September 09 2008
Cachila: 1950 SIATA Daina
In the early half of the last century, parts of South America were very prosperous thanks to booming meat and wheat exports. There were lots of rich people and they liked their special cars. As a consequence, loads of pretty rare cars ended up in countries like Argentina and Uruguay.
In the 1970s though, economic fortunes had changed completely, and a lot of cars were shipped again, but this time out of countries like Uruguay to wealthy buyers in North America and Europe. The more prestigious and expensive automobiles first of course. Boats and boats full of them.
Then came dictatorship in Uruguay and keeping the remaining cars on the road became an economic necessity. Mechanics became ingenuous wizzards with a spanner and a welding torch. People became quite entrepreneurial and started organising “scrapyard tours” for wealthy foreigners looking for the car of their dreams. The cachila business (cachilla is Uruguaya slang for “old cars”) is still going, but the difficulty of completely restoring certain cars has seen some offloads appear on internet sites around the world.
Which brings us to this 1950 Siata Daina which is being offered out of Montevideo in Uruguay. The car, serial number SL0139, has appeared on various forums, like AlfaBB.com over the last year or so, and is now being offered on anciennes.net in France for €20000. It is a berlinetta by Stabilimenti Farina, based on a Fiat 1100 platform.
A wizzard mechanic has well and truly been chopping and changing this car. It comes with a different rear axle but more importantly, the front of the car has been altered completely. The black and white photograph underneath is exactly the same car back in the 1950s presumably. The current owner has the original front grill.
Getting all the parts to make this car complete is going to be a mammoth task. If not mission impossible since there were only “about 8″ made. And even then, the value of the car is another subject of discussion. What will it be worth? Is it worth its while? We think it will be worth it, but it is likely to be a huge labour of love that will take a few years to get some results.
