Societá Italiana Auto Trasformazioni Accessori (SIATA) produced a remarkable range of machinery during its 45-year history under the Ambrosini family’s leadership. SIATA, founded by Giorgio Ambrosini in 1926, specialized in enhancing the performance of Fiats. They developed overhead-valve conversions, multi-speed gearboxes, superchargers, and multi-carb intakes, catering to the desires of competitive Italians who sought improvements for their small cars. While the Agnellis focused on sensible, reliable, and mass-produced cars of modest size, SIATA largely disregarded the high-performance market, with only a few exceptions.
The Siata 208 CS came in two variants: an appealing barchetta-like Spider and a streamlined berlinetta. SIATA enlisted the services of local coachbuilders such as Bertone, Vignale, and Stabilimenti Farina to create these designs. It is believed that SIATA actively encouraged these coachbuilders to incorporate styling details that they were simultaneously providing to Ferrari during that period. However, the most elegantly shaped design of the 208 CS was executed by Balbo of Turin. Only nine berlinettas were produced, and today, only six examples are known to exist.
Source: RM Sotheby’s
