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28-Liter Fiat "Beast of Turin" Roars Back to Life at Goodwood

"28.5-liter 4-cylinder engine, am I reading that right?" Why, yes you are my imaginary reader because that's how the cool kids rolled 100 years ago.
28-Liter Fiat "Beast of Turin" Roads Back to Life Over a Century after Conception 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
This Fiat from the dark ages of the automobile, or to be more specific from 1911, is powered by a 28.5-liter engine linked to the wheels via chain drive. Nowadays, a Fiat can come with something as small as a 0.9-liter engine, which is technically 31 times smaller. Is that progress? Depends who you ask.

What we know for sure is that the Fiat S76 was unofficially declared the fastest car in the world back in 1911 and it's absolutely jaw-dropping. After a 10-year restoration process, it's ready to go back on the street and challenge the young guns.

Some mechanical issues prevented the S76 from firing up at the Goowood Festival of Speed last year. But they have been finally sorted, and the "Beast of Turin's" enthusiastic owner Duncan Pittaway came back to the legendary estate and its 1.16-mile Hillclimb course.

That happened about two weeks ago, though thankfully Lord March was also invited to participate in the test run from the passenger seat.

That monster of an engine was cutting edge for its time and had four valves per cylinder multi-spark and overhead cam technology. Changing gears may have been tricky, but the 300 horsepower available made up for that.

What else can we say, except be careful to turn your headphones to quiet levels and watch the video. Oh, and check out the bird at the 1:44 mark in the video. Looks like the Beast has made its first kill.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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