Overview

A Crosley-powered, Bertone-bodied 1952 Siata 300BC, ST 412BC, that went from a 20-year barn slumber in California to an ASI Targa Oro-honored Italian restoration before settling in Japan, where it still competes today.

History

ST 412BC is a 1952 Siata 300 BC with Crosley 750 power and Bertone coachwork, finished in red. Like most of the first thirty cars in the series it left Turin without an engine — the identity plate's MOTORE field was left blank — carrying Bertone body number 4013, small brakes and the Siata bellhousing designed to accept a Crosley unit, which was fitted after the car reached the United States.

Its earliest American history is undocumented: historian John de Boer records only an unnamed Californian owner in "the valley" (Van Nuys?) and a car "last registered 1954." It then stood unused for some two decades — a period dealer account describes it "sleeping in a barn for more than 20 years since 1954" — until **R.W. "Kas" Kastner** of Hawthorne, California bought it in the spring of 1976 and restored it over several years; that restoration was covered by *Road & Track* in 1980. The car passed to **John Brophy** in California (who died in 1996), then to **Thomas W. Barrett** in Arizona, and to **Paul Kawan** in Belgium, before reaching Italian collector **Filippo Villa**, who is recorded as owning it from 1987. Villa brought it to the Galbiati workshop in Milan for further work aimed at returning it closer to its original specification, together with cosmetic refinishing; this phase was covered by the Italian magazine *Ruoteclassiche* in 2003, and the car holds ASI Targa Oro recognition.

In July 2003 the car went to Japan and to **Ikuhiko Kitayama**, a second Japanese owner held it from 2017 before **Masahisa Inagaki** acquired it in 2024. The present owners state they hold no documentation of the car's history before its arrival in Japan.