FIAT 805 405 (1923) 1.1

THE car of the 1923 season, without the characteristic unreliability that nearly all cars of that era suffered from it probably would've won every race. It was the first supercharged car to compete in a major Grand Prix although apparently a 1.5 litre FIAT in a minor regional race beat it to the title of 'first ever', according to FIAT themselves.

Probably the hardest car to make so far, almost entirely because reference material is so scarce and hard to find. Best resource I found was this book illustration that someone pointed me to, though even that is distorted




Anyway, I did my best with what I had and I think it's a pretty reasonable attempt. I always find these cars such fun to drive and this one is no exception, should feel slightly faster than the Sunbeam and if you can find a long enough straight (old Mulsanne) it'll get up to about 220kmh (136mph)...eventually. In future I might add the 145bhp Monza version that had a Roots supercharger but that means remodelling the front of the car so it will take a little time.

Only real flaw I can see is the driver model's elbow slightly clips through the bodywork. I've minimized it as much as I could but as you can see in this picture the cockpit is realistically cramped and I couldn't find a way to get a smooth animation without a little clipping, not something you even notice unless you look really closely.



Hope you're all still staying safe, sadly I lost a member of my family to Covid even though we were fanatically strict about following the rules, still wasn't enough to keep us healthy. Although of course it's better to follow them than not, you lower the risk at least.



Stay inside and race mad old bangers instead! Happy racing!

Liam