1963 Fiat 1600S OSCA

Officine Specializzate per la Costruzione Automobili Fratelli Maserati (OSCA) was founded after World War II by the three surviving Maserati brothers with the intention of building limited edition competition cars. Throughout OSCA's existence, the company would remain small and never produced more than thirty cars in a single year, all of which were intended for competition. The company's genesis model was the 1948 MT4 (Maserati Tipo 4) powered by a 1,092cc overhead-camshaft engine, which was immediately successful in the hands of Luigi Villoresi. Displacement grew in stages up to 1,491cc and given a twin-cam cylinder head, eventually coming to the attention of ex-Ferrari designer, Aurelio Lampredi who 'productionised' it for FIAT.

Fiat introduced a convertible based on the new 1100 Saloon in the post-WWII-era with elegant coachwork courtesy of Pinin Farina. It was built on a simple ladder chassis with independent front suspension and powered by an overhead-valve, four-cylinder engine displacing 1089cc. The convertible coachwork was new, but the car had first appeared in 1937 as the 508 C 'Balilla' mid-sized family car, becoming the 1100 in 1939, and remaining in production through 1953 when replaced by a new monocoque-construction 1100. This new chassis was versatile and popular with Italian Carrozzeries including Fissore, Zagato, Ghia, and Pinin Farima (among others). The graceful cabriolet body created by Stabilimenti Farina used minimal adornment, with restrained use of polished alloy and chrome brightwork. The succeeding Fiat 1500 Cabriolet was again clothed by Pinin Farina and powered by a 1,481cc engine with alloy cylinder heads with twin rocker shafts and inlet valves angled at 45 degrees. To cope with the increase in power, disc brakes were placed at the front.

Both the OSCA engine and Fiat's 1500cc pushrod four-cylinder engine were in production around the same time and both had similar displacement sizes. The OSCA unit had chain-driven camshafts and mechanical tensioners while the FIAT unit was created from the Lampredi-designed inline-6, with two fewer cylinders and smaller displacement sizes. The OSCA rods and crank were forged while the FIATs units were cast like similar production road-going vehicles of the time. The OSCA engines also had an aluminum engine front cover, a finned oil pan, and a tubular header. The standard OSCA engines breathed through a single Weber carburetor while the 'S' model used twin side-draft Webers.

To add even more confusion, the OSCA engines were being built by FIAT at the time. Since OSCA was focused on racing, they had no road-going car to provide a steady source of revenue, so they licensed the MT4 engine to Fiat, who also supplied engines back to them for competition. This arrangement gave FIAT a twin-came engine for its top-of-the-line roadster, and the Maserati brothers (OSCA) were supplied engines of their own design, avoiding tooling and labor expenses.

Thus, the FIAT 1500S roadster of 1959 was powered by an OSCA engine built by FIAT and transformed to road-going, mass-production standard by ex-Ferrari engineer Aurelio Lampredi. The 1500 with OSCA power continued in production through 1964, when FIAT introduced its own 1,500cc engine (by enlarging its 1,100cc engine.)

Wanting an even more potent version of the 1500S, FIAT stretched the MT4 to 1568cc resulting in the 1600. Equipped with the twin-carburetor option, it became the 1600S and offered approximately 100 horsepower in road-going guise.

The 1963 FIAT OSCA 1600S wore a one-year-only design of single round headlights flanking the grille and an offset, functional hood scoop positioned in front of the driver.

The 1600S was a unique creation and combined the strengths of FIAT, OSCA, and Pininfarina. The Maserati brothers' engineering talents had created the design for the engine, FIAT contributed its industrial capabilities to the equation, building the unit-body platform and the engine, and Pininfarina was responsible for most of the styling and its body construction. Between 1962 to 1966, it is believed that slightly more than 3,000 units of the 1600S were built.

by Daniel Vaughan | Jan 2022