The Siata Daina is an Italian car produced by

Siata Siata (''Società Italiana Auto Trasformazioni Accessori'' in English ''Italian Car Transformation Accessories Company'') was an Italian car tuning shop and manufacturer founded in 1926 by amateur race car driver Giorgio Ambrosini. Siata initiall ...

from 1950-1958. The Daina was available as a

coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

or a convertible and had custom bodies by

Stabilimenti Farina Stabilimenti Industriali Farina (Turin, 1906–53) was an Italian automotive coachbuilder established by Giovanni Carlo Farina (1884–1957) in ''12 Corso Tortona''. Among famous employees was his brother Battista Farina, who was here from the ...

Bertone Bertone is an Italian surname meaning "descendant of Roberto". Notable people with the surname include: * Alicia Bertone, American academic, researcher, and veterinary surgeon * Catherine Bertone (born 1972), Turkish-born female Italian marathon r ...

and other coach builders.

Performance

Like all

cars, the Daina was based on heavily modified Fiat mechanics. In this case it was the

Fiat 1400 The Fiat 1400 and Fiat 1900 are passenger cars produced by Italian automotive manufacturer Fiat from 1950 to 1958 and from 1952 to 1959 respectively. The two models shared body and platform, but while the 1.4-litre 1400 was Fiat's intermediate of ...

; the frame was reinforced and shortened while the engine was developed with new head valves, new manifolds,

carburetors A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meterin ...

, and on some models,

Abarth Abarth & C. S.p.A. () is an Italian racing and road car maker and performance division founded by Italo-Austrian Carlo Abarth in 1949. Abarth & C. S.p.A. is owned by Stellantis through its Italian subsidiary. Its logo is a shield with a styliz ...

exhaust systems. The Daina could be had with a 1.4L (1,395 cc), 1.5L (1,500 cc) or 1.8L (1,817 cc)

overhead valve An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...

I4 engine A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the e ...

, all of which were sourced from

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

. It featured independent front suspension and a live rear axle with coil springs all around, as well as 4-wheel

drum brakes A drum brake is a brake that uses friction caused by a set of shoes or pads that press outward against a rotating cylinder-shaped part called a brake drum. The term ''drum brake'' usually means a brake in which shoes press on the inner surfac ...

. It could be had with either a 4-speed or 5-speed

manual gearbox A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission system, where gear changes ...

History

Siata Daina - Flick - Concorso Italiano 2005

From 1950 to 1958 there were approximately 200 to 250 Daina Series cars produced. However, only a few of the Series were produced after 1953. Initially a 3 "posti" (seats) coupe and Cabriolet (trasformabile) were designed and built in aluminium with steel doors by Stabilimenti Farina. A Limousine and a sportscar named "Rally" were also built in the early days. Towards the end of the production of the Coupe and the Trasformabile a roadster was added to the line at Stab. Farina, the "Gran Sport", a closed version of the Gran Sport was added to the range, the "Sport". About 20 Daina Sport (coupes) are thought to have been built, at least eight are known to exist today. The Gran Sport comprised most of the Daina Series cars. The Gran Sport had a steel body with an aluminum hood designed by

(3 all aluminum bodied Gran Sports were made as well) but when Stab. Farina closed in 1953, Bertone took over production with both the Sport and the Gran Sport. Furthermore some cars have been built by other coachbuilders. The most well known Dainas were the Gran Sport (convertible) versions used in racing, with many calling it the "little Ferrari". The car was built to take part in the International Grand Prix and the

Mille Miglia The Mille Miglia (, ''Thousand Miles'') was an open-road, motorsport endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi, which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before World ...

. The Daina's most notable finish was at the

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second round ...

in 1952 when Dick Irish and Bob Fergus piloted a 1,500 cc Daina Gran Sport to first in class and third overall. Wayne Thomas, an English connoisseur of automobiles, said: "Driving a Siata Gran Sport is simply a dream, the problem is that you do not see them around anymore, and whoever owns one keeps it tight. of this car is style, maneuverability and its ability to go like a missile if it is solicited. "

References

Cars introduced in 1950 {{Commons category, Siata Daina Grand Sport Convertibles Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Roadsters Siata vehicles