A 1913 Fiat Type 55 Speedster, Built on American Soil, Heads to Auction

Long before Fiat became a familiar name on U.S. roads through modern imports, the Italian marque actually built cars on American ground. A group of businessmen in Poughkeepsie, New York, persuaded Fiat to set up a factory there in 1909, and the plant soon began turning out machines for well-heeled buyers. Production included the Type 54 in 1910 and later the Type 55, with annual output peaking at roughly 350 cars. Surviving examples from that American venture are scarce today, which makes a 1913 Type 55 Speedster a notable sight when it crosses the block.

RM Sotheby’s will offer the car on October 7th during its Hershey, Pennsylvania, sale, with an estimate of $250,000 to$300,000. The Type 55 carried a monumental 9.4-liter four-cylinder engine, a figure made more striking when set beside the roughly 20 horsepower of a contemporary Model T. It also paired a conventional four-speed manual with that power, and could reportedly reach 70 mph. Starting it was a ritual rather than a routine, involving about a dozen steps, from a compression release to timing and throttle adjustments.

The car’s history comes with some gaps. Its listing mentions a restoration that included a recast engine block, but offers few specifics on when the work happened and little in the way of documented ownership. What is clear is that the speedster body was shaped by restorer Gary Wales, a Detroit-born craftsman who moved from finance into reviving early and elegant automobiles, with a Pebble Beach class win to his name. Whether chassis #211 originally wore a similar body is not known.

Details like the monocle windshield, brass fittings, and bonnet strap place this Fiat firmly in the Brass Era, a period whose machines reward careful handling and patience. Its value sits in uncertain territory, as does its appeal: some collectors will find the starting procedure absurd, while others will see one of the rarest products of an unlikely chapter in American manufacturing.