1954 Fiat 8V Coupé by M.F.Boano 114 bhp, 1,996 cc overhead valve V8 engine, four-speed manual gearbox, four-wheel coil spring independent suspension, four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes. Wheelbase: 94.5 The name Fiat is generally associated with small cars of four or fewer cylinders, although some of the very early fours were of gargantuan proportions. The 60 horsepower cars of 1904 to 1906 exceeded ten litres, and the company’s first six in 1907 displaced a mammoth 11,044 cc. More recently there have been sixes of more modest size and even a V12 in 1921-1922, the Type 520 of 6,805 cc. But not until 1952 did the Italian auto giant build a car with eight cylinders. This 8V model, or Otto Vu in the Italian, was built for two years only in 114 examples and remains an enigma to this day. Star of the March 1952 Geneva show, the streamlined two-seat coupé turned heads, and its proffered performance, 120 mph from a 1,996 cc narrow-angle V8, set tongues a-wagging. “Could this be,” wrote the late historian Michael Sedgwick in his 1973 book Fiat, “the poor man’s Ferrari?” The 8V’s godfather was Dante Giacosa, director of Fiat’s Technical Office from 1946 to 1955 and later director of Technical Affairs and Project Management. A mechanical engineering graduate of Turin Polytechnic, he began his career at Olivetti but soon gravitated to SPA, a maker of commercial vehicles that Fiat had acquired in 1926. He then worked briefly in Fiat’s passenger car design office before moving into aero engines, where he quickly became Head of Section. He was soon back into cars, however, designing the engine for the 500 Topolino and working on the 508 Balilla and 1500. During the war years, his work was directed mostly to aeronautical matters. In 1944, Giacosa was introduced to Piero Dusio, a textile entrepreneur and motor sport enthusiast. By 1938, Dusio had his own racing team. Having made a good deal of money from military uniforms, toward the end of World War II he started dreaming of his own line of race cars. Giacosa took up the challenge, moving to Dusio’s villa outside Turin and designing a monoposto race car, the Cisitalia D46, and a two-seat sports car. He then returned to Fiat and was appointed to head the Technical Office. In 1947, Giacosa spent some time in America, principally at Detroit, in search of ideas for a larger, five-seat car that Fiat was considering. The project was designated “101,” and following Giacosa’s American trip, he advocated accommodating a two-litre engine for western markets. In the end, the 101 used a 1,400 cc four and debuted as the Fiat 1400 in Geneva in 1952. Fiat’s Associate General Manager Luigi Gajal, however, still wanted a larger engine variant. A straight six wouldn’t fit under the bonnet, and Giacosa felt a V6 would be too hard to balance. A 90-degree V8 was too wide for the 1400’s engine bay, so, after a number of engineering studies, he settled on 70 degrees as a compromise between overall width and ease of manufacturing. The project was given the designation “104.” The engine design was well along by the time the 1400 made its debut. In order to keep weight down and performance up, Giacosa’s team found they had to make improvements in bearings and lubrication. This done, a luxury car chassis was built by stretching a 1400 frame and sent to Pinin Farina for a body. It was too heavy. Even with the V8 engine it would have been underpowered. Gajal then endorsed Giacosa’s request for a small V8-engine sports car. Sedgwick likens this exercise to William Lyons’ and William Heynes’ creation of the Jaguar XK 120 as an engine test bed for a saloon car powerplant. As we know, the XK engine took on a life of its own, spawning several generations of out-and-out sports cars. A new chassis was designed strong and rigid with independent suspension. Construction and some development of the chassis were consigned to Siata, conveniently located nearby and with plenty of experience in special projects. The chassis of the earliest cars was built largely of oval tubing, but this was changed after a few cars to round-section tubing. In order to support the body, rectangular side rails were added. The body, fabricated of outer and inner sheet metal skins or panels, was stressed, the sheets welded to each other and to the chassis. Giacosa favoured a fastback coupé. The styling was influenced by Fabio Rapi, who had come from Isotta Fraschini and who would later head Fiat’s styling centre. Much attention was paid to air flow, although the study of aerodynamics was not then as advanced as it is now. The headlamps and grille drew much from Giacosa’s work for Cisitalia, but in the end, vertical bars were used instead of a horizontal theme. Reaction at the Geneva roll-out was immediate. The Motor opined that “…the last thing which had been expected from Italy’s largest car factory was a truly streamlined 2-seater saloon.” America’s Road & Track called it “the biggest surprise of the year,” and waxed ecstatically about its technical specification: “Evidence of weight saving and shrewd design is seen in the exceptionally thin windshield supports…” Production proceeded along craft lines. Chassis completed at Siata were sent to Fiat’s Carrozzerie Speciali for bodies. Drive trains were then installed in a “special construction area.” It was, as Giacosa was quoted by Winston Goodfellow in Automobile Quarterly, “…more for the Italian market than foreign markets. It was more an experiment to see how something like that would do.” Although Fiat themselves did not race the 8V, cars were placed with drivers who did. The first of these, owned by Franco Auricchio, was entered in the 1952 Mille Miglia and driven by Vincenzo Auricchio and Peiro Bozzinio. It finished fifth in its class. Ovidio Capelli, the Milanese Fiat dealer, then commissioned Zagato to develop full race 8V. A lightweight car with aerodynamic body was turned out in record time for the Giro della Toscana. It placed third in class, but during the season it rolled up sufficient credits to become the national two-litre GT champion. It was Elio Zagato, however, the coachbuilder’s son, who really put the 8V on the map. His success in competition was so great that a steady clientele for Zagato 8Vs developed, and Zagato built two renditions. A Zagato-bodied version became very popular, its lines evolving over time. Another version was essentially a modified Fiat body, built in only a few examples and each different from the other and for specific