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Photos by Dan Proudfoot

When Norbert Egli drove his Ferrari into Mosport for the Historic Grand Prix, he could have strutted around as though he owns the place.

At 83, he’s an original shareholder in the track, now named Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. He’s also a life member in the British Empire Motor Club (BEMC), and has been a track marshal for decades. And that car of his: When was the last time anyone saw a Dino 208 GT4?

But Egli isn’t one to strut and has none of the insiders’ swagger. Totally egalitarian, he’s forever engaging strangers to share his enthusiasm.

A personal example: He spotted the Monterey, Calif., license frame on my Porsche 911SC at last year’s historic races and introduced himself – pointing to the Monterey frame on his Ferrari Dino’s plate.

Anticipating this year’s vintage races, held June 17 to 19, he recounted how the track was BEMC’s high-octane field of dreams in the late 1950s.

“Chuck Stockey was a leading member – there’s a music hall named after him now at Parry Sound – and the club asked him to check out the 450 acres of farmland that was up for sale north of Bowmanville. At the next BEMC meeting, he said it’d be a good idea to build our track there.”

Egli invested about $300 in the fledgling Mosport Limited – $25 shares raised $31,000 for the land purchase, $100 debentures went toward $250,000 for construction – as did his brother Max, who owned a garage while Norbert worked at a Volkswagen dealership.

The people certainly did come – 40,000 for the first Player’s 200 in June, 1961. Two years later, Mosport was in receivership. “It was a club trying to run a business,” Egli says. “You need professionals like now, with Carlo Fidani and Ron Fellows in charge.”

If the rarity of his pale blue 1975 Dino turns the heads of Ferrari cognoscenti – only 406 were hand-built by Bertone Carrozzeria in 1975, 840 in total – they’re absolutely baffled to learn its tiny V-8 engine is a 2.0-litre, same displacement as a base-level Honda Civic.

As Egli explains, Enzo Ferrari wanted his Dino cars to be priced lower than his 12-cylinder prancing horses in order to compete with the Porsche 911. Reducing the cylinder bore of Ferrari’s 3.0-litre V-8 created the 2.0-litre, allowing the 208 GT4 to sidestep onerous taxes Italy applied to larger engines.

Egli is fine with its 200 horsepower and 220 km/h top speed, having held his own in Ferrari club lapping days at Mosport, Mont-Tremblant, Que., and Watkins Glen, N.Y., before giving up track driving along with riding his Ducati motorcycle at the age of 80.

Turning the Dino’s steering wheel, he says, the car finds its own way around a corner. Signs indicating 30 mph turns meant 60 mph for the Dino, on the way to wintering in Florida.

“Listen to that,” he interjects in appreciation as we drive along the back roads beyond his house north of Courtice, Ont. “Eeeeee – those gears mesh so nicely, they sound just like a little sewing machine.”

Although he was born in Switzerland, Egli’s mother was Italian. He grew up relishing Italian design – in art and architecture as well as the automobile.

“You hear Ferrari owners at major meets like the Cavallino Classic [at Palm Beach, Fla., each winter], saying their fascination started with one particular car or another,” Egli says.

“I say, my connection began in 1947 when Enzo Ferrari made his first car and I went into a four-year apprenticeship in Zurich, starting by making babbit-type connecting rods. We never met – but I have a personal snapshot of Enzo, given me by a Belgian photographer I met at Cavallino.”

Retired from a GM Canada career where he worked as an experimental/engineering technician, he chuckles at the cars he coveted that might have fattened his bank account. A Bugatti, for example (French-made, but Ettore Bugatti was born Italian): “I was so close to buying – until I thought, ‘Margaret [his wife] will not sit in an open car, so what would be the point?’

“Then there was a grey Dino 246 GT, very low mileage, on a lot on Eglinton, I think they wanted $19,000. At the time I was still thinking like Enzo, that a real Ferrari had to have 12 cylinders, not a V-6. That $19,000 car would sell for $400,000 or more today.

“I paid $30,000 for my Dino in 1982 – and it’d be $40,000 today.”

Second-generation Dinos never caused collectors’ eyes to dilate in wonder as did the original 206/246. They’re among the most affordable, slowest-appreciating of Ferraris. Never one to strut, Egli never complains, either. Enjoying this life he and Margaret have made for themselves prevails.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the car is a Ferrari Dino 248 GT4. The car is a Ferrari Dino 208 GT4.