(first posted 2/22/2018) As we gather our thoughts from yesterday’s Autobianchi post and anticipate the sadness of tomorrow’s Lancia story (spoiler alert: Lancia dies at the beginning and goes downhill from there), let’s turn to an Italian marque that never really had a link with Fiat and made some of the most beautiful and powerful GTs of the post-war era. Thanks to the Chevrolet and Ford V8s they used, Iso Rivolta automobiles were extremely fast, but also completely reliable (engine-wise, at least). Sounds like a nice cocktail, but why did it turn sour?
Isothermos was founded in 1939 by Renzo Rivolta, initially to build refrigerators and heaters in Milan. The business grew after the war, and soon Iso started making scooters – the new craze was hard to resist – as part of a newly-created Iso automotive branch. Coming to the world of four-wheeled transport was naturally via the scooter, albeit in a completely novel fashion. Some say that Iso’s experience with fridge doors is said to have inspired the car’s iconic front door, though the Isetta was designed by aeronautics engineer Ermenegildo Preti.
Preti and Rivolta in an Isetta, circa 1953.
Be that as it may, the Isetta was launched in 1953, but failed in the Italian market: less than 5000 were put together before Iso called it quits in 1955. Rivolta managed to turn this domestic lemon into international lemonade, with licenses issued to produce the concept for the German, British, Spanish, French and Brazilian markets.
This pick-up variant was exclusive to the Italian Isetta range.
Iso continued making two-wheelers and trikes, but no real Iso car was on the horizon. For Renzo Rivolta, the notion of a larger car – perhaps following in Ferrari and Maserati’s footsteps – might be an interesting side-project. Rivolta was passionate about cars, but he was also a realist. He knew that developing one would require excellent technicians for the chassis, a great designer for the body and a brilliantly-engineered engine. Somehow, by 1960, the plot started to thicken.
Giugiaro’s Iso, half-way between his Gordon GT (above) and BMW 3200CS (bottom).
The new car’s design was penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro, then working at Bertone, who would build the prototypes. The engine, it turns out, was the easy bit: having had a chance to take the new Giugiaro-styled Gordon GT for a spin, Renzo Rivolta and other folks at Bertone were mightily impressed by the car’s Corvette V8. The Gordon’s De Dion rear axle set-up was also studied carefully. The new Iso would share only these features (and certain aesthetic traits) with the upcoming Gordon-Keeble.
When Rivolta heard of the mass layoffs over at Ferrari, he managed to snap up Giotto Bizzarrini in 1962. By that point though, the Iso Rivolta GT was already finalized. The car’s chassis was more modern than contemporary Ferraris and Aston Martins, with its in-board rear disc brakes and sophisticated suspension.
Above: Rivolta at the car’s press launch at Monza, autumn 1962; below: deliveries starting, spring 1963.
The first prototypes of the Iso Rivolta coupé were made in 1962 at Bertone’s factory. The new car was aimed at the very top of the market, quite the opposite of the Isetta. This was less of a problem than it might have been: the Iso name, as it stood then, was not necessarily associated with the Isetta in the mind of the car-buying public, except in Italy. The new V8-powered GT was competent and its body was stunningly beautiful, which could help put Iso on the map of this uncharted territory.
The European sports car with a big American engine was not a new concept in the early ‘60s. Jensen (top left) had been at it since the mid-‘30s, using Ford V8s and, in this instance, a 4-litre Nash straight-8. Other plucky Brits included Brough Superior (top right, using Hudson engines), Railton (with a Hudson 8-cyl., middle left; this one being one of the few made just after the war) as well as Atalanta (not pictured), which used several different engines, including the Zephyr V12. After the war, the torch was passed to Allard (middle left), who sourced their engines from various suppliers, including Cadillac, Chrysler and Ford. The Nash-Healeys (not pictured) were also an interesting transatlantic collaboration in the early ’50s. On the other side of the Channel, Voisin picked the cheapest supercharged engine they could find for the 1938 C30 (bottom left) – the last big Voisin had a Graham 6-cyl. under its hood. But the French-made Facel-Vega (bottom right) was the one to emulate: created more or less ex nihilo in the mid-‘50s with Chrysler hemi power, the marque had been quite the success story – until they tried making their own engine.
American engines were everything European ones were not: large, very powerful, under-stressed and extremely reliable. Not to mention affordable. General Motors were more than happy to provide Corvette V8s to Iso (and soon to Gordon-Keeble as well), as these low-production exotics were not really competing with the Corvette. Chrysler had been the number one purveyor of engines for these Euro-American hybrids up to that point and Ford were getting their act together with the AC / Shelby tie-up, so GM may have also figured they needed a presence in this field, if only for prestige and image reasons.
The Iso Rivolta GT was fêted as a welcome addition to the European luxury car scene, which was undergoing something of a rebirth after the cull that had taken place in the ‘50s. But Renzo Rivolta figured that to compete with the likes of Aston Martin, Jaguar, Maserati or Mercedes-Benz, Iso would need two things: a two-seater sports car and some racing cred.
Above & bottom pics: Iso Grifo Lusso production version; below: Bertone’s 1963 prototype.
The former was going to be the Iso Grifo A3/L (for Lusso). Using a slightly shortened chassis and a revised engine (with Iso’s own cams, among a few other modifications), the Grifo prototype was designed and built at Bertone in 1963 and shown on the coachbuilder’s stand at the Turin Motor Show. The car’s performance was now equal to anything the competition could throw at it: the ultimate GT, it could cruise at speeds exceeding 140 mph in serene luxury. The car’s shape and detailing were universally admired and were seen even then as one of its most enduring assets.
Three of Grifo A3/C prototypes taking shape at the factory in 1964. Altogether, 22 cars were made.
Setting up a Scuderia proved to be a far more difficult (and expensive) proposition. Bizzarrini’s obsession with weight distribution meant the Corvette engine was pushed behind the front wheels, turning the car into a front mid-engined design. The Grifo A3/C (for Corsa) race car was, by all accounts, fairly competent for a first effort, but the issue lay less with the car than it did with the people who designed, commandeered or raced them. Rushing to get the Iso team to enter events in 1964, Bizzarrini’s demands on Rivolta started creating tension between the two men. The A3/C raced at Le Mans