customers. These were dubbed “Elaborata Zagato.” In addition to Zagato, a number of other Italian carrozzerie put their coachwork on the Otto Vu. Pinin Farina’s attractive coupé, which debuted at Geneva in 1955, had buttresses reminiscent of his Ferrari 375MM shown at Paris in 1954. Ghia, however, did some of the most remarkable work on Fiat’s clever little chassis. No fewer than fifteen 8Vs emanated from the Ghia workshops. At least fourteen of them were the spectacular “Supersonic” coupé penned by Giovanni Savonuzzi. Savonuzzi had worked with Giacosa at Fiat and was later recommended to replace him at Cisitalia, where he saw the D46 into production and did the chassis engineering for the 202 series. Originally a design idea for a customer of Virgilio Conrero, who built a special using highly tuned Alfa Romeo 1900 mechanics, the Supersonic design was seen first at the 1953 Mille Miglia. It was then adapted quickly to a small series of the 8V and was later seen on Jaguar, with further derivatives on Aston Martin chassis as well. In the midst of the Supersonic production, one Ghia body for the 8V was the work of Mario Boano. This is that car. Boano had worked at Stabilimenti Farina, then for Pinin Farina as well as having his own shop prior to 1940. After Giacinto Ghia died in 1944, his family sold the business to Boano and Giorgio Alberti. A close relationship with Fiat existed from 1948, when Ghia built Boano’s Gioiello on the Fiat 1100 chassis. Boano engaged Luigi Segre as sales manager in 1950, which led to contracts with Chrysler and Karmann and helps explain the similarity in design amongst the Chrysler concept cars, the Karmann Ghia and several of Ghia’s smaller contracts, like the 8V and the Cisitalia 808. Sedgwick’s analogy to Jaguar did not hold. The Fiat 8V did not follow a similar development path. There was never a production luxury saloon, nor did the 8V beget later generations of sports cars. Fiat ended production in 1954, the last chassis being dispatched in September, although some cars did not appear in bodied form until 1955 and even 1956. Total production came to just 114 units including the first prototype that seemingly was never seen by the public. Concurrent with Fiat’s production, 8V engines and driveline packages were sold to Siata as well. Their production of Fiat 8V-derived sports cars continued from 1952 through 1954, although some were not sold by their USA importers until significantly later. About 60 were completed. Fiat 8V chassis number 000042 was sold new in Turin on 10 June 1953. It is not clear whether it was supplied direct to Ghia or was handled by a local dealer, but by the time it landed at the Carrozzeria, the Supersonic design was essentially complete and was likely being built. This car draws on many themes and memes that were cycling through Ghia at the time: Savonuzzi’s Supersonic, Exner’s K310 and d’Elegance and Boano’s Gioiello, not to mention the Cisitalia 808. More conservative than the Supersonic, it has the “conventional” 8V oval mouth, adorned succinctly with two horizontal bars. The Ghia “kickup” in the rear wing is muted, but the C pillar treatment displays hints of the d’Elegance treatment that was enshrined in the Karmann Ghia. Originally the car had full wheel discs, hiding – like the early 8Vs – wire wheels underneath. By 1957, it was reported to be in the United States, imported by a Hollywood director according to one account. Around this time the present Siata engine, number BS*099, was installed. It should be noted that this is essentially the same type motor, as these engines were sent directly to Siata after coming off the line at Fiat. Though minor running changes were conducted in the two-year production run, none pertain to displacement or other issues of consequence. There followed a litany of owners – John de Boer’s Italian Car Registry lists nearly a dozen, most located in California. Its recent history and restoration have taken place on America’s West Coast. At one point it appears to have masqueraded as a Siata, more familiar than the 8V in the U.S., and was advertised that way in the 1970s. More recently, the correct contours have been restored, and the car has reclaimed its Boano countenance. Exquisite in all respects, this Fiat 8V is a recent and fastidious restoration. Body and paintwork were completed by master craftsman Steve Beckman in southern California in the late 1990s. Renowned Italian car specialist Tony Nicosia of Costa Mesa attended to the mechanical work, while the owner, an Italian car enthusiast, oversaw disassembly and reassembly. The restoration has attended to original specification and detail throughout: Carello headlamps, Marchal driving lights, and mechanical fuel pump. The engine and gearbox have been completely rebuilt and are period correct. The fit and finish, inside and out, are of the highest quality. The exterior is painted in a crisp variant of metallic silver. All panels have flawless contours, and gaps are even and correctly aligned. The brightwork, tastefully minimal, is excellent throughout. The seats are upholstered in red leather with grey piping, with matching door and kick panels. Carpets are grey, and a long-arm gear stick emerges from the gearbox tunnel, terminating in a polished aluminium knob. The instrument panel is sheer Italian artistry. Painted bright red, it holds matching white-on-red gauges and a symmetrical half-moon speedometer and tachometer in binnacle in front of the driver. Clock, fuel and oil pressure gauges reside at the centre. The temperature warning light has been supplemented by a modern gauge tucked under the panel. The Nardi-made steering wheel is a marvellous sandwich of aluminium rim between outer crusts of wood, while the front passenger is comforted by a matching grab handle directly in front of the seat. The car was an invited participant at the 2002 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and took part in The Quail, a motor sports gathering held at the Quail Lodge Resort during the Monterey weekend, in 2005. In 2006 it completed the California Mille, an invitational 1,000-mile road tour for historic and classic cars, in company with several other Fiat 8Vs. In 2007 it was repatriated to Europe where it took a second place finish at the prestigious concours event at Villa d’Este. The only non-Supersonic Fiat 8V to be bodied by Ghia, this car is unique in the absolute sense of the word.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 19:36:19 +0000