A good friend of mine has had a Dino 246 GT since 1980. He bought it for $12k from Canada when he and I were both 19 years old. I believe (could be incorrect) that his is a 1972 model and doesn't have any of the pollution control devices of the US version. I remember it has a metric speedometer/odometer.
The Dino may be "underpowered" by today's standards, but in its time it was plenty fast compared to everything else available. Very lightweight in a day when cars were made of metal. And its engine screams into an RPM range unknown by almost any car of its day. No power steering, no AC, a near-worthless radio, and not very comfortable if you're taller than 5'10". But otherwise an utterly fantastic car to drive.
We tinkered with it endlessly when we were young, always trying to get the carburetors just right. It wasn't a burden but made having the car that much more fun. I later bought a Ferrari 1979 308 GTS (the Dino was never actually called a 'Ferrari' back then). The 308 was slightly more comfortable to drive and equally fun to tune. But if you ever watch old shows of Magnum PI, notice that Tom Selleck never has the roof in place. I'm the same size as Tom Selleck (but much better looking, of course), and those Eye-talians simply weren't making cars for basketball players back then!
Just this past summer, another buddy of mine who's a former Indy car driver offered a straight trade of his very nice red 1987 Testarossa for the Dino (which has been sitting in a garage too long and needs a restoration), and the guy with the Dino declined. That says a lot about the car.
The Dino is still one of the best cars of all time in my book.
