July 25, 2002
by Stuart Schaller

Each Father's Day, there is a car show on Rodeo Road, in Beverly Hills California. The street is closed off from Wilshire Blvd. to Santa Monica Blvd., (a distance of about 4 blocks) the night before, and around 120 cars are lined up and down the street, on both sides the center medium strip. The show has existed for about 6 years now, and quite frankly, was not that great last year or this, as Chrysler had stopped funding a substantial portion of the cost. The show is now financed primarily by Andy Cohen of Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories, and Jim Hull, of the Huddle chain of modular furniture stores.

The Peterson Auto Museum is also involved, but does not provide any financing, as far as we are aware. The Ferrari club also takes part, but not to the degree they were previously; hence, fewer Italian cars last year and this. The theme of the show changes each year too, and this greatly affects what cars are entered, as the space is limited.

Surprisingly, there has been a Siata 8V in the show almost every year. This year there was but one. It did, however, win its class.

Not much is known about these cars, except by fanatics, as they are extremely rare, and rather obscure. No one is absolutely certain just how many were made, as there are a number of Type variations, and these cars were built in both coupe and spider variations, and had various Type numbers, including 208S, 208CS, 208SC, CS208, 400F, 400L, and 200BS!

Perhaps 40 spiders and 25 coupes were built, if you count all the variations. No two are identical. There were also around 120 FIAT 8Vs (or OttoVu) built, all coupes, and the Siatas are basically another version of these cars, which are extremely rare in themselves!

In spite of the body badges on the Siata spiders saying either Vignale or Bertone, or not having a body badge at all, they were all clothed by Carrozzeria Rocco Motto of Turin. The bodies were constructed by this little company, under a sub-contract. To those unfamiliar with Italian coach building, this was a rather common occurrence. Motto was one of the best of those small coachbuilders.

The coupes were bodied by at least six different body builders, including Bertone, Boano, Vignale, Michelotti, and Stabilimenti Farina, but as in the case of the spiders, the coachwork for some of the Bertone and Vignale cars could have actually been built by Motto!

The motors for these cars were small, 2 liter FIAT V8s with pushrods, ranging from about 105 to 120 horsepower, depending on what carburetor setup was on that particular car, and what camshafts it had. Over the years, things like small block Chevys, Fords, Olds, and other motors were dropped in them. They were well constructed, so they could stand the additional horsepower. One car has even been rumored to have an Alta motor out of a HWM stuffed into it.

There was also a one-off car with a big Chrysler installed, but this car is really a 200CS spider, and not a 208... they are similar in chassis design and in many other details, but not exactly the same. This is not really saying much, as no two of these cars, either the FIAT 8Vs or the Siatas, are absolutely identical...

In addition to the Siata 8Vs, there was an earlier, smaller 1400cc Siata Diana four-cylinder spider.

Unfortunately, Siatas and Fiat 8Vs are now out of the price range for most people. The Zagato-bodied Fiat 8Vs (there were no Zagato-bodied Siata 8Vs) are in the $300,000 range and up, and even the less expensive cars run from $150,000 to $250,000, depending on the body style, and the history of that particular car.