(first posted 7/31/2018) It’s full-on monsoon season here in Thailand. The need to escape the overcast and humid city can be irresistible. A week-end in Khao Yai, a hilly park about three hours north of Bangkok, sounded great, and it was. I had no idea that the Chokchai Farm, where we stopped on our way back, also had a tiny car museum.
I didn’t even notice it for a long while. Running around with my four-year-old for an hour outside among the (farm-themed) flora and fauna in the late steamy morning just about made me pray for a shower, which promptly showed up as the heavens burst open. Thoroughly moistened by it all, we looked at indoor activities such as this museum. The car collection was part of a 1-hour guided group tour (in Thai only) of the museum’s four floors, which would probably bore and/or freeze us to death, so we gave it a miss. The car collection was partially visible on the ground floor anyway.
There were about 20 vehicles there, chromes glistening in the dull light of a cloudy day. All but a few were out of camera reach. A very nice row of Benzes – pretty much the full 20th century SL set. In the back, a few bigger cars: Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, Jaguar Mk X, Daimler DS420, a mid-‘50s Cadillac Fleetwood 75 and a Checker Aerobus. There was also a shiny ’55 Ford Crown Victoria, an Austin-Healey 100/4, a Peugeot 403 pick-up and a Jaguar E-Type, but there was only one car I was interested in that day.
It was at the far end, in a naturally-lit corner of the small space that housed the otherwise tenebrous collection. That menacing long red hood and that gaping maw with its chromed crosshairs, from a distance, looked a bit like a Pegaso Z-102. But as I got closer, I recognized the Otto Vu emblem on top of the grille. “It’s a Fiat.” Not just any Fiat, mind. Just about as rare as the Spanish exotic I thought it was initially.
The Fiat 8V was something of an anomaly in Fiat’s long history. It was Fiat’s only V8 for road car use, allegedly derived from a 70° angle V6 that Dante Giacosa had built in 1948 for Fiat’s future larger saloon. The V6 idea didn’t make it very far, but adding a couple of cylinders made the V8 just under the two-litre mark. What exactly were Fiat thinking? The impetus behind turning this into an exclusive sports car seems to have been, in two words, “Why not?” – Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati, OSCA, Cisitallia and Lancia were doing it, so Fiat’s engineering department must have felt they also had to prove their worth. There was no other real rationale: Fiat didn’t use the 8V for sporting glory, nor did they make wads of money from the whole thing. This was a sports car for its own sake. A bespoke ‘50s 8-cyl. Italian sports car for its own sake. With an all-independent suspension, just to show the other Italian “experts” how it should be done.
There were many bodies fitted on the 114 chassis produced by Siata in 1952-54, plus a dozen (or 50, depending on the source) Siata 208 S, which had a slightly tuned-up V8 and a lighter chassis. Body-wise, the largest contingent by far (about 40 units) was the Luigi Rapi-designed coupé that Dottore Andreina featured in this excellent post and can be seen above in two distinct versions. Fiat made those in-house in a corner of the Lingotto plant, so it could be seen as the “official” 8V.
The overwhelming majority of 8Vs were hardtops; not a few were raced back in the ‘50s. Berlinettas or coupés, according to the mood of the client. Alas, that mood soon soured when the V8’s fragility forced many initial owners to call Turin for help. The 8V experiment was not altogether successful, but it was glorious, thanks to the usual suspects: Vignale, Zagato, PininFarina… Some bodies were 100% unique, like the Siata 208 Sport by Bertone pictured at bottom right, others were not.
Left: 1953 Conrero Supersonic (body #1); right: 1956 Aston Martin DB 2/4 Supersonic (body #20)
Ghia’s jet-age Supersonic design was decidedly not unique. The same body, penned by Giovanni Savonuzzi, was draped over several well-born chassis, with minor differences. It was first seen on the Conrero Special, a one-off chassis using an Alfa Romeo 1900, in 1953. Then fifteen Fiat 8Vs were graced with these bodies in 1953-54, along with three Jaguar XK-120s. In 1956, the heavily modified last body was mated to an Aston Martin chassis.
The design had influenced a number of Ghia specials from this period, such as the 1954 DeSoto Adventurer II, but only twenty genuine Supersonic bodies were made. It’s said that the 8V wore it best. Howard “Dutch” Darrin apparently thought so and bought two when he visited Ghia in 1953.
I wasn’t able to get a rear shot nor an inside shot, unfortunately. But still, that incredibly dynamic and sleek early ‘50s shape is so in motion, so fluid and yet contained within a small, very low-slung body. Light years ahead of the dowdy-looking (by comparison) Series 3 E-Type 2+2 coupé sitting next to it. It may be unfair, but the most feline of the two is definitely not the Jaguar. Didn’t even snap the Jag. Nor the 300SL roadster next to it. I only had eyes for that Fiat. Words I never thought I would write…
You don’t see ‘50s classics every day in these parts, especially not something this rare, but there are a few hi-so (high society) Thais with both money and taste. This Fiat was last on the road six years ago, but I don’t know how long it’s been in the country. There is one big car museum outside Bangkok. I’ll go there someday and report back, but meantime, this little Italian gem will have to do.
Related post:
Car Show Classics: Indigestion Part 1 – The Fiats of Como Park, by Don Andreina
Did not know the V8 was allegedly conceived as a V6.
Know that Dante Giacosa looked at a few V8 saloon projects though it is a shame Fiat did not persist with the idea of a V8 saloon or sportscar, which Lancia could have also benefited from after later being acquired by Fiat.
Logically Dante Giacosa could have applied the same method with creating a V8 from the Fiat Twin-Cam, as he did with the related 128 SOHC 4-cylinder and 130 V6 engines though sure there were other approaches he explored.
The Fiat 8V was a fascinating story when I first encountered it. I wasn’t aware of its existence as a kid in Austria at the time, as the Fiat name just wasn’t associated with cars like that. Lots of Fiat 600s around, though.
This is a truly splendid body, and certainly made the rounds for obvious reasons. Must have been a bit of a surprise to find it there.
Anything this exclusive is always a shock to see in the metal. But it also sticks out of the whole little collection they had there – that E-Type really looked like a Wienermobile next to that Fiat!
Growing up, I was only ever aware of the “factory” 8V, which I always thought was exceedingly ugly due to the vertical strakes set into the grill between the spotlights. Some of these special ones are beautiful. Not totally convinced by the Supersonic though, although sheer rarity makes it desirable.
Great find T87. Never seen one in the metal, but I did see a (prettier) Zagato 8V here in Melbs.
The Zagato version is also very attractive, being their early ’50s bulbous period. Both that and the Supersonic are much better-looking than the uncompromising Rapi / Fiat “factory” 8V design, which has a more early ’40s vibe.
hehehe… I’d actually describe the Zagato as sleek and the Ghia as bulbous. Ah, the semantics of interpreting the language of the carrozzerie. Agree on the factory effort, not really a success but they made it work in turbina.
Interesting car for sure, Striking bodywork, Not the prettiest car though at least not from the front.
The Fiat Dino 2.4 is their A lister
Not a Fiat engine, strictly speaking… a B-lister in an A-lister’s running shoes.
Yes! The Dino is worthy too.
Excellent article and pics Tatra. The overall proportions and ‘cockpit’ styling is reminiscent of the Volvo P1800.
My thought too.
The VW LT behind it as support vehicle?
🙂
That’s quite the little car collection.
Thanks for article.
Alistair
A unique and very beautiful car..: to compliment the usual personality found in Italian cars. The few that remain command a high price from what I’ve seen.
There’s one in Calgary, last seen at the European classic car show July 21.
This must’ve been a bit like finding Sir Ian McKellen in your local amatuer dramatics production of Shakespeare. “Are you a prisoner here, perhaps?”
That said, and for all the rarity unbounded, I do wonder why the 8V was only fitted with such varieties of ungainliness for bodywork? I include the Supersonic in that, striking rather than beautiful. (And in this case, not helped by the heated bathroom towel rails out front). An A-lister from humble origins who could never quite stretch to A-list haute coture, maybe?
Excellent post. Complete with “tenebrous”, a word new to me. And so CC educates me yet again.
I, too, was unfamiliar with that word. Love to expand my vocabulary!
I see the Jaguar Mk10/420/420G in some of those photos….
Btw….have we had any Jag Mk10 coverage on here? I’m pretty sure they were imported in the states.
Also…the initial premise isn’t entirely accurate, the lovely Fiat 130 coupe is an ‘A’ lister, at least in my eyes and yes it should have been badged as a Lancia.
Great find and exploration of its place in the scheme of things. It is interesting to see how similar the styling is to the M-B SL’s, even if the proportions are quite different.
Hello,
Does someone knows the chassis number of this Fiat 8V Ghia Supersonic of the Chokchai Museum ? Should be like « 106.0000?? ». Probably 44, 53 or 54.
Thank you,
Regards.
The first car I think of as having been influenced by the Supersonic is the VW Karmann-Ghia, if not chronologically at least in numbers. It’s proportions are so perfect that it makes its progenitors seem underglazed, as though they had come later and been forced to use production VWKG glass or even the whole roof pressing.
Where did I read, long ago, that the peculiar (to us) 8V designation resulted from a misunderstanding on the part of FIAT management the the term V8 was owned by Ford ? Is there any truth to that ? Or would 8V be a perfectly normal-sounding expression in Italy ? Regular readers will be aware of my ignorance by now, for which I nevertheless apologize . . .