Over the weekend I stopped at a old used car lot, i.e. a TR6, jag
E-type 2+2, MGA, etc. There was a 1968 Siata there. It had side
curtains and a square backed roof life. It was also rear engined. I
suspect it was some sort of kit car, but I figured I'd check the best
source I know of. It was a pretty neat little car and if it's actually
worth something it would be good to know. It's been there for a few
weeks so the price must not be great.
The Siata Spring is the model you describe, a sort of Italian answer
to the MG TF built using Fiat mechanicals, and a sad ending to a near-
great marque.
Siata began after WWII, making beautiful small sports cars in the
best tradition of what came to be known as the "etceterini," a
jokingly affectionate term for the various under-1-liter sports
cars coming from firms like Siata, Moretti, Nardi, OSCA, and many
others. The Siata Spiders of the early Fifties grace many vintage
events, particularly the Historic Auto Races in Monterey every
August. Styling is like a Ferrari 166MM scaled down to just
below the size of a Sprite, beautiful and graceful, perfectly
proportioned. Suspension would look familiar to Roland: it's the
Fiat Topolino suspension that inspired the transverse leaf spring
design used by A. C. Cars (and much discussed here recently) and
later employed on the 260 and 289 Cobras.
While most of the early Siata roadsters used modified Fiat mechanicals,
at least one coupe model was built using a custom-cast V8 engine. The
car is currently owned by Rick Cole (or was the last time I saw it run);
it's a fast and beautiful car, always enjoyable to watch in action.
The Spring, which is the model Dean is describing, was their final
car. Built on the rear-engined Fiat chassis, the Spring was an odd
attempt to blend the classic appearance of prewar cars with modern
mechanicals. Unfortunately, the timing was wrong as 1968 saw the
introduction of crash and smog tests guaranteed (if not actually
designed) to drive small specialty builders out of the business.
(Someone else made the logical confusion of Siata with SEAT; the two
firms are only related by the fact that both use FIAT mechanicals.
SEAT is a nationalized Spanish firm that builds cars under license
from Fiat, much like Yugo. Fiat got around a number of restrictive
trade laws with various countries by licensing their designs to
locally owned companies, with particular success in the old Iron
Curtain countries.)
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