It would appear that the SIATA 400F is a Coupé version of the SIATA 208S which Steve McQueen referred to as his ‘little Ferrari.

SIATA, Societa Italiana Auto Trasformazioni Accessori, an automotive accessory company was founded in 1926 by Giorgio Ambrosini an amateur racing driver to make and sell performance parts for vehicles manufactured by FIAT.

After the Second World War SIATA started manufacturing vehicles with first FIAT 500 cc / 30 cui and then with larger American Crosley Motors.

From 1953 to 1955 SIATA manufactured around 35 208’s sports cars and no more than ten 400 F Coupés, of the type seen here at Goodwood Festival of Speed, all powered by Dante Giacosa designed 2 litre / 122 cui FIAT ‘8V’ motors.

The chassis design is credited to be the work of Austrian Rudolf Hruska who’s cv includes working on a huge variety of vehicles from the original Beetle, Tiger tank Simca 1000, FIAT 124/128 and a variety of ALFA Romeo’s including the ALFA Sud.

The Berlinetta Bodywork of the 400 F is credited to Giovanni Michelotti who was working for Farina at the time, with the body panels manufactured by Carrozzeria Balbo in Turin.

Thanks for joining me on this Torino Transformation edition of ‘Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be announcing the winner of the Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz and publishing the answers. Don’t forget to come back now !