By Stefan Marjoram: A ridiculously exciting day yesterday! I’ve been sketching and photographing the rebuild of the 300 h.p. FIAT S76 land speed record car for a few years now. Yesterday, over 100 years since it had last run, The Beast of Turin was brought back to life again. A misbehaving coil caused a lot of head scratching in the morning, and it was a good twenty or so attempts before the best settings for the timing and mixture were found.

But when the engine finally burst into life the noise was spectacular – as were the flames (despite running a bit lean). The first burst from the 28-litre (1729 c.i.) engine shook the whole car, but it soon calmed down and ran smoothly – without losing any oil and without any worrying noises. Duncan, Bruce and Tucker’s patience and attention to detail and hard work has paid off. The next task will be to find a wide open space in which to try driving it.

Editors Note: A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Duncan Pittaway and Company, all of Southwestern England for accomplishing this long-term project. We have been following Duncan’s progress on it since May of 2011 thanks to Stefan Marjoram of Lower Langford, North Somerset, England. You can look back here at all of our coverage and Stefan’s earlier artwork and photography of the Fiat S76 on The Old Motor.

Below you can see and hear the start-up of the Fiat yesterday in the trailer by Stefan Marjoram for The Beast of Turin, a film that is upcoming in February of 2015.