Founded by Giorgio Ambrosini in 1926 Siata specialized in
performance modifications for Fiats, employing the intuitive skills
of his craftsmen to create the extra power that competitive Italians
wanted for their Fiats. Fiat conspicuously ignored the high performance
market as they built their volume production empire around sensible and
reliable small cars and left the low volume high performance projects
to ingenious independents like Siata and Abarth.
Fiat changed this policy with the development of a 2-litre V8 engine,
entrusted to Siata. Rudolf Hruska, at the time working for
Siata, put Fiat's V8 engine in a chassis with fully independent
suspension which Siata had designed for the Fiat 1900. Introduced
at the Autosalon de Geneve in 1952 the Fiat 8V,
which had been developed and built in total secrecy, was a sensation but
in 1954 production was ended after 114 were built.
96 engines went to Siata which put them in the chassis for which the 8V
had been developed, calling it the 208S. A variety of bodies were
designed by coach builders including Vignale, who built three coupes.
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