Fiat 8V Berlinetta Rapi Serie II - 1954

            Coachwork by Rapi - Fiat
Chassis no. 00100

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. 

Delivered new to Heilbronn, Germany, this unrestored 8V Rapi was bought early in its life by Larry Vivian, a US soldier remaining in Germany, during the cold war.  Larry raced the car in Germany and took it with him to the US and kept it until some 5 years ago, when it moved to Belgium.  Larry was the second owner and has had the car over 40 years while keeping it totally original with only 47.000 kms on the odometer.  Incredible archive photos come with the car even photos when it was transported by air plane.

Zoute Concours d'Elegance
The Royal Zoute Golf Club

Zoute Grand Prix 2016
Knokke - Belgium
Oktober 2016
   

Taken on: October 9, 2016

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Camera: Nikon Df, f/7.1, 1/640 sec, 180mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon Df
Lens:	28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6
Aperture:	f/7.1
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length:	180mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.6 (Macintosh)
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