1925-26 Racing FIAT 509: A beautiful car with a story to tell.

Originally imported to be a street vehicle and live a common quiet life, its destiny suddenly changed when its owner decided to prepare it for racing. In a time when racing teams didn’t exist the owners themselves had to modify the body of their cars to have better aerodynamics, a very important factor in competition.  Therefore, they used to modify the original bodies or even throw them away and make new ones more appropriate for competition using light weight metals like aluminum (if they had the budget and skills to do so, of course). This was the case of this FIAT 509 which was suddenly transformed from a family car into a racing champion.

Among the common modifications these vehicles usually underwent we can count the complete lack of top, the use of better designed seats (usually two in a row or just one in the middle) the lack of doors (or detachable ones) and of course, a tuned engine. They received the name ‘baquet’ (after the French word for cockpit) due to the resemblance of the type of bucket seats also used in airplanes during those days.

This 'baquet' raced during many of its youth years until one day it was retired and kept in storage ever since. Regretfully, the original hand-made aluminum body got lost in time (probably reused in other racing vehicles or just destroyed). Fortunately, the chassis, engine and everything else is original and remained very well conserved.

Its present owner, a skilled boat maker and racing enthusiast, very passionate for antique boats, motorcycles and cars, purchased this FIAT 509 with a dream in his mind: To build a new body for it using the exact techniques and following the same designs of that time. This romantic enterprise was performed by the owner himself with the collaboration of a selected group of Italian and Spanish artisans (skilled boat makers like him) and the whole work was done fully by hand using special vintage tools like the ones used when this type of works were originally done.

After two years participating in antique cars rallies and exhibitions, the owner, a close friend of our company, gently offered this car to be exhibited at our show room where it gained a lot of compliments and attracted the attention of every person passing by. Now, he has decided to sell this beautiful car to be able to take better care of the many other vehicles in his collection. Spare Parts Collections was honored with the commitment.

Today, we are presenting this beautiful car with a 'baquet' body which is an amazing craftsman work made entirely by hand and using vintage tools, to reproduce the original racing body. Only the body and the front lights are reproduced parts while every other component, from the chassis to the engine, is a restored original.

Don’t miss this opportunity. You are bidding not only for a beautiful antique racing car, but also for a craftsmanship masterpiece with a story to tell…


Vehicle’s condition summary:

-Fully functional
-Three years old restoration (including full engine and gearbox works)
-Unique hand-made aluminum racing body (baquet)
-New front headlights replacements
-New brakes system
-Everything else: Restored originals.