While Giotto Bizzarrini’s name has not acquired the luster of such icons as Ferrari or Lamborghini, many of his most significant early achievements as an engineering talent are considered true milestones in Italy’s automotive history. His extraordinary credentials include developing the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO, designing Lamborghini’s original 3.5L V-12 engine and engineering the elegant and powerful Iso Rivolta IR300. In fact, it was the Iso’s sophisticated chassis that Bizzarrini considered his most important contribution to automotive design.
As good a car as the Iso was, however, it did not sell as expected. While the top Italian manufacturers had built their reputations on the solid foundation of racing success, Rivolta remained uninterested. Bizzarrini had repeatedly tried to convince Rivolta of the promotional value of racing, but the Milanese industrialist would have nothing to do with that. The disagreement led to Bizzarrini’s departure, on amicable terms, to establish his own company, “Prototipi Bizzarrini, S.a.r.l., Progettazione e Construzioni Automobili.”
Remaining on friendly terms, Rivolta commissioned Bizzarrini to design a grand touring car as a follow-up to the IR300, using the same basic chassis and Corvette engine and transmission. In one of those vaguely constructed accords that characterized the Italian automobile industry of the period, the two agreed the car would bear the Iso name along with one suggested by Iso designer Nuccio Bertone, “Grifo”—Italian for the mythical Griffin, defender of treasures but also the traditional enemy of horses, including, one may infer, those of the prancing variety.
To satisfy Bizzarrini’s desire to enter competition, Rivolta offered to supply Bizzarrini with the parts necessary to build a Grifo-based car of his own design. At first, the Grifo was a part-time project, only sporadically addressed while Bizzarrini frantically completed his work designing Lamborghini’s V-12 engine, but, in November 1963, the Bizzarrini A3/C (C for Competizione) Grifo made its first public appearance at the Turin Auto Show, on the Iso stand, curiously, while a luxurious road version, the A3/L, was unveiled on the Bertone stand.
The two cars generated considerable excitement, raising the Rivolta marque to new prominence, as did a Bertone Grifo convertible presented at the early 1964 Geneva show. All shared common features with the Iso—monocoque construction, a Chevrolet Corvette drivetrain, De Dion rear suspension and superb performance—but the A3/C departed from the norm in the name of outright speed. Bizzarrini employed aluminum components in place of steel wherever practical to reduce weight and moved the engine 15.75 inches rearward for ideal 50/50 front/rear weight distribution. He also replaced the single carburetor with four side-draft Weber carburetors and, with some tuning of the intake rams, raised output from the stock engine’s 340 peak HP to more than 400, with tremendous torque on tap as well. The completed A3/C weighed in at 2,750 pounds versus the A3/L’s 2,970, and was capable of 170 MPH.
The A3/C’s most intriguing feature, its lightweight Drogo aluminum bodywork, was also its most controversial, at least among Italy’s automotive stylists. Its overall shape was obviously inspired by Bizzarrini’s experience with the Ferrari GTO, but it was more muscular. It was initially drawn by Bizzarrini’s draftsman, Piero Vanni, refined aerodynamically by Bizzarrini, then passed on to Bertone and finally Giugiaro for a full-sized rendering. Built by Piero Drogo’s Carrozzeria Sports Car in Modena, the bodies were assembled using more than 7,000 rivets. The process gave the finished A3/C an undoubtedly raw appearance, one Bertone himself scorned as having no place on a respectable automobile.
Bizzarrini eventually produced just 20 copies of his racing coupe, which, due to lack of homologation, was forced to run as a prototype against such competition as the Ferrari 250LM. Still, the cars amassed a respectable record, including a ninth overall at Le Mans.
Serial No. B0213, this 1965 Iso Grifo A3/C was first mentioned in factory records in December 1964. It was delivered new to Auto Becker in Germany in January 1965 and, while early records are incomplete, it was apparently featured as a test car in the April 1965 issue of Auto Motor und Sport Magazine, driven by legendary racing-driver Paul Frère. It was eventually purchased by Pierre de Siebenthal, a Swiss “renaissance man,” amateur race driver, dealer mechanic and scrapyard owner with a known affinity for Italian automobiles. De Siebenthal owned the car through the 1970s and up until 1993, when he sold it it to former Bizzarrini factory manager Salvatore Diomante, then a principal of Autocostruzione in Torino, Italy, renowned for his restoration of Bizzarrinis and other Italian exotics. After showing the unrestored B0213 at the Auto Moto Retro show in Torino in 2012, Diomante commenced a two-year restoration, rebuilding the engine and expertly refinishing the beautiful Drogo bodywork to its present stunning condition. In 2013, it was shown at the exclusive Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in its original Day One configuration.
A3/C B0213 is offered with historical documentation that includes a signed letter of authenticity from Salvatore Diomante. A pure expression of sports racing engineering wrapped in an aggressively muscular envelope, this Iso Grifo A3/C Bizzarrini coupe is a testament to one of Italy’s greatest automotive engineers and a singularly important artifact of automotive history.
