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The following story is the first of a series of exclusive documents that we are publishing thanks to the contribution of Italian designer Paolo Martin, creator of some of the most stunning automobiles of the past, like the Ferrari Modulo, the Alfa Romeo 33 Roadster Concept and the Lancia Beta Montecarlo.
The Ferrari Dino Berlinetta Prototipo Competizione was unveiled by Pininfarina at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1967 as a working prototype and an exclusive design study.
It was based on a 206 S chassis and is well known among collectors with the name “Yellow Dino”.
This exclusive “behind of the scenes” is narrated by one of the main protagonist: the designer Paolo Martin.
“This automobile represented the summit of my dreams. I was about 23 years old and being able to see my first 1:1 scale drawing come into life as a wooden mock-up was a very strong emotion. I remember it as my first love and it is my favourite one – of course”.
“Between 1966 and 1967 I was secretly working for Pininfarina for contractual reasons.”
“I used to work on the 1:10 scale wooden model on my house’s small balcony, spreading wood shavings in the underneath courtyard, much to my mother’s desperation.”
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| A technical drawing showing the different cross-sections | An article published on L’Auto Journal magazine |
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The 1:10 model was obtained from a solid block of Pinus cembra wood, following a first sketch of the side profile and two perspective drawings. It weighted just 50 grams and represented the essence of the three-dimensional concept idea that guided the final drawings.
“I adopted this method for almost all of my projects.” explains Paolo Martin.
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The following project stages came one after the other in a very uncomplicated and straightforward way: from the 1:10 section drawings, to the full-scale drawing made on spolvero paper (a type of pouncing/tracing paper).
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| Above: high resolution images available on ferrarimodelsclub.it | ||
The whole creation process didn’t have any stop and took a total of just three-four months.
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The only things that were not planned from the start were the front and rear spoilers.
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“They were added only at the last minute, since the Management thought the design had to be enriched. I was always against it, anyway this was the final decision.”
According to the designer, the main idea behind the Dino Berlinetta was to the necessity for the windows glass surfaces – with a circular cross-section – to slide inside the gull-wing doors, which were hinged on the roof, in correspondance of the longitudinal axis of the car.
In addition to having designed the Ferrari Dino Berlinetta, Paolo Martin had the opportunity to drive it. On this regard, he simply says: “the joy of having driven this compact Ferrari cannot be described”.
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In an article published by l’Auto-Journal, Josè Rosinki defined the Ferrari Dino Berlinetta Competizione as “one of the most beatiful objects created by the man”, because it was an expression of “the joy of living”.
About Paolo Martin
Marker rendering of a design study based on Abarth chassis
(full story will come soon)
Paolo Martin was born in Turin, Italy, on 7th May 1943. His first professional experience was at Studio Tecnico Michelotti (1960).
He then worked for some of the most important Turinese designers: Bertone (July 1967), Pininfarina (July 1968) and De Tomaso Group (January 1972), where he was Ghia‘s Style Center Director (1973-1976).
Since 1976 he’s been working as a freelance designer, running a Studio which offers design consultancy and styling models construction services.
His current customers include Fiat, Nissan, BMW, Subaru, Piaggio, Gilera, Ferretti Kraft, Cigarette, Magum Marine, Dassault Aviation and others.
Works
Among his early works at Bertone are the front end of the Simca 1000 Coupé and the instrumentation of the Alfa Romeo Montreal.
Since 1967 at Pininfarina, under Segio Pininfarina and engineer R. Carli’s direct supervision, he designed many concept and production cars: the Ferrari Dino Berlinetta Competizione, Dino Parigi, Dino Ginevra, Ferrari Sigma GP; Alfa Romeo 33 Roadster, Peugeot 104, BMC 1800, BMLC 1100, Ferrari 512 Modulo, Fiat 128 Teenager, Rolls Royce Camargue, Lancia Beta Montecarlo, Fiat 130 Coupé, NSU RO 80.
For more information about Paolo Martin’s works, visit www.paolomartindesigner.com.
(Image Courtesy: Paolo Martin)
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