Produced from 1967 to 1974, the Ferrari Dino has come to be recognized as one of the most desirable sports cars of its era – a Pininfarina-styled masterpiece powered by a mid-mounted, four-cam V-6 whose lineage traces directly to Ferrari’s Formula 1 and sports prototype racing programs. As with most great collectibles, the earliest and latest examples are the most coveted. While the alloy-bodied 206 GT and early L-Series 246 GTs represent the purest expression of the design, the late-production E-Series cars mark the Dino’s ultimate evolution. Among them, the so-called “Chairs and Flares” examples are the most prized.

Never an official factory designation, “Chairs and Flares” refers to late E-Series Dinos specified with Daytona-style seats, flared wheel arches, and Campagnolo cast alloy wheels. These features were available only at the end of Dino production, and most examples so equipped were open-top 246 GTS models built for the North American market. It is believed that fewer than 150 such cars were built, making them exceptionally scarce – particularly when paired with significant provenance, as with the remarkable example presented here.

According to research by model historian Matthias Bartz, chassis 08062 was completed in April 1974, and is the only Dino ever finished in Signal Orange, a vivid period color selected from Porsche’s palette. A US-specification car, it was generously optioned with Borletti air-conditioning, electric windows, radio, and black Connolly leather upholstery. Though ordered through official Ferrari dealer Francisco Mir of Santa Monica, California, this Dino was clearly built to special order for a client with a specific vision and close ties to the marque: celebrated California architect Craig Ellwood.

Craig Ellwood (1922–1992) occupies a distinctive place in postwar American modernism. Self-taught yet informed by the International Style and the work of Mies van der Rohe, Ellwood’s architecture was defined by structural precision, disciplined minimalism, and an almost automotive sensitivity to proportion and line. His buildings – often composed of exposed steel and glass – balanced intellectual rigor with visual lightness, rewarding close inspection through carefully resolved details. Today, they stand as enduring expressions of Southern California mid-century modernism at its most refined.

Ellwood’s appreciation for purposeful form and mechanical elegance naturally extended to Italian sports cars. His ownership of a Lamborghini Miura P400 speaks to an attraction to radical engineering, while his Ferraris – a 365 GTB/4 Daytona and this Dino 246 GTS, both finished in orange – reflect his appreciation for line, balance, and performance. These were cars chosen not for excess, but for the coherence of their design language, mirroring Ellwood’s own architectural ideals.

Ellwood collected his Dino directly from the Ferrari factory in Maranello, where it was first registered on Italian tourist plates, “EE 60557.” Early in his ownership, he personalized the car with Perspex headlamp covers, a fender-mounted mirror, black-painted wheel centers, and a custom, full-width rear bumper, later registering it in California on vanity plates reading “VROOOM.” A period photograph shows the Dino posed alongside Ellwood’s celebrated “inhabited bridge” at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena – an elegant International Style structure later profiled in Domus, forever linking Ellwood’s architectural legacy with this singular Ferrari.

It is believed Ellwood retained the Dino for decades, bringing it with him to Tuscany, Italy, upon retirement, before it eventually returned to the US. In the late 1990s, Ferrari specialist Elliot Grossman acquired the car via a government auction near San Diego on behalf of Symbolic Motor Car Company, which restored it in its original colors.

Around 2000, it was purchased by noted Ferrari collector Dott. Antonio Curreri of New York City, who commissioned an extensive mechanical rebuild – including engine, gearbox, and suspension – by Vincenzo Latino of Auto Elite in Tenafly, New Jersey. Dott. Curreri retained the Dino for over 20 years, driving and occasionally exhibiting it, including a recent appearance at The Bridge.

Recently acquired by the consignor and still presenting in superb condition, this unique Chairs and Flares 246 GTS is offered with tool kit, jack, owner’s manual, and reports by marque historians Marcel Massini and Matthias Bartz. Quite simply, this is one of the most fascinating and significant Dino 246 GTS examples ever built – an irreplaceable union of rarity, bespoke specification, and mid-century design at its very best.