News / Articles

FIAT History, Vol. 16 - The FIAT S76

Tazilon Brenner | Published on 11/8/2025

Imagine building a car so big and fast, your own factory test and race drivers refuse to run it full speed. Here is the tale of the legendary FIAT S76, the Beast of Turin.

The story of the S76 begins in 1909. The French Grand Prix, the premier car race of the time was not held that year. While some say the event was cancelled due to economic hardships of the day, others say the French were peeved their Grand Prix had been recently dominated by German and Italian cars. The race was cancelled for 3 years and emphasis was instead placed on Voiturette (or “small car”) racing, a field then dominated by the French.

Without the French Grand Prix to use to show off their automaking skill, Benz opted to shoot for a land speed record in 1909. The Blitzen Benz sported a huge 21.5L engine capable of 200 horsepower. In 1909, it set a record speed of 124.7 mph.

FIAT decided to get in on the high publicity and prestige speed record action. In 1910, they designed what soon became the 1911 FIAT S76. Their S74 racecar already had a 14.2L 16 valve engine. So, instead of reinventing the wheel, they simply doubled the size of the motor for the S76. The result was a ludicrous inline 4 cylinder 28.4L 16 valve fire-belching, smoke spewing, monster of an engine that produced either 290 or 300 HP depending on who you believe. While no official numbers exist, the engine is estimated to create a mind-boggling 2,000 ft-lbs of torque. The S76 had 4 forward gears plus reverse. The Beast tipped the scales at about 3,700 pounds.

FIAT themselves sometimes referred to the car as the “FIAT S76 300 HP” or “300 HP Record”. The Stellantis Heritage site shows a picture of the car and labels it the “FIAT S76 300 HP”. The accompanying text includes the following line, “The 1911 Fiat S76 was also known as the 300 HP Record because it verged on producing that power.” (bold mine) Based on that statement, I suspect the S76’s actual horsepower was 290.

While 290 hp may seem somewhat mundane by today’s standards, remember, this was back in 1911, a time when most cars had engines producing 14-21hp and high performance production cars sported 55-60hp. Then, also consider the S76 had leaf springs all around, a dual chain drive, solid front and rear axles, and believe it or not, drum brakes on the rear axle only. Yep! This monster of a car only had brakes on its rear wheels!

1911 FIAT S76
Driven by Felice Nazzro and Antonio Fagnamo

To say it was difficult to drive was an understatement of epic proportion. FIAT’s own test and race driver, Felice Nazzaro, drove the S76 once at speed and refused to drive it fast again. According to myth, it was Nazzaro who gave the S76 its nickname, “The Beast of Turin”.

With Nazzaro disqualifying himself from the S76 driving duties, FIAT ceased pursuing speed records with their S76. However, FIAT had built a second S76; a car they sold to a Russian prince named Boris Soukhanov.

Soukhanov hired Italian race car driver, Pietro Bordino to pursue the land speed record. At the 2.8 mile Brooklands track in Surrey, England, Bordino squeezed out 100 mph, but said the car was uncontrollable over 90 mph due to the deteriorated conditions of the track. Several weeks later, at Saltburn Sands, also in England, Pietro managed 125 mph in practice (faster than the Blitzen Benz record), but only reached 116 mph in his official run.

NOTE: There is conflicting information about who Pietro Bordino drove for. Some accounts say he drove the second S76 for Prince Soukhanov; others say Bordino drove for FIAT.

No matter for whom Bordino drove, he failed to set the coveted 1 kilometer land speed record.

Soukhanov hired Belgian driver Arthur Duray for a 1913 speed record attempt. At that time, speed record rules stipulated a driver must complete a 1 kilometer run in both directions within a 1-hour timespan. Duray achieved a speed of 132.26 mph down the course. However, he could not complete the return trip due to mechanical problems. Despite handily besting the Blitzen Benz’ record speed, the S76 was not awarded the official record.

Arthur Duray, on driving the S76:

“I was using all my years of experience to drive the Fiat flat-out in third gear. I would have needed the courage of a thousand men to drive it flat-out in fourth gear.”

At this point, I should note several accounts claim the S76 reached an insane-for-that-time speed of 180 mph over a 1-mile course in Long Island. FIAT themselves, however, have never claimed that speed. The documented high speed of 132 mph is crazy enough. At that time, the word record speed for an airplane was 126 mph.

Thus, in 1913, the Beast of Turin was not only the fastest car in the world, it was also the fastest machine of any type on Earth!

Unfortunately for the automotive world, World War I and the Russian Revolution interfered with further attempts at records. In 1919, FIAT disassembled their S76. Prince Soukhanov’s S76 disappeared for decades.

Under restoration by Duncan Pittaway

But the story of the S76 was not over.

Fast forward to 2003. British car collector Duncan Pittaway located and purchased what is believed to be the chassis, suspension and other parts from Soukharov’s S76 from an undisclosed source in Australia. It was missing the engine. Pittaway then talked FIAT into selling him their engine from their disassembled S76.

What ensued was a massive restoration process. The engine was seized and had to be rebuilt and coaxed back to life. Pittaway used photos, drawings, and data from FIAT to faithfully restore and return his S76 to working order. It took 12 years and included building a new gearbox, body, and several other parts from scratch.

In 2014, the engine breathed fire again for the first time in many decades. Then, in 2015, Pittaway and his Beast were invited to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. 104 years after being built, and 101 years after its last documented adventure on a highway, the Beast of Turin once again mesmerized passersby as it rumbled down the road. In the years since, Pittaway has returned the S76 to Goodwood many times, appeared at Brooklands, and multiple hill climbs in England.

For his part, Pittaway has described driving the Beast as, “Wrestling a big, hairy gorilla.”

(By the way, in 1 video interview, Pittaway claims the engine produces an undocumented 1800 ft-lbs of torque.)

In the end, the FIAT S76 never officially claimed the 1 kilometer land speed record it was built to take. However, it was the undisputed fastest car in the world in the early 1910s.

And, on rare occasions in England, you can still see the 1 remaining copy on the road today.