After decades of mass-producing economical cars, Fiat shocked the world in 1952 with the introduction of a limited-production, premium sport coupe powered by the Italian automaker’s first and only V-8 engine. Built on a Siata-fabricated tubular steel chassis with fully independent suspension, it was lightweight, agile, and potent. The advanced 2.0-liter overhead-valve V-8 would prove more than a match for Ferrari’s V-12 and Maserati’s inline-six in competition. Of the 114 produced through 1954, more than half featured curvaceous bodywork devised in-house under the direction of Fabio Luigi Rapi, head of Fiat’s specialized coachwork department. The remaining chassis would receive bodies from Italy’s most revered coachbuilders, including Ghia, Vignale, and Zagato.
Privateers campaigned the Otto Vu—as it was known in Italian—all over the world to great success. It finished fifth in class at the 1952 Mille Miglia, third in class at the Giro della Toscana, and, most impressively, it won the 2.0-liter class in the Italian Sports Car Championship six years in a row, from 1954 to 1959—long after 8V production ceased due to management focusing efforts elsewhere. Most of the competition 8Vs featured lightweight Zagato bodywork. Two other noted coachbuilders produced double-digit batches of bodies, with chassis numbers ranging from 000035 to 000056. Ghia built 15 and Vignale at least 10, with some sources citing 13 total from the latter design house.
Vignale’s 8V Coupe is attributed to renowned automotive designer Giovanni Michelotti and bears his characteristically aggressive lines within a refined silhouette encompassing a gently sloping roofline. Each example varied in detail such that no two were alike. Chassis 000046, offered here, features a striking chrome grille-surround beautifully integrated into the front bumper. Toward the top of each door, chrome accent spears deftly incorporate the door handles and complement the bold front-end treatment. The rear features beehive-style taillights inset within chromed recesses below vestigial tailfins more modest than those seen on other Vignale 8V examples. Affirming its resounding appeal, the Vignale body design of 000046 would later grace an extremely limited run of MG TDs and would be reinterpreted for a one-off Cadillac Coupe commissioned by noted American tuner Bill Frick.
Chassis 000046 completed production on 16 June 1953 equipped from the factory with engine number 69, according to build data provided by Fiat Centro Storico. Tony Adriaensens’ Otto Vu lists the coupe’s first owner as Pietro Melchiorini of Alessandra in Northern Italy. The book mentions that the bodywork was likely finished in two shades of burgundy and the interior in tan leather with red-faced gauges. Period photos in the book show the car equipped with auxiliary driving lights and a single rearview mirror mounted far forward on the driver-side fender.
Engine number 69 was reportedly damaged during local Italian racing early in the car’s life and a replacement block, numbered 149, was sourced and remains in the car today. Prominent Milanese car dealer and enthusiast Michele Vernola had, according to Adriaensens’ research, offered the car for sale at one point, seeking an American buyer without success.
Storicar of Brescia, Italy, fully restored chassis 000046 from 1997 to 2000 in its present color combination of silver with a red roof and red leather interior. A binder accompanying the car includes photos documenting the restoration and period photos showing it being enjoyed throughout the decades. In current ownership, it has benefited from servicing at Italian classic specialist Fast Cars Ltd. of Redondo Beach, California, which rebuilt the engine, transmission, carburetors, gauges, and distributor, along with cleaning and rodding out the radiator.
Still finished in its attractive two-tone silver and red color scheme over lovely red leather, it is now offered with photo binders, restoration invoices, and correspondence documenting its long Italian history as well as time in the United States.
