CMASA CS.15: Vitesse Oblige.

This racy beauty was Italian entry into the land speed record rampage started by the Germans with the Bf 209/He 100D “battle”. Initiated by Fiat’s president Giovanni Agnelli, the project was assigned by the authorities to Fiat’s subsidiary Costruzioni Meccaniche Aeronautiche SA. Manlio Stiavelli (C-orsa S-tiavelli) was the designer of this slender all-metal stiletto powered by an engine which showed so much promise. The work of Antonio Fessia and Carlo Bona, the AS.8 was a +2.250hp 34.5-litre V16 marvel evolved with lessons learned from Tranquillo Zerbi’s peerless AS.6 which employed the latter slick but marginal wing surface condensation cooling system. Wind tunnel models promised 850 km/h. The project was started with some vigour in the spring of 1939, to be all but forgotten a year later when Mussolini dragged Italy into WW2. The unfinished prototype, after some damages due to Allied air raids, was destroyed by the retreating Germans. Gladly, one example of the stunning AS.8 survives at Vigna di Valle.

Charming 3-views cutaway. In Rosso Corsa, of course.