Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada | 1. Birth and early units
PUNCH BACK FROM TUSCANY
After being fired by Ferrari, engineer Bizzarrini would put on the street in record time a car on level with its Modena rivals, even in the circuits. Writes: David Leciñana | Photo credits: RM Auctions (otherwise stated).
Next May one of the last GT Strada units produced by Bizzarrini goes under the hammer in RM auctions Monaco event. Known until 1965 as Iso A3/C stradale, this limited edition exotic supercar was the most successful project of tuscan engineer Giotto Bizzarrini.
The gestation of this true 'autostrada proyectile' wouldn't have been possible without Iso Rivolta. Established in Bresso (on the outskirts of Milano) and run by industrialist Renzo Rivolta, this company had made a fortune selling to BMW among others the manufacture license for the famous Isetta microcar. By the early sixties, when demand for this kind of cars had fallen, he committed himself to the sports car market.
Our GT Strada was the second project in which Bizzarrini worked with him as a consultant. Starting with the Iso GT 300 coupe (which production optimized pressed steel frame was also his), the wheelbase was shortened to 2450 mm and other minor modifications were carried out. Although Renzo Rivolta was not convinced of the plan at first place, he finally authorized it and the car was launched in the 1963 Torino auto show. When displayed in the Iso stand public got attracted by its lack of finish, showing his bare aluminum body. Bertone, who had collaborated in its design, also unveiled their own proporsal in their stand (an elegant grand turismo based in the GT 300 chassis as well).
Motorgrafico #001
1. Birth and early units | Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada
The motor is set so far backwards that timing is reached through a bolt-on lid on top of the dashboard.
Iso A3/C Grifo was its first name (“C” surname indicating a sole competizione votation). However, the idea of a street version starts to surround Giotto's workshop and a few months later a second car is introduced in Geneve in a road-going guise. This A3/C Grifo “stradale” (o simply Grifo 5300, as could be read in the side of the body) was sold inmediately to a american citizen and that's how Bizzarrini put the first stone of a proyect that would produce one of the most exclusive sports cars of the sixties.
With no time to waste, a frame is prepared in May for lending to the specialized press and with Renzo Rivolta approval (who serves the chassis from Iso factory in Bresso), Giotto founds Prototipi Bizzarrini in order to start manufacturing and selling the first street Grifos. He had become a constructor in its own right.
These early units sold under the Iso name are pretty cool, being rare (around 15) and showing the proto-assembly quality of the first days. Piero Drogo, who supplied the bodies from Modena, used more than 7000 rivets ellaborating them, which remained visible from the outside. It is the most recognizable detail from this first batch of cars and are, with the Jaguar XKSS, one of the first using motorsport riventing monocoque technique. These alloy skins remained scarce in Bizzarrini production, but the example featured here has one of them (hammered in this case by BBM, who took charge of this car component from April 65 onwards).
Motorgrafico #001
