808XF Ford’s First Sports Car  
An Italian - American Wedding

The Thunderbird was not Ford’s first sports car as is commonly

believed. That title belongs to the Ford / Cisitalia 808XF Convertible

built in 1952. This car was the distinctive child borne of an Italian –

American wedding between Detroit colossus Ford and the small

Italian sports car manufacturer Cisitalia. The wedding seemed well

matched. Each partner at the alter had hopes that they believed the

other partner would fulfill. Henry Ford II had driven up to his design

department in his Italian Cisitalia 202 and demanded to know why

his design team could not design a car as beautiful as this. 

This marriage would remedy Henry’s frustration, Cisitalia was to

design and assemble sports cars for Ford. As for Cisitalia, it was in

trouble, it desperately needed a source of revenue to

stay afloat. It hoped that sales of the 808XF through Ford would

provide them with the much-needed capital.

It was a big wedding, even for Italian standards. Present were

luminaries from both sides of the Atlantic. In attendance at the

ceremony was Henry Ford II himself, his son in law R Peter Sullivan

II, a Ford dealership owner in New Jersey who was to be appointed

supervisor of this joint venture. On the other side of the eile was Carlo

Dusio the son of wealthy industrialist and Cisitalia founder Piero

Dusio, Cisitalia engineer Giovanni Savonuzzi who would build the

first chassis for the 808XF and would the design of the first

prototype. Ghia, who would build the Savonuzzi car, was there. Also

in attendance was Alfredo Vignale, whose company designed and

built the 808XF Convertible sports car and a coup. So was Giovanni

Michilotti who styled a car built by Pininfarina. Even dapper Italian-

American

crooner Perry Como, dressed in a white jacket over a Hawaii print

shirt, showed up to sing his hit “Love Me or Leave Me”. When the

relationship ended two years later, Cisitalia crashed into financial

difficulties, never to stand tall again. Ford, having learned something

from its first sports car venture, went on to successfully produce the

Thunderbird in 1955.

The romance between Ford and Cisitalia started in 1951 when

Dusio learned from a newspaper article that Henry Ford II was to

come to Europe. Ford was a known enthusiast of Cisitalia and owned

both a coup and convertible 202. Arrangements were made for Dusio,

and Ford to meet in April 1951 at the Hotel Plaza in Paris. Ford and

Dusio wasted not time, in short order a joint venture agreement

between the two companies was drawn up.

Cisitalia was to build Ford cars in Torino using Ford engines,

transmissions and suspensions. The intent was to to pair both the

reliability of and the availability of spare parts for the Ford engine

with Italian styling.  The Ford 6-cylinder 3.7

liter engine and the Mercury V8’s were to be used. Cisitalia was

to tune the Ford engines with its own manifolds and separate 

exhausts,

the timing system was also to be modified.  A top speed of 200

Kilometers per hour were expected. Ford was to market and sell the

808XF’s in America, Cisitalia was to do the same in Europe.

Such a proposal was not new to Cisitalia, it already had experience

with the development of such hybrid cars, the 202 was based on

Fiat components. Dusio proposed to produce 500 – 1000 cars per

year. Cisitalia’s present capacity for production was 500 cars per

year. Plans were made for an additional production facility. Four or

five prototypes were to be built and sent to the US for inspection.

On his returned to Dearborn Henry Ford II authorized the project and

organized Ford’s  payment  of development money to Cisitalia.  Ford

running gear was shipped to Torino. In August of 1952 Carlo Dusio,

full of hope, left on the ship Independence to New York with the first

prototype. Upon seeing the cars, Henry Ford pronounced: “This is the

best Italian car I have ever seen!” His engineering department

however was not as enthusiastic, their report read:

“the general opinion of our engineers is that the appearance of the car is
excellent,we feel that there are a certain number of material defects which
aught to be remedied once and for all before putting a car of this type onto
the market”

They went on to mention that the break was too close to the

accelerator, that the gasoline intake should be on the outside and not

in the trunk, the fuel pipe was too close to the ground, the bumpers

were too thin, etc. Henry Ford appointed R Peter Sullivan II, his

brother in law as supervisor for the 808XF project.

To reduce construction costs, Instead of using Cisitalia frames,

Sulivan proposed using Cisitalia bodies on Ford chassis and

Assembling the cars in New Jersey rather than in Italy.

At a Feb. 1953 at meeting with Dusio at Ford it was agreed that four

other 808XF prorotypes would be produced on Ford chassis.

In June of 1953 a coup and a convertible sports car prototype were

designed and built by Vignale. The task of designing a body for the

convertible was an interesting challenge. The Ford

chassis were considerably higher off the ground and

wider than those of the small Italian cars such as the Ferraris that

Vignalle was styling at that time. The question for Vignalle was how to

attain a sleek sporty look on a body that needed to fit on such a large

American cassis? Vignalle rendered what he

thought an American sports car should look like. The result were lines 

aggressive and muscular as well as sleek.  The front felt testosterone

Italian, yet the rear felt like a classy American lady. Although the

styling was Vignale Italian it also felt non-Italian. Present were design

features that are not seen on any of Vignales other cars

before or after. His signature egg crate grill was Ferrari race bred.

However here Vignalle used a cross hatched grill instead of his usual

squares.  He placed a chrome bar over the radiator grill as if it were

an airplane propeller.

In June 1953 Dussio again sailed the Atlantic now bringing the

Vignale convertible and coup with him. When the cars arrived in Long

Island NY they were scrutinized by Ford engineers, they again found

fault with the engineering and estimated cost of production. The gas

intake was still in the trunk instead of being on the outside. The

bumpers were still unworkable.

From my examination of the two Vignale cars, I believe that the

problem was in large part cultural - different forms

of production. Ford’s process was assembly line mass production and

standardization.  Each part was exactly like the previous. Cisitalia’s

production was that of artisans building cars by hand one at a time.

Each car differed slightly or not so slightly from the next.

Quality varied. Vignalle did not even use a large wooden buck to

hammer out his panels. His style was the freeform beating of panels

resulting in each panel being different from the other, sometimes

noticeably. For Fords mindset of assembly line standardization, the

inconsistency of Cisitalia’s hand crafted product was

unacceptable. Ford had a reputation for quality and dependability to

uphold, it was  in serious competition with GM who had gained the

lead. Ford could not place

the 808XF on the market as they were presented by Cisitalia.

Yes, these were prototypes, but this was the second time around and

the gas tank was still in the trunk. Ford understood that these

problems could be resolved by Cisitalia simply providing Ford with

bodies only.

The real problem with the relationship lie somewhere

else, unspoken, - it made no sense for Ford to market a

sports car with Cisitalia when they had secret plans to launch

the Thunderbird. A comparison of the timeline of Ford / Cisitalia joint

venture and Fords development of the Thunderbird sports car shows

that after January 1 1953 and probably much earlier, there was no

point for Ford to consider construction and marketing of Cisitalia /

Ford sports cars. In February or March 1952 at a dinner at the home

of Ford designer Frank

Hershy a GM design department employee showed him a photo of

the Chevy Corvette then under development. The Ford design

department started immediately to design their own sports car. When

in Jan 1953 GM publicly unveiled the Corvette at the NYC Autorama,

there was no question that Ford had no option but to compete with its

arch rival and produce their own sports car.

Although there was probably no agreement on exclusivity, in a way

Cisitalia was being two timed by Ford. In Feb 1953 while Ford was

still in discussions with Cisitalia, Ford’s 

Production Planning Committee had already approved the production

of the Thunderbird. It was not until eight months later that Ford

ended its relationship with Cisitalia. Why did Ford not use Cisitalia

bodies for the Thunderbird?

To compete with GM Ford needed to produce reliable sports cars in

large numbers, fast, and Ford must have seen that Cisitalia could not

deliver. Ford estimated that it needed to manufacture at least 15,000

T Birds per year. At that time Cisitalia was equipped for production of

only 500 cars per year. That is less than three cars per day – all hand

built. Simply, with the introduction of the Corvette, the game had

changed and Cisitalia was no longer in a position to play. It was time

to go home to Torino.

In order to understand the historical significance of the 808XF

Convertible within the Ford family it is necessary to visit the Ford

concept cars produced prior and after the construction of the 808XF

Convertible. There were three “sporty” concept cars built by Edsel

Ford in the 30’s known as the Special Cars or as Continentals. Each

was a private car built for the personal

use of Edsel Ford. The 1932 Gregorie Roadster was a boat tailed

speedster.  It was a project by Edsel to test the design talents of

Bob Gregoire then a draftsman at the Linllcoln Devision. The 1934

Model 40 Special Speedster was also a design exercise and was built

for the personal use of Edsel Ford. It was registered

in Edsel’s name and he was often seen driving around Detroit in it.

It was  sold this year at auction (I believe for $1,7 million).

The1935 Special Sports was constructed from various Ford body

parts and was as an exercise to test the

durability of a new chassis. Upon it’s completion Edsel gave this car

to Bob Gregorie. Henry Ford did not sanction each of these cars,

and at that time if it was not sanctioned by Henry, it was not

sanctioned by the Ford Motor Corporation. These Edsel Ford private

cars were also

not financed by the Ford Motor Corporation. Henry Ford simply

did not like sports cars and he was not going to produce a sports car.

Henry’s motto was simple, if it

won’t be driven by a farmer in Iowa, Ford was not going to build it. In

fact Edsel parked some of his cars in the gardeners shed at his

estate because his father Henry Ford did not approve of his son’s

interest in sporty type cars. (I am blessed that Henry Ford was not my

father, I would need a very large gardeners shed)

When Henry Ford the II took over as head of Ford things changed.

Henry was an avid admirer of European sports cars, he owned

several. He especially admired Italian design. He set his mind on

building a Ford sports car. The 808XF was his first attempt.

The 808XF was an official Ford Motor Company project, conceived,

authorized and personally directed by Henry ford II himself, then head

of Ford Motor Company. The development of 808XF was financed by

Ford. The 808XF concept cars were developed with the clear intent to

develop the cars in large numbers. The next Ford sport car

development after the 808XF was the the Thunderbird, it premiered in

1955.

Henry Ford II gave the 808XF Vignale Convertible sports car

to his brother in law Peter Sullivan II. He was often seen driving

in it for many years. Car collector Urs Jakob presently owns the

808XF

Convertible along with it’s twin car the Vignale coup. The car was

restored by Richard Grenon of Montreal Canada. Mr. Jakob hopes to

show the two cars together in the future. The 808XF Convertible will

be shown at this years Pebble beach Concourse de Elegance.