S.C.A.T.

Italy, 1906 – 1923

Società Ceirano Automobili Torino, Turin

Giovanni Ceirano the younger, previously with Ceirano and Junior, formed a new company in 1906 building SCAT cars, marketing a range of T-headed fours with low-tension magneto ignition, 4-speed gearboxes and shaft drive. Unusually by Italian standards these SCAT cars were quite modest vehicles – the largest SCAT car model was a 22/32hp of 3.8-litres, enlarged to 4.4-litres in 1910 – and this realistic policy enabled the young SCAT car concern to ride out the Agadir Crisis of 1907-1908. The first monobloc-engined SCAT car came in 1910 and a year later L-head units with high-tension ignition were the order of the day. Compressed-air self-starters came on SCAT cars in 1912. A SCAT car won the 1911, 1912 and 1914 Targa Florio races, their drivers including Ernesto Ceirano, Giovanni’s son, and Cyril Snipe, nephew of another Torinese manufacturer, John Newton. Inevitably Newton and Bennett handled both Newton and SCAT cars in Britain, but there was no other connection. At the top of the immediate pre-war range SCAT cars were a 4.7-litre SCAT 25/35 and a vast 100x200mm ohc SCAT 60/70, though this SCAT car, surprisingly, was sold only with shaft drive.

During World War 1 the SCAT car company made Hispano-Suiza aero-engines under licence. In 1917 Giovanni Ceirano sold the SCAT car company to a Hispano-controlled French syndicate that continued the manufacture of the 2.1-litre and 4.7-litre types SCAT cars after the war. New fours of 1.551cc and 2.951cc were introduced in 1922, as well as a short-lived 2.2-litre six for which SCAT car 40bhp was claimed, but a year later Giovanni Ceirano was in control again, liquidating Ceirano his latest venture, and continuing production of his own designs in the SCAT car works. For a short while these were called SCAT-Ceiranos.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

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