the man who went on to win eight Formula 1 Grands Prix and six 24 Hours of Le Mans races?

Ickx demonstrated both his and the 166’s pace on his second outing with chassis number 0010, clinching pole position for the Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring. Said pace was to prove irritating for Ickx’s Scuderia Ferrari teammate Chris Amon in the next round at Zolder in Belgium.

The split-heat format meant an aggregate result would determine the points distribution. When Amon finished race one in second (Ickx was out of contention in eighth) and the winner Jochen Rindt dropped well back early in race two, Amon was all but guaranteed an overall win. If he could finish ahead of his teammate that was.

The trouble was Ickx, who’d found his groove, was racing in his home country. And he claimed not to have noticed the signals from the team urging him to relinquish his race lead and allow Amon past. In the end Rindt valiantly fought back to third place, behind the Ferraris of Ickx and Amon. And the German’s first and third were better than Amon’s two second-place finishes. Stifled celebration for Ickx, then, who’d tasted victory on home turf.

After one further outing in the hands of Jacky Ickx at Crystal Palace in London, chassis number 0010 was reassigned to Derek Bell for the remainder of the 1968 Formula 2 season. Significantly, this 166 Dino F2 was the very first competition Ferrari raced by the five-time Le Mans winner.

The young English driver recalls how exciting it was visiting the factory in Maranello for his seat-fit ahead of his first race for the Scuderia, the Gran Premio della Lotteria at Monza. “The mechanics bustled round the place getting me stepladders to climb up into the cockpit of ‘my’ Formula 2 car,” Bell remembers in his book My Racing Life. “One guy asked me how I wanted the pedals positioned, another what shape gear lever knob I required and a third how much padding I wanted in the cockpit. This was a fantastic experience – at Ferrari having a fitting for a race car!”

The trust Enzo Ferrari had invested in Bell was duly rewarded in qualifying for the race at Monza. His first competitive outing ‘in red’ resulted in a spectacular pole position. Such was the decisiveness of Bell’s qualifying lap that Il Commendatore offered the Englishman a Works contract and even a test in the full-fat 312 Formula 1 car - a test that would ultimately lead to a Formula 1 seat. “It was the big time at last!” he thought.

Bell raced chassis number 0010 on five further occasions in the remainder of the 1968 season, finishing each race and, most notably, winning a heat at Zolder in Belgium. The Englishman finished a credible fourth in the European Trophy for Formula 2 Drivers.

In the 1960s and ’70s, many of motorsport’s top drivers would spend their winter off-season in the warmer climes of Australia and New Zealand, contesting the popular Tasman Series. Kiwi Ferrari driver Chris Amon was, understandably, keen to lift the Tasman Cup and talked the Scuderia into providing him two cars to race ‘down under’ in 1969. One of these cars was chassis number 0010.

Because the Tasman technical regulations permitted engines up to 2,500cc in capacity, Ferrari upgraded the 166 Dino F2 to 246 specification. That meant installing the 24-valve 2.4-litre V6 previously used by the Scuderia’s Formula 1 cars, in addition to a slew of other upgrades including a straight-cut five-speed gearbox, Lucas indirect fuel injection and a limited-slip differential. Visually, the most obvious tell for the 1969 car was the addition of the small Formula 1-inspired aerofoil wing, mounted just aft the driver.

“Such was the decisiveness of Bell’s qualifying lap with this car that Il Commendatore offered the Englishman a Works contract and even a test in the full-fat 312 Formula 1 car - a test that would ultimately lead to a Formula 1 seat.”

Though Ferrari stopped short of flying any personnel out to Sydney to directly assist with the running of the cars (it was only getting a percentage of the winnings), Maranello’s support in other ways was invaluable to Amon and his Scuderia Veloce outfit. “I greatly appreciate what Ferrari did for me because it’s a helluva long way from them,” Amon later explained. “They air-freighted out any parts we needed and they supplied all the information we asked for.”

While Amon would drive the sister 246 Dino, chassis number 0008, during the 1969 Tasman Series, Derek Bell was invited to drive chassis number 0010 once again. From the off, the potent 300bhp Ferraris proved the class of the field, Amon securing a decisive victory in the opening round at Pukekohe in New Zealand. Indeed, Amon would go on to win the championship, beating the likes of Jochen Rindt, Piers Courage, Graham Hill and Jack Brabham.

Meanwhile, Bell played a strong supporting role with this car, picking up a season-best second position at Warwick Farm and even winning a preliminary 14-lap race ahead of the Levin International. He finished fourth in the series standings. But the Englishman’s fond memories of both his Ferrari and his time spent contesting the Tasman Series outshine the on-paper result. “The whole Tasman trip was really fantastic – particularly for me at that stage of my career,” Bell recalls. “Those Dinos were beautifully balanced little cars with, in 2.4-litre form, a superb power-to-weight ratio.

Its competitive duties complete, chassis number 0010 was returned to the Works in Maranello in the spring of 1969. The car was later acquired by Lord Anthony Bamford, among the United Kingdom’s foremost Ferrari collectors, before joining the stable of Dudley and Sally Mason-Styron in 1980. Well-known champions of the Ferrari marque in the UK, the Mason-Styrons cherished this Dino for almost four decades, sharing it at a raft of events including Goodwood Festival of Speed on several occasions and Ferrari’s 50th-anniversary celebration in Maranello.

Offered directly from a subsequent – though no less significant – collection of historic competition cars, this 166/246 Dino is a truly special car: a Works Ferrari single-seater raced with success in period by two of the most decorated drivers of their generations, Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell, at the beginnings of their illustrious careers. Its according eligibility for a raft of historic motoring events, sheer stop-you-in-your-tracks beauty and beguiling condition render this thoroughbred Prancing Horse a tantalising proposition for discerning Ferrari disciples.