Italian Masterpiece
H
ow would you like to own a car that gets its sky-high value from its extreme rarity? In the car world – and no
doubt in many other types of enthusiast circles – this is called a “unicorn.” Dan Kolodziejski’s SIATA 208S is
about as special as they come.
One of only 37 built in 1953 (or ’56, or ’35, according to various Internet sources), the SIATA 208S was a car built
to showcase an engine. Having started as a performance tuner for FIAT cars, SIATA – a.k.a.
Società Italiana Auto
Trasformazione Accessori
– become a low-volume car manufacturer. When FIAT developed the 8V engine, a high-revving
aluminum 2.0L V8, SIATA jumped on the opportunity to develop a car with a chassis and bodywork that would do the
sporty engine justice.
This particular car has an interesting story behind it, as well. Raced in the Santa Barbara area by prominent hot-rodder
Ernie McAfee, it was actually refurbished after its competition career and sold “as new” in Hawaii, says Kolodziejski.
That’s where Dan Hogan enters the picture. You may recognize him as the Cars & Coffee regular who sells his classic
motorsports photography out of his classic red and white #7 GMC pickup. As a younger lad, Hogan was part of McAfee’s
racing crew and moved down to Honolulu to help open his new import dealership there, where he raced it and then sold it
for the dealership, only to be reunited with the car years later at Cars & Coffee in Montecito.
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