The Fiat 804 is a car from Fiat, built from 1922, the vintage years, when coachbuilders still shaped most of what was sold. Under the bonnet: Straight-six engine.
The story
The Fiat 804 or 804 Corsa is an early 1920s racing car developed by Italian carmaker Fiat. Designed exclusively for competition, in 1922 it won both the Grand Prix of the Automobile Club of France and the Italian Grand Prix, establishing Fiat's dominance in Grand Prix racing ahead of such prestigious manufacturers as Ballot and Bugatti.
In 1922, the Grand Prix regulations set the maximum displacement of competing cars at 2 liters, so the new Type 404 straight-six engine with a displacement of 1,991 cm3 was chosen to power the Fiat 804; in reality, it was simply the engine of the 802, the Type 402, with two cylinders removed and a stroke reduced by 20mm. In contrast to the engine, the chassis - whose name "804" gives the car its name - introduces an innovative and "elegant" configuration. After the departure of engineer Giulio Cesare Cappa from the management of the Special Studies Section, which had produced the Fiat 804, it was replaced in 1923 by the 805, which was given the task of preserving Fiat's competitiveness in Grand Prix racing.
What is underneath
Power comes from Straight-six engine. It weighs 660 kg. It shifts through a 4-speed. 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. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at ITA. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Opel 10/30 PS, the Lancia Trikappa, the British Motor Corporation Austin 7 — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Fiat catalogue sit the FIAT 702 and the Fiat 1.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Fiat 804 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.