It is believed work commenced on the 2 litre FIAT Tipo 106 70° V8 design credited to Dante Giacosa in 1945.
The engine which was manufactured in 105, 115 or extremely rare 120 hp variants was only used for the 8V model in FIAT’s range, but was notably also adopted by SIATA for their 208S model.
8V’s, so called because Ford held the copyrights to the V8 name, were fitted into a tube frame chassis with independent suspension taken form the contemporary FIAT 1100 parts bin.
Bodywork for the 114 8V’s, also known as Otto Vú’s, was primarily farmed out to a variety of coach builders including Zagato, Ghia and Vignale although 34 had bodywork designed by FIAT’s Fabio Luigi Rapi and made by FIAT’s Reparto Carrozzerie Speciali.
While the production numbers were extremely low, by FIAT’s standards, they were built in sufficient numbers to qualify for use in GT competition where they enjoyed many successes.
Among those successes were Elio Zagato’s, from the coach building company, outright victories in the 3 hour race at Bari in 1954, repeated in 1955 by Carlo Siciliani on the same event and a win in the 1955 Berlin Grand Prix, drivers of 8V’s won the Italian under 2 litre GT championships up to and including 1959.
The example seen here at last years Silverstone Classic is a 1954 MkII Berlinetta one of just 28 with the later version of Rapi’s bodywork built by Reparto Carrozzerie Speciali, it has been restored by Ian Nuttall of IN Racing in Nottingham.
Thanks for joining me on this “Otto Vú” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Group B Rally Car that conquered Africa in the mid 1980’s. Don’t forget to come back now !
