DINO 246 GTS *06002* is a standard “E-Model” production “GTS” built for the North American (Export) Market in April of 1973 under a special order by Ferrari Dealer, Ron Tonkin in Portland, Oregon.  Tonkin ordered this as a personal vehicle for himself and it would remain in his family for the next 21 years until finally being sold in 1994.

06002 was completed and has always been painted “Giallo Fly” Yellow with a black leather interior.  Tonkin ordered this Dino fitted with the following options:

-Wider Campagnolo Magnesium/Alloy Wheels
-Flared Fender Arches
-Daytona Seats with no contrasting color inserts
-Air Conditioning
-Power Windows
-No Radio or external Antenna

After delivery in the Spring of 1973, the car was given to Bert Tonkin, (Ron’s cousin in San Francisco.)

In December of 1990, classic car dealer and broker, Mark Ketcham offered the car for sale on behalf of Tonkin. The advertised asking price was $425,000 which was at the time a record asking price.  The car was described as:

“Completely original and perfect Dino “Chairs and Flairs” (sic) in fly yellow with black leather interior, AC and PWR windows, 46,000 original, one family from new miles.”

The car remained unsold and was returned to Tonkin.  After being returned to Tonkin, a preventative maintenance update saw the timing chain, tensioners, cam and cam bearings all replaced.  A top end rebuild of the engine was completed and the transaxle rebuilt and resealed.  In January of 1994, the car was sold by Tonkin to his friend William James Weiner of Los Gatos, California.  At the time of the sale, total mileage was 47,925 miles.  One month later the car was purchased by Ichizo Kobayashi’s Infinity Enterprise Corporation of 4435 Coldwater Canyon Drive, No. 102, Studio City, CA 91604.  The car was then stripped to bare metal and carefully repainted to the same original delivery colors.  During the repaint the USA type rear side marker lights were removed and a second external matching right-hand-side rearview mirror was fitted to this Dino.  The work was likely done at the request of a new Japanese client as Kobayashi’s main business was sourcing and selling collectible vehicles to mainland Japan.  The car was shipped to Japan one month later and formally imported to Japan on March 1995.  On arrival it was road-registered on plates “399 13-97.”  Total mileage at the time of export/import was 47,985 which was recorded on the Japanese registration records.  On November 25th, 2004, the car was sold to a dealer and reregistered on plates “301 85-02” and at the time of registration, the car had 48,100 miles.

Over the next 11 years, this Dino GTS covered just shy of 700 additional miles, usually during periodic maintenance, services and annual safety checks to ensure all was in good working order.  We purchased this Dino in Tokyo, Japan on March 19th, 2015 and total mileage at the time of our purchase was 48,776 miles.

This Dino arrived in the States and was released by US Customs on April 23rd, 2015.  On April 24th, I completed a comprehensive inspection, evaluation and test drive of this vehicle.  The corresponding inspection photos posted here were taken at that time.