Fiat does not build many cars like the Fiat 2800: a 4-door saloon / 4-door military torpedo (2800 CMC) with 2.9 L 2,852 , built from 1938 to 1944 when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together.
The story
The Fiat 2800 is model of car produced by Italian car manufacturer Fiat between 1938 and 1944. While taking up the stylistic innovations of the 1500 C, the 2800 was the last substantially new model to come out of the Fiat factories before the outbreak of the Second World War. It is said that its design was proposed to the top management of Fiat by Benito Mussolini, who wanted a flagship to contrast with the Mercedes-Benz of the time. Six cars were built in a six- to seven-seater torpedo version by the Farina factories; they became part of the garage of the Royal House at the Quirinal Palace, becoming the representative cars in use by the royal family and, in the post-war period, by the first presidents of the Republic. The same body shop also built a seventh example, a special military torpedo, for the personal use of King Vittorio Emanuele III as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.
During official ceremonies and in the reception of heads of state and popes, Vittorio Emanuele III used a Fiat 2800 imperial black car which he named "Alcinoo", as one of his most beautiful thoroughbreds. A book has been dedicated to this car, "The King's Last Car" by Marco Linari, which tells the story of this Fiat flagship, used from 1938 to 1962 in all the great parades both in times of monarchy and republic, and then forgotten in a garage in Rome. Fortunately, Raffaele Bacelliere, a motor dealer from Lake Varese, found it again eight years later. The volume also reports the memory of Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy and the introduction by Gabriele Albertini, former mayor of Milan. Among the
What is underneath
Under the skin sits 2.9 L 2,852 . Kerb weight is 1855 kg. The gearbox is a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 3200 mm / 2800 CMC: 3000 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Where it sits in Fiat's history is not in doubt: the Fiat 527 came before it; the Fiat 2100 followed it. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Volkswagen Beetle, the Lincoln Continental, the Datsun Type 17. Nearby in the Fiat catalogue sit the FIAT 702 and the Fiat 1.
The money
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Fiat 2800 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.