FIAT S.74 – year 1911

Italian Automobile Factory Turin, Turin, Italy.

The first US Grand Prix competition was held in Savannah in 1908 year. Cars of European companies participated in them – Fiat, Benz, Renault, Clement-Bayard, De Dietrich and Itala and the American ones – Acme, Buick, Chadwick, Losier, National i Simplex. A novelty was the use of a supercharged engine in the Chadwick Great Six car. The winner was Wagner from the Fiat team ahead of Hemery from Benz. W 1908 r. races did not take place, and in the following year they became a party of European companies again, when David Bruce-Brown won before Hemery, both from the Benz team. Bob Burmann, driving a Buick took only third place. The great American athlete Bruce-Brown repeated his success in 1911 year, driving a Fiat car this time.

The winning Fiat S. 74 had an ordinary four-cylinder engine divided into two blocks of two cylinders. The large capacity is achieved due to the cylinder diameter 150 mm and piston stroke 200 mm. Each cylinder had four valves and a low voltage spark ignition, and the engine was cooled by forced circulation water. The power transmission from the engine to the wooden rear wheels was provided by a multi-plate clutch, four-speed gearbox and chains. The car was equipped with two brakes – one acting on the rear wheels, and the other is transmission. The steel frame had leaf springs and stiff axles. At total weight 1500 kg, the car reached its maximum speed 165 km/h. FIAT factory produced only 7 copies of such vehicles.

Fiat also won the French Grand Prix in 1911 r. organized by the ACF in Sarthe. Few riders met at Le Mans, running mostly old models from years 1906-1908. The winning ten-liter Fiat driven by He-mery was even older and came from 1903 year. He had power 44,2 kW (60 KM) by 1200 RPM. These races have gone down in history as the 'Grand Prix of old cars”.