It seems like rusted out Porsche 356s are dime a dozen and while we hate seeing any beautiful classic rusting away, it is always interesting to look at them. There is something terribly alluring about high dollar exotics in less than pristine condition. Looking back at all the rusty heaps of exotic metal we have featured over the years, we realized we haven’t seen many rusted out Ferraris. Having owned Italian cars, we know that Ferraris aren’t impervious to rust so that leaves us curious as to why we haven’t seen more tin worm ravaged ones. When Sean C sent us a link to this 1973 Ferrari Dino being offered here by Silverstone Auctions, we realized it is the rustiest Ferrari we have ever seen.

Before we get into the history of this car, let’s take a quick look at the history of the Dino. The story behind the Dino is that Enzo had it commissioned in honor of his son Alfredo, who passed away at the age of 24. Alfredo or Dino as his father often called him, was very technical and worked on several racing projects, including the development of the 750 Monza. He had dreams of developing a small V6 to race in Formula 2. He was able to help in a small part with the development of the 1.6 liter V6 that went on to power Ferrari’s F2 car. Little if any of the 1.6’s design made it to the V6 that would power the Dino street cars. The production 2.4 liter V6 made it to several cars, including a few non-Ferraris.

Now for this Dino’s history. The story Silverstone presents is an interesting one. It is being offered from the estate of the second owner, who parked it in their garage 39 years ago and never touched it again. Apparently they raced motorcycles and drove everything as if they were at the race track. One day while driving home, a police officer attempted to pull them over for speeding. Even though the Dino wasn’t the fastest Ferrari, it had no problem outrunning the police. Once the owner had evaded authorities, they took it home and parked it in their garage while they waited for the heat to die down. Not wanting to risk being seen in it again, a replacement car was found and the Dino was simply forgotten.

As you can see in the photos, this Dino is beyond just being rusty. Most of the front end has rusted away and there are massive holes around the windshield and doors. You would think that having been stored indoors for all those years would have prevented this, but the garage’s roof was leaky. The combination of regular moisture, poor ventilation, and Italian steel added up to the tin worm trifecta. The interior is showing some wear, but most of the parts could be salvaged with minor work. It isn’t surprising that the interior is still so solid, especially if the odometer’s reading is correct. It currently reads just 13,932 miles, which seems possible if the car was really parked after only two years of use.

We can only imagine how incredibly expensive and labor intensive restoring this Ferrari will be. If it didn’t wear that Prancing Horse badge, we would guess it would end up being parted out, but we are sure there are several aficionados out there willing to spend the cash to restore it. It should prove to be interesting to see how much this one ends up going for. We will be sure to request the results after Silverstone’s May Sale on May 24th. So why do you think we don’t see more rusty Ferraris like this one?