A 1953 Siata 208 CS is set to go under the hammer in mid-August. Being one of only six such coupes surviving to this day, it is believed to be worth around $2,000,000.
Siata, whose full name was ‘Società Italiana Auto Trasformazione Accessori’, was a car company founded in Italy in the distant year 1926. It used to produce rather modestly priced cars with sporty character. After World War II, Fiat partnered up with the business and helped it design new engines, such as a new 2.0-liter V8 rated at 125 PS (123 hp / 92 kW).
The project was a failure, though, and only around two hundred such engines were produced. Siata bought back some of them and designed a new sports car named 208 CS based on this engine. Only 16 of those were hardtops. Out of them, 7 were given a body by Stabilimenti Farina, while the other 9 received custom bodywork from Turin-based coachbuilder Balbo.
One of these coachbuilt cars is now heading to the auction. After its first commissioning seven decades ago, it proceeded to change owners many times, was imported overseas and brought to numerous European countries. It had been modded and overhauled on multiple occasions, but its most recent owner reverted it to factory state in 2004, finishing the exterior in dark blue and trimming the interior in brown. The seller claims that the drivetrain is still all-original and refers to the fact that the coupe won gold in its own category at a classic car show last year.