Hi all, at last Mille Miglia there was this smashing car: a SIATA 208S with the engine of the Fiat 8V. I'd like to contact the owner in anyway or, if anyone of you could know a person who owns this car, have his contact for JOURNALISTIC purposes. Thank you very much to who will help me. Best regards Alveng Image Unavailable, Please Login
Post this in the EU section because there are Swiss license plates on it. Maybe Simon knows more about the car. He knows a lot about vintage italian cars.
A beautiful car. But I've never seen pictures of this Boano coupe. I know the 208s vignale spyders and the coupes by Vignale, Farina and Bertone, but not this car. As far as the plate is concerned, its from Tessin/Ticino in Switzerland but its a temporary import plate only valid for 4 months. Unfortunately the Mille Miglia was more than 4 months ago so the car is almost certainly no longer in Switzerland. Try PM'ing the guys in the vintage section. Dretcetrini, Billnoon, Wayne Ausbrooks. These are the real experts of vintage italian. Hope this was a help Cheers Simon
Thank you! Consider that the plate is from Switzerland but the entry-list of 2005 Mille Miglia says the car comes from US. Can you suggest the correct place to post this thread?
It is my old car. I bought it a few years ago. I was going to race it in the MM but got offered such crazy money, I had to take it. I sold it to a guy in Ohio who sold it to Bruce Trennery at Fantasy Junction. The car ran with us this year in the Tour Auto. Then the new owner took it to the MM. Call Bruce at Fantasy Junction in Emeryville, California. He can put you in touch with the new owner. Cheers, Bill Noon
Bill the car is stunning. Any chance you can post some pictures and give some background info on the car? Cheers Simon
YEAH! This could be great. And if images could be beautiful and Mr Bill could be interested, I could manage an article for the magazine I work for.
This car was bodied by either Motto or Siata's inhouse carrozzeria. The experts don't know. Its #BS537, a one off, the most impressive 208CS and one of the last 8V powered Siata's specially made for Bill Doheny and Ernie McAfee to be run in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana, which did not happen.
I will try after the races to post my photos and well as historical notes. The car was raced and crashed in the 54 Carrera and rebodied back in Italy by an Italian body shop under the name of Carrozzeria Bilbao or Bilboa not Boano. This is a one of one type body. Very neat, noisy as heck and not for anyone over 5'6"! Car was prepared for the 55 Carrera but the race was cancelled. Was then raced all over the west Coast into the late 1960s. Neat car...wish I had kept it but then I would not have the Maserati. Cheers, Bill
Hmmm- never looked at this "other Italian" section before. This car is a SIATA 208S, chassis BS537, ex Bill Doheny, Wesley Belt, Rick Cole, etc. etc. now owned by a gentleman in the Monterey, CA area. It was built for Ernie Mcaffee to run in the 1954 Carrera Panamericana but was not finished in time for that event. Mcaffee raced it a few times in southern California and then it was used as a road car by Bill Doheny(who owned Ernie Mcaffee Engineering) before being sold to Wes Belt. He ran it once at Palm Springs in around 1958 before embarking on a major customising project and installing a Rochester injected Chevy. Unfinished, the car sat for many years until bought by Rick Cole in around 1983/4. It came to my shop where we removed the Chevy and un-customised the bodywork and installed a Fiat V8 similar to the original engine. Rick raced the car in vintage events for a couple of years with this engine until we found and restored the original engine from this car which was one of a small number made with 8-port heads and Weber 36IF4C four barrel carbs. After installing this engine, Rick continued to run the car for another couple of years and then sold it to Nick Soprano. It changed hands several more times before ending up with Mr. Noon. Great car, lots of fun to drive, weighed just over 1700 pounds with the 2 litre Fiat/SIATA V8 which made around 120 hp. The body was originally designed by Stabilamenti Farina and about 10 coupes were built on an oval tube chassis. About half were built by Stab. Farina, the rest by Carrozzeria Balbo in Torino. This particular car, BS537, is on the same chassis as the SIATA 208S spiders which is a fabricated sheet steel semi-backbone type, very light and stiff. Class is over. Best regards, Anton K.
BS 537 is a one-off coupe built for racing using the original Stab. Farina <style> body but on a spider chassis, which is a shorter wheelbase. The spider chassis is also, as I mentioned in my earlier post, a fabricated sheet steel semi-backbone chassis rather than twin parallel oval tubes of the Stab. Farina and Balbo cars which also had pop-up headlights, cast aluminium grilles and many other detail differences. I don't know who built the body for BS537. It may have been Balbo, it may have been Motto, but it's a very different car from the other 10 or 12 similar looking coupes. BTW, it didn't have anything in the front opening originally. Where is this other car you mention being restored? Anton
