It does not matter if you have to look twice to see what you see here. For this is a car of which a maximum of seven were built: the Siata 1250 GT Zagato. Built in 1955 for the 1956 Mille Miglia, in which it most likely participated. That Mille Miglia may act like a red rag to a bull for many classic car enthusiasts, but we'll dive into the further history of this truly amazing 1250 GT. Zagato was very active in the ‘50s in building cars primarily intended for motorsport. Not least because Elio Zagato, son of founder Ugo, was himself quite successful in racing. The technical basis of the 1250 GT Zagato is the Fiat 1100 TV, ‘tipo 103’. With that sporty variant of the compact 1100, the ‘GTI of its time’, Fiat hits the nail on the very sporty head. Already smooth as standard but plenty of companies know how to make it a little faster. The SocietàItaliana Applicazioni Technice Automobilistiche (S.A.), Siata for short, for example. In fact, this is a racing car. So that alone explains the trip to Zagato in Milan, where fantastically streamlined aluminum bodies were knocked up in very small numbers, in this case on an 1100 TV basis. Small numbers... So what are we talking about? Here we go again: in good Italian fashion, we don't know exactly. If we add the starting list of the 1956 Mille Miglia, we see six Siata’s 1250 in the Turismo e Gran Turismo class from 1,100 to 1,300 cc.The 1250 GT Zagato on this page is the car with (Fiat) chassis number 198498. The car comes with two thick dark blue folders that substantiate the history of the car in considerable detail. An incredibly valuable addition to a car like this.The folders show, among other things, that the car was delivered to its first owner, one Angelo Zuffini, on January 18, 1956. Eéone name immediately stands out when looking at the subsequent owners: Claudio Maglioli. For starters, that is the son of Umberto Maglioli, a serious racing driver who even drove ten Grands Prix Formula One. Sporting car blood creeps where it cannot go and Claudio, born in 1940, enjoyed a reputation as a factory driver for Lancia at a somewhat later age, but above all as a preparer of racing and rally cars. The Siata's registrations also show that the car spent long periods of time in Sicilië The Siata looks really beautiful. Not perfect concours condition, but just ‘beautifully aged’. Little has been bastardized on the car over time. Walking around the Siata like this and looking inside, it is in everything a mid-fifties car.Under the hood, that image is only reinforced. Here is basically a Fiat engine, but with ‘Siata’ in red on the valve cover and next to it a beautiful piece of work by Edoardo Weber, a real double-fall carburetor, without an air filter. How racy do you want it? Of course, this is not just any 1100 block, it has been boosted to 1,294 cc to stay nét below the 1,300 limit, in connection with class divisions in motorsport. The interior is just as’a party. The two very authentic bucket seats naturally stand out. The dashboard looks suspiciously like that of a Maserati A6G 54 Zagato, but smaller, narrower especially. The four large, round clocks have been gently yellowed a bit by the ravages of time. High time to drive. The sound and the whole atmosphere inside the car are fantastic. The small, not really adjustable seat gives quite a bit of lateral support. The large steering wheel, which for variation bears a proud Fiat logo in its heart, is very light but also extremely responsive.The engine is smoother than expected and picks up nicely even at somewhat lower revs. The Siata is not slow at all, at least it doesn't feel that way, because of the aluminum body the car weighs only 800 kg. Engine output should be around 80 hp. Shifting gears is also a treat, beautifully precise. Meanwhile, the Siata sounds very characterful, as you expect from a boosted, slightly old-fashioned engine with a virtually open exhaust.... ‘Prèèèp!’ Riding long distances can be done easily, with the eighty(!) gallon tank in the back. Just drive an entire stage in the Mille Miglia without refueling in between. Zó crazy is not that thought. The Siata will undoubtedly be allowed in the MM. This regardless of whether this example was one of them or not, with experience showing that the organization just likes to have some more variety in the starting field.