The groundbreaking Dino GT was Maranello’s first production model to feature mid-/rear-engine placement, drawing considerably on technologies developed during the company’s prototype sports car racing campaigns of the 1960s. In the mid-1950s, Enzo Ferrari’s ailing son Alfredino had proposed some technical details for a 2-liter six-cylinder engine that the company could use in Formula 2 racing. Though Dino passed away before the project reached fruition, his name was bestowed on the resulting engine, which was used in both Formula 2 and sports car racing. In the latter category, the motor was dropped into a new series of mid-/rear-engine sports cars, starting with the Dino 196 S, and leading to a short range of Dino SP racers.

In 1965, Pininfarina bodied a one-off show car in a similar style, bringing the Dino engine a step closer to series production. A reworked version was finally offered to customers in 1967 as the 206 GT, with the numeric nomenclature representing a 2-liter six-cylinder engine (a convention that would carry over to the mid-rear engine 8-cylinder cars that followed).

Just 153 examples of the first-series 206 GT were manufactured before the 246 model was introduced and built in far greater numbers, in the process discarding many of the original car’s unique elements. Consequently, the 206 GT is now prized not only for its rarity, but also for its unique aesthetic nods to an earlier era.

Benefiting from 47 years of fastidious care by three private owners, this sensational late-production 206 GT is a spectacular example of the road-going Dino that evolved into a legend. Chassis no. 00378 is the 140th example built, and as an early Dino it is replete with all of the features that made the 206-series cars so special, including an alloy body, a wood-rimmed steering wheel, and a chrome-plated locking fuel-filler cap.

Finished in Rosso Chiaro and trimmed with Skai long-grain artificial leather upholstery, the beautiful Dino remained in Italy until 1970, when it was exported to the U.S. and purchased by George Goodrich of San Francisco. After being repainted silver, the car was sold in 1970 to Akira Stevan Patrick, an architect whose father, William Patrick, had been a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright. The elder Patrick and three fellow Wright associates had independently designed and built a compound in Woodside, California, known as the Midglen Studio. Stevan Patrick lived and worked on the Midglen estate, and when he acquired the 206 GT it became an ideal display piece for a working environment so inexorably based in design theory.

Mr. Patrick gradually undertook some restoration measures, beginning with a refinish of the curvaceous Scaglietti coachwork. After the silver paint was stripped, remnants of the original finish were discovered, and a new coat of Rosso Dino was applied. The engine and transaxle were rebuilt by a local dealership in Palo Alto, sympathetically bolstering work formerly undertaken by Mr. Goodrich, which included the sourcing and installation of a correct wiring harness from Italy.

Following the work’s completion, the Dino mostly sat in static display on the Midglen Studio estate, undoubtedly serving as inspiration for the architects living and working there. In 2013, after 34 years of possession, Mr. Patrick sold 00378, and it was purchased the following March by the consignor, who has used it rather minimally while ensuring consistent upkeep by his mechanical staff.

Displayed for decades at one of California’s influential architectural centers, this beautifully maintained 206 GT is accompanied by a jack and partially complete tool kit. It would make an ideal entrant for regional concours d’elegance or Ferrari events, offering future ownership the purest embodiment of the celebrated Dino GT roadcar.