The Siata SC (“Sport Corsa”**) of 1948 & earlier Information compiled and presented by John de Boer. Any input welcomed at
[email protected] ** First off, Renato Ambrosini, son of the builder and winner of the 1948 Italian Sport 750 championship in the first example built, did not remember if “SC” represented “Sport Corsa” or “Sport da Competizione” when I spoke with him during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Either way, the meaning is essentially the same. Some background: During 1947 to 1954, there was the possibility of building a “Sport 750” category car that could also race in a certain number of “Corsa 750” races held throughout Italy. The “SC” was Siata’s version of such a car for 1948. Early in 1948, Siata was authorized by the Italian government to issue its own chassis numbers. Prior to that time, cars prepared and/or completely constructed by Siata generally carried a Fiat chassis number. In certain rare cases, a car was assigned a “numero d’ufficio”, a number assigned by local motoring authorities. It seems that the tubular-chassis “SC” was the first series of purpose-made chassis to become numbered by SIATA. S.I.A.T.A. was an acronym that changed during 1948/1949 from “Società Italiana Applicazioni Techniche Auto- Aviatorie” to “Società Italiana Auto Trasformazioni Accessori”. Company literature and advertisements often listed the name simply as “Siata”. SIATA was formed 1926 by Giorgio Ambrosini and continued under him to 1959 when the company merged briefly with Abarth, becoming “Siata-Abarth” until 1961. During 1961, it became “SIATA-AUTO” under the direction of Giorgio Ambrosini and one of his sons, Renato Ambrosini.