PAST IMPERFECT:The Tipo S76 was the little Fiat that would – but it didn't, and its legacy is of absurdity writes Bob Montgomery
EARLY MOTOR engineers saw only one way to increase the speed of their creations – increase the size of the engine! This, in turn, started a trend of squeezing large aero-engines into racing cars and reached new heights of absurdity with the 300hp Tipo S76 Fiat in 1910.
This monster was built with the intention of taking the World Land Speed Record, which was then held by Victor Hemery’s Benz, with a speed of 125.94 mph.
The engine chosen for the assault on Hemery’s record was a Tipo S76 300hp airship unit of 28,362cc which most probably owed its origins to the Fiat GP engine of 1909, designed by Ettore Bugatti. With its very long stroke and its ohc valve gear it necessitated a very tall bonnet. It is said that the radiator cap stood five feet from the ground and that, in order to fill the radiator, one had to stand on the dumb-irons protruding from the front of the chassis.
Relative to the engine, the chassis was a rather meek affair – just big enough to contain the giant engine and with space for two in a cockpit immediately behind it. Forward vision for the driver must have been very poor and, with such a high centre of gravity, the whole affair looked like a death trap.
The S76 made its first appearance at the Brooklands track in Weybridge during the 1911 Whitsun meeting. There it gave a demonstration run but its speed was limited to 90mph as it was intended to race at the Saltburn sand races. Apparently, the driver Bordino disliked taking the car up on the Brooklands banking and lapped low down with great sheets of flame spitting out from the open exhausts. The crowd was quick to dub the car “the Beast of Turin”.
At Saltburn the “Beast” continually sank into the sand but, nevertheless, Bordino managed a practice run at 125mph. However, on race day, the sand was in poor shape and he only managed 116mph. After this disappointing outing, the car was returned to Turin where it caught the eye of a Russian prince who arranged to buy it and engaged Arthur Duray to drive it in an attempt to take the Land Speed Record. This was arranged to take place on a five-mile straight near Ostend. In December 1913, Duray made a run at a speed of 132.37mph but failed, for some unknown reason, to make the second run in the opposite direction – required for an official record.
Apparently, it was Duray’s intention to return in the spring to make another attempt, and to this end various key spares were stored at Ostend in anticipation of his return.
In the meantime, the Fiat was returned to Turin. The outbreak of war put paid to Duray’s plans and when, after the war, he returned, it was to find the spares he needed had been commandeered by the German army and could no longer be found.
WF Bradley told, in Autocar in 1925, of how the Russian owner of the car had also vanished without a trace and was believed to have been assassinated during the Russian Revolution of 1917. Whatever the reason, the Tipo S76 Fiat made no further attempt at the Land Speed Record and instead earned for itself a footnote in motoring history as one of the most absurd car designs of all time.