OTAS and Giannini
Rome-based engine tuner Giannini Automobili was quick to offer higher performance versions of the Grand Prix. An example equipped with a Giannini engine was displayed on their stand at the Turin Racing Car Exhibition in March 1968, two weeks before the Grand Prix's official Geneva launch.[15] Marketed as the Giannini 1000 Grand Prix, this model received a tuned version of the regular Fiat 850 motor, stroked to 982 cc (65 mm x 74 mm), for a claimed output of 84 hp SAE.[16] At the 1968 Turin Auto Show a few months later, they introduced the even sportier 1000 Bialbero Grand Prix.[17] This version featured a 994 cc (64.6 mm x 76 mm) twin overhead camshaft motor of Giannini's own design, which was claimed to make 104 hp SAE at 7500 rpm.[16]
Following the death of Giannini Automobili's founder, Domenico Giannini, his son Franco left the company in 1969 to focus on his own business in Turin, OGT (Officina Giannini Torino, or "Giannini Turin workshop").[18] Seeing potential in the American market, OGT developed a version of the Grand Prix to meet US standards, which was displayed at the 1969 Turin Motor Show as the OGT 1000. Sporting the central bonnet rib and louvered engine cover of the upcoming Series II Grand Prix, it featured a new 903 cc engine (65 mm x 68 mm) fitted with a fuel-injection system that was Franco Giannini's own brainchild.[19] This system replaced the carburetor's Venturi tube with a mechanical fuel metering device, and was reported to offer a significant improvement in power while still meeting the contemporary US emissions limits.[20] Lombardi was also interested in exporting this model to Australia.[21]
The car attracted the interest of an American importer, Siata International of Newark, New Jersey, who distributed the Siata Spring in the US, and they placed an order for three hundred units. However, Giannini Automobili in Rome objected to the name Officina Giannini Torino, so Franco Giannini set up a new company, OTAS (Officina Trasformazioni Automobili Sportive, or "Sports car conversion workshop") to fulfill the order.[18] Siata International displayed the car, now rebranded as the OTAS Tigre, on their stand at the New York International Automobile Show in April 1970.[22]
Shortly thereafter, the Italian manufacturer Siata declared bankruptcy, and in the ensuing fallout the American distributor abandoned its plans to import the Tigre. Having already completed the conversion of one hundred cars, OTAS urgently started looking for a new US distributor. Eventually a deal was struck with John Rich of Glendale, California, but by then emission regulations had grown stricter and the cars OTAS had already prepared could not be made to comply. Since engines under 50 cubic inches were exempt from regulation, OTAS decided to convert all one hundred cars again, this time reducing the engine capacity to 817 cc.[18] The resulting cars (which retained Fiat 850 chassis numbers) were marketed in the US from 1971 as the OTAS 820.[23] Sources differ as to how many were ultimately brought to North America; either sixty-five or as many as a hundred.
