Fiat 8V Berlinetta Rapi - 1953 by Perico001 Ex-Works
Coachwork by Rapi - Fiat
Chassis no. 000032
Displacing just under two liters, the Tipo 104 motor V8 featured an unusual 70° architecture, as well as advanced racing components such as a finned aluminum sump, forged crankshaft, polished intakes and ports, and tubular 4x1 stainless steel exhaust manifolds. As Giacosa later noted of the V-8 in his autobiography, “the idea of mounting it on a sports car for a small production run was attractive and aroused the keenest interest among the design engineers.”
And so was born the Fiat 8V, which featured the only overhead-valve V-8 that Fiat ever built during its long and storied history. Known in Italy as the Otto Vu, the new model was positioned as a luxury grand touring sports car.To maintain the necessary quality-control for such a high-end product, the fabrication of the chassis was farmed out to Giorgio Ambrosini’s Siata, the tuning specialists that had long served as Fiat’s in-house competition and customization department. This choice was probably further facilitated by Ghia owner Mario Felice Boano’s 1950 hiring of Luigi Segre, a former Siata sales manager, as Ghia’s sales director.
The Otto Vu made its public debut at the Geneva Salon in March 1952, and immediately impressed all who saw it with Fiat’s ability to produce such a jewel-like automobile. Over the following two years, about two hundred tipo 104 motors were produced (though more than fifty of these were eventually installed in the upcoming Siata roadster).
The Otto Vu automobile was even more rare, with approximately 114 examples built through 1954. While at least forty of these cars were bodied with the factory coachwork by Rapi, the other chassis were clothed by coachbuilders such as Balbo, Pinin Farina, Vignale and Zagato.
The 8V Rapi Corsa presented here was delivered new in Milan where it was owned and raced by Scuderia Ambrosiana. The car was fitted with lightweight body and sliding windows, it was raced in the 1953 Mille Miglia finishing 18th overall. Sold to Vincenzo Aurricchio in 1954 and it participated again in the Mille Miglia that same year where it didn’t finish.
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