1953 Siata 208S Spider

By on in Etceterini November 2018 issue
Courtesy of Bonhams
Chassis Number: BS518
Under the guidance of several marque experts, this beautifully restored example of the rare Motto-bodied spider benefits from a recent restoration to factory specifications. According to the amalgamated data of John De Boer’s Italian Car Registry, and other anecdotal sources, chassis BS518 was sold new in 1957 from the backyard of the Beverly Hills-based oilman Bill Doheny, who famously financed the local Siata importer (and Carrera Panamericana driver) Ernie McAfee. This late delivery does indeed indicate that BS518 might have been used for promotion of McAfee’s brand and racing efforts at the time. During the 1960s, the Siata is believed to have passed to an owner based in the San Fernando Valley. By 1979 it was acquired by Rick McBride, the late jet-setting photographer who, for many years, worked for Ferrari. As demonstrated by a considerable file of documentation, McBride went to great lengths to restore the car over the next 14 years. He commissioned Tony Krivanek’s Vintage Racing Services to refurbish the chassis and bodywork from 1987 to ’88. A year later, the car was submitted to Barry Silverman’s Otto Vu restorations for completion by a marque expert. In 2012, the breathtaking Siata was sold to the consignor, a world-renowned Belgian collector of Siata and Fiat 8V-related motorcars. A perfectionist, the owner entrusted BS518 to the respected Epifani Restorations in Berkeley, CA, for a complete restoration to factory specifications. Completed in late 2015, the fastidious nut-and-bolt restoration was thoroughly documented. The car received a class award at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in August 2015 and was shown at the highly discriminating Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza at Lake Como, Italy, in May 2016.

SCM Analysis

Detailing

Vehicle:1953 Siata 208S Spider
Years Produced:1953–55
Number Produced:36
Original List Price:$5,700
SCM Valuation:$1,072,500
Tune Up Cost:$1,400
Chassis Number Location:Stamped on firewall and on chassis plate
Engine Number Location:Stamped on cylinder block, distributor side on boss
Alternatives:1953 Aston Martin DB2, 1953 Pegaso Z-102, 1953 Ferrari 166 MM
Investment Grade:A

This car, Lot 44, sold for $1,655,000, including buyer’s premium, at Bonhams’ Quail Lodge Auction in Carmel, CA, on August 24, 2018.

The Siata 208S Spider is one of the most beautiful sports cars ever built.

It possesses a simple elegance and a dramatic presence rarely seen in a vehicle of such diminutive size. It is also among the least-decorated and most “elemental” of Giovanni Michelotti’s early 1950s output. As with all great designs, it appears timeless. It is a shape that still looked modern through the decades that followed and still does today.

While the AC Ace, BMW 507 and Lancia Aurelia B24 Spider America all are great contenders for the title, the Siata 208S holds its head high in this exalted company.

The 8V engine is key

The history of our subject car is a very familiar one for so many Fiat 8V-powered cars. For reasons directly related to the use of an engine designed for a lightly stressed luxury sedan in a sports racing car, a number of Fiat 8Vs and Siatas had their engines replaced after failures. The replacement engines were more-robust units — usually small-block American V8s.

But quite curiously, very few of the original engines were discarded — they ended up on garage shelves and under benches. They waited for a future in which they could be made to work as their designers could have made them — if they had had development support from senior management when new.

It has always been fascinating to me that so many 8V engines were saved. It is obvious that few of the failures were of a truly catastrophic nature. A lack of parts and not enough familiarity with the engines and their workings probably influenced most of the decisions to remove and shelve the original 8V engines.

Today, there are a few well-known experts who can make the 8V engine perform with a level of power and reliability unimagined by its creators.

As I wrote in a dual profile on a pair of 208S sales on the Monterey Peninsula in 2011 (November 2011, Etceterini Profile, p. 44), there is a known and accepted hierarchy of value attributes for Siata 8V cars. From bottom to top it goes:

  • A car without an 8V engine.
  • A car with any 8V engine, originally fitted to a Fiat or built as a factory spare unit.
  • A car with one of the 8V engines originally allocated and used in a Siata —but not the one originally installed in the car.
  • The near-unicorn Siata with its original 8V engine. These cars are incredibly rare — and valuable.

Help from Pebble Beach

That an almost identical Siata 208S, also finished in white (and that suffered some unfortunate damage at some point during the week), was seen on the Pebble Beach Tour and featured on the lawn at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance helped our subject car on the Bonhams sale block.

Seeing another Siata 208S in exclusive Pebble Beach events was graphic illustration that this is a vehicle that gives its owner entrée to virtually any vintage car event on the planet.

Tight quarters for some…

There are reasons that some cars become legendary, and the Siata 208S possesses many of them. The only attribute in which it may be found wanting is in leg and hip room — the long of limb and broad of beam may find it less than accommodating.

For all the rest, the car is a top-drawer drive. The seller is a well-known enthusiast who has what might be charitably called an obsession with the 2-liter Fiat V8 and all the variants it inhabited. This was not the best of all the many cars he has had, but it was a lovely car.

Growing popularity and value

In its documented history, our subject car had three known 8V engines — and both a Chevrolet V8 and a Ford V8.

Top examples of the 208S with documented ownership and racing history — correctly restored and mechanically updated — have found buyers who have paid $2 million and a bit more. Not long ago, the price realized for our subject car would have bought a freshly restored, show-winning example with its original engine.

It is a testament to the marque and model that its desirability has grown to the point that this is likely market correct for the set of value attributes that it possesses. ♦

(Introductory description courtesy of Bonhams.)

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