Fiat 8V Berlinetta: an amazing car from Italy's oldest automaker (14 photos)

If you put someone in front of this car and say him that this is a Fiat, no one will ever believe you. If we add that him under the hood of a V8, then you risk winning a ticket to a hospital with a bonus of shirt with sleeves at the back. But in fact, this mechanical beauty was born in Turin!





Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino or Fiat is one of the world's oldest car manufacturers. The company was founded in 1899 and over the 123 years of its existence has created an image and reputation in areas of revolutionary models for small towns. stories about such legends like Topolino, 500, 600, 127, Uno, Punto and many more, which allowed buyers in big cities or people with little wealth to buy your first car.



From time to time, Fiat knew how to surprise. You may remember the Dino model with Ferrari engine, but in this article we will not talk about him, but about modern another Fiat. He bore the somewhat confusing name 8V and amazed everyone, when he debuted in the early 50s.





The history of this car actually does not begin in Italy, and in the USA, where in 1932 Ford introduced the first affordable V8 engine. It was called Flatheat and started America's obsession eight-cylinder engines.



The first Flathead was a 3.6-liter, but eventually debuted The 2.2-litre version, which was sold in both France and Great Britain. This gave Fiat the idea that it could also develop a similar engine. In order for such a car to qualify for professional motorsport, he must have corresponding engine. Fiat didn't do all the work themselves. He turned to Siata (Società Italiana Auto Trasformazioni) for help Accessori), who will also use the engine in their model called 208CS.



When it came time to choose a name, the decision fell on the acronym 8V. fiat really wanted to use this V8 but thought it was right for such the name belongs to Ford, which actually was not the case. Error noticed later, but by that time 8V was heavily advertised and the time for there was no fix.



At home, the car was called Ottu Vù, which is translated from Italian meant V8. Dante Giacosa took care of the design and it can be said that it was a real masterpiece.

Hand on heart, most new cars in this country were fantastically designed, and the 8V didn't really stand out from the background beauties from brands with logos of Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati and others big names.



But by the standards of one Fiat, whose most popular model was the tiny Topolino, 8V was considered a wonder of the world. It should be noted that this there was also a period when Europe had not yet recovered from the consequences of the Second World War II and purchasing power was very low. Presentation luxury sports car class GT in those days was considered crazy, and it was introduced at the 1952 Geneva Motor Show.



Fiat will say the 8V didn't borrow a single part from any of the other models of the brand, but in fact it is not. Some details and suspension units were taken from the model 1100. Note that the body is made fiberglass reinforced plastic, which was the first time when Fiat introduced this technology, the suspension was independent, the brakes drum.



Manual production will be carried out in a special unit Carrozzerie Speciali. The Italian giant believed that most copies will be sold in America, where the 8V cost an incredible 11 thousand dollars (about 116,700 in terms of today).



Of course, what attracted the most attention was what was under the hood. Was A 2-liter eight-cylinder gasoline engine that developed 104 hp. Perhaps by today's standards, the figure is small, but remember what time it was all.



Later, the power will be increased to 115 hp, and later to 127 hp. Thus, this 997-kilogram coupe was able to accelerate from a standstillbefore 100 km/h in 12.6 seconds and a top speed of 190 km/h. Power was sent to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual transmission.



8V will be produced from 1952 to 1954, and during this period from the factory only 114 copies will do. The car left a much larger footprint in professional motorsport, where he has won numerous competitions with engines up to 2 liters throughout Europe, among which the largest were Targa Florio and Mille Miglia.



Its chassis and body will be used by many major independent design houses such as Zagato, Ghia and Vignale for their versions the taste of wealthy clients. Models were especially popular Ghia, and one of them, called Supersonic, was sold ten years ago for as much as $1.8 million. It was inspired by the Alfa Romeo model 1900, which the tuning studio also designed for a wealthy customer.



Many other 8Vs are worth millions, and even if you take the simplest version model, then its cost is at least 700 thousand dollars. Not bad for Fiat right?