Siata 208 S Bertone

This SIATA 208 S Bertone 2+2 with matching chassis/engine numbers ‘CS057L’/’CS023’ was designed by Franco Scaglione and bodied by Carrozzeria Bertone on a slightly lengthened (by 200mm) chassis in mid-1952. Only four 2,700mm chassis were built by SIATA for these special 208 models, which had resulted from a one-off order from Stanley Arnolt at the beginning of his collaboration with Bertone. Having made his fortune supplying engines to the US Marine Corps during WW2, American industrialist Stanley Harold ‘Wacky’ Arnolt was able to indulge his lifelong love of automobiles, and by 1952 was a regional BMC distributor and US distributor for Bristol cars. In 1952 a meeting between Arnolt and Bertone at that year’s Turin Show led to Arnolt buying a stake in the Italian company, joining its Board of Directors and arranging manufacture of Bertone-bodied Arnolt MGs. By this time under the direction of Giuseppe ‘Nuccio’ Bertone, son of founder Giovanni, the Torinese firm was well placed to undertake Arnolt’s commission, having only recently moved into a large new factory at Grugliasco from which some 40,000-or-so Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprints would emerge by the decade’s end. As well as a gifted stylist, Nuccio Bertone was also a keen racing driver, campaigning a lightened and modified SIATA 208 until family pressure forced his retirement from the racetrack. The first results of this US-Italian collaboration were sold as Arnolt-MGs in the USA. When the supply of MG TC chassis dried up, Arnolt’s next venture made use of his Bristol connections, the UK manufacturer’s ‘404’ getting the Bertone treatment in 1953. The following year, after a meeting with Aston Martin’s owner David Brown, Arnolt had eight Bertone-bodied cars built on the DB2/4 chassis, the first of which was exhibited at the New York Motor Show in 1954. This particular Siata 208 S Bertone was exhibited at the Paris Auto Show in October 1952 and then at the New York International Motor Sports Show in April 1953. Arnolt eventually sold the car to Stuart Sherman in Illinois. It was sold on in 1955 to Roy Thoressen in Minnesota, who stored the car for more than 30 years until 1989. The Siata 208 S Bertone was acquired in 1993, still in original condition, by Walter Eisenstark, of Yorktown Heights. Soon after the turn of the millennium, Mr Eisenstark started a total restoration to very high standard.