Ferrari torn over Dino sub-brand reboot

Ferrari has announced it is struggling to make a decision on whether or not it should resurrect its famous Dino name to spawn a family of new entry-level sports cars that could go head-to-head with cars like the Porsche 911.

Talk of reviving the Prancing Horse’s famous 1960-1970s model name and using it for a more affordable sub-brand to sit below Ferrari has been rife over the years.

Even the Italian supercar-maker's CEO, Sergio Marchionne, fuelling the speculation himself as recently as 2015 when he declared it was "not a question of if, but when" the Dino sub-brand would be resurrected.

Since then there has been silence on relaunching the Dino -- until yesterday that is, when Marchionne told industry analysts that, despite support from senior management, "not everyone is convinced it is a good move".

According to Automotive News, Marchionne then went on express his fears that a sub-brand like Dino would detract from the exclusivity of Ferrari, claiming that it would be "dangerous" to lower the entry-level price for the brand.

Marchionne said he was no longer sure it was necessary to make a cheaper Ferrari to attract younger buyers on account of the brand’s existing "phenomenally young" customer base in markets like Asia.

"We need to explore ways to attract customers to traditional values of the brand such as style, performance and engine sound before degrading the entry-level price for the brand", the Ferrari CEO said.

Indications that Ferrari is now hesitant to introduce a modern Dino to the market have surprised some investors and analysts who were expecting the car-maker to introduce a small sports car priced around €150,000 ($A220,000) in the very near future.

Some though such a sports car might help the brand sneakily exceed Marchionne's self-imposed annual production limit of 10,000 cars per year.

Originally, Marchionne hinted a Dino would come with a small V6 engine to help the sports car and the sub-brand distance itself from the V8 and V12 Ferraris.

This posed a problem internally for the brand, says industry Evercore ISI analyst, George Galliers, who told Automotive News that for the brand to be credible such a car would have to have performance "comfortably ahead" of its rivals like the Porsche 911.

It's that thought to create such a car would be a real headache for engineers within Maranello, because exceed 911 levels of performance would push the Dino into Ferrari 488 territory.

The final decision on the Dino brand, Marchionne says, will be made when the CEO announces his five-year vision for Ferrari. That's set to happen in the first quarter of 2018.

While speaking to investors, Ferrari's charismatic CEO once again brought up the topic of a Ferrari-badged SUV, confirming it would be a four-seat "utility" vehicle created for the "selected few", and that would not go head-to-head with Porsche’s Cayenne.