Chassis No.
1233
Among the worlds finest and most exclusive motorcar manufacturers of the 1920s, Milans Isotta Fraschini deserves to be mentioned alongside Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Packard, Pierce-Arrow, and Rolls-Royce. Founded in 1900 by Cesare Isotta and the Fraschini brothers, Oreste, Vincenzo, and Antonio, Fabbrica Automobili Isotta Fraschini quickly rose from Renault importer to Italys preeminent luxury-car builder. A rudimentary 5-horsepower single-cylinder prototype appeared at the 1901 Milan Exposition, and rapid progress followed. Fueled by engineering innovation and competition success, the company became Italys second-largest automobile manufacturer within just a few years.
Its racing record was impressive. Oreste Fraschini finished second in the 1902 Sassi-Superga Hillclimb, while the marque claimed victory in the 1908 Targa Florio and second place in that years Vanderbilt Cup. Isotta Fraschini also pioneered advanced engineering, becoming the first manufacturer to fit four-wheel brakes to a production car by 1910. In 1913, the company entered three cars in the Indianapolis 500, making it the first marque with four-wheel brakes to compete there. Among the drivers associated with Isotta Fraschini in 1920 was a young Italian driver named Enzo Ferrari, who earned the first podium of his career with the marque.
Those competition lessons carried directly into the companys road cars. Developed before World War I by Chief Engineer Giustino Cattaneo and introduced in August 1919, the Tipo 8 was a landmark design. It featured the worlds first series-produced straight-eight engine, an advanced overhead-valve 5.9-litre unit with a nine-bearing crankshaft, lightweight alloy cylinder block, magneto ignition, three-speed gearbox, and servo-assisted four-wheel brakes. Intended as a refined, chauffeur-driven luxury car, the Tipo 8 found particular favor in the United States, where it was purchased by celebrities and power brokers including Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, William Randolph Hearst, and Jack Dempsey, helping justify the companys claim to be The Aristocrat of Automobiles.
In 1925, Isotta Fraschini introduced the improved Tipo 8A, powered by a larger 7.3-litre straight-eight producing 115 horsepower, then the most powerful straight-eight in production. Vacuum-assisted brakes and a new three-speed synchromesh transmission enhanced the chassis further. For buyers seeking even greater performance, Isotta offered the uprated Spinto and Super Spinto models, developing 150 and 160 horsepower respectively. While the standard Tipo 8A rode on a 145-inch wheelbase, the sportier S and SS variants used a shorter 134-inch chassis. With immense torque and remarkably smooth delivery, the factory guaranteed every example capable of 90 mph, and lightweight-bodied SS models were reputedly capable of nearly 100.
The Tipo 8A and its higher-specification S and SS derivatives were among the most expensive and technically advanced luxury chassis of their time. Chassis alone cost $9,750 in the United States, and fully bodied examples could easily exceed $20,000 - extraordinary sums in the late 1920s. Roughly one-third of all Tipo 8 production was destined for the American market, where Isotta Fraschini ranked second only to Rolls-Royce among elite imported luxury makes. However, the 1929 market crash and the Great Depression sharply curtailed demand. An improved Tipo 8B followed in 1931, but fewer than 100 were built before the company shifted its focus to aero engines and trucks. Automobile production ceased by 1935, and a brief post-war revival attempt in 1947 ended after only a handful of rear-engine V-8 cars were completed.
The Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A SS offered here, chassis number 1233, is an especially rare and highly desirable example of the marques ultimate sporting chassis. Documented in the *Isotta Fraschini Owners Register (Elenco Proprietari Vetture)* and Angelo Tito Anselmis authoritative book *Isotta Fraschini*, it was delivered new to the Pilade Zaniratti Agency in Florence, Italy. The agency was co-managed by Pilade Zaniratti and his older brother Ferruccio, better known as Ferro, a noted sportsman and skilled racing driver who competed in many of Italys formative events, including the Circuito del Mugello, where he won his class and finished second overall in 1925.
The cars later history is equally fascinating. According to a tag affixed to the chassis, number 1233 was eventually imported to the United States through Isotta Motors, Inc. of Manhattan, headed by company president Ugo V. DAnnunzio. An Italian-born engineer, pt, aviator, and entrepreneur, DAnnunzio was a remarkable figure in his own right, perhaps best remembered for piloting an Isotta-powered speedboat to an unofficial 78.9-mph record on Italys Lake Garda in 1927, a feat published in the pages of *Time* magazine. He would usher in an age in the late 1920s where Isotta Fraschini would become a favored marque of wealthy American buyers.
Chassis 1233 was built for Horace Havemeyer, a member of the prominent family behind the American Sugar Refining Company and one of the great collecting dynasties of the Gilded Age and Jazz Age. A brass tag affixed to the car reads: Horace Havemeyer c/o Hotel Ritz, 15 Place Vendme, Paris, further underscoring its glamorous original ownership. Mr. Havemeyer was known to be private and rarely exhibit his wealth leading to many of his acquisitions being unknown in their early life, such as this Isotta. The earliest known depiction of the car is a black-and-white photograph, found by the current owner, at the New York Library, showcasing the car with its distinctive body and artillery-style steel wheels. The handsome, lightweight aluminum Dual Cowl Phaeton coachwork by the renowned Walter M. Murphy Company of Pasadena, California is both striking and distinctive. While the early history is unknown, it is of note Mr. Havemeyer's relation through the Sugar Trust, Conrad H. Matthiessen Jr., would commission Murphy to build his one-off Bentley 8-Litre Convertible Victoria. Murphy has long been celebrated for its elegant custom bodies on Duesenberg and other elite chassis, and was among the most respected American coachbuilders of the era by the wealthy such as Havemeyer and Matthiessen.
According to a notarized Connecticut bill of sale on file, Horace Havemeyer later transferred the Isotta Fraschini Phaeton to Orville D. Ellis, the Havemeyer family chauffeur, on October 12, 1954. He would retain it until June 16, 1989, when he sold it to the current owner, a known collector and restorer. That 1989 bill of sale identifies the car specifically as a top-of-the-line Isotta Fraschini 8A SS chassis with Dual Cowl Phaeton coachwork.
The current owner recalls first hearing about the car in the early 1980s from noted Long Island collectors Henry Austin Clark, Joseph Gazza, and Warren Kraft, all of whom remembered it from the Havemeyer horse farm in Commack, New York, where it had reportedly been stored in one of the large stone barns during the 1940s and 1950s. After years of searching, the current owner and his brother eventually traced Mr. Ellis to Florida and acquired the car in 1989.
Importantly, the Isotta chassis was found in very good, well-preserved condition. Before the restoration process, it was noted by the current owner that this Murphy coachwork is original and retains its original wooden body framing and original aluminum dual cowl body. A pr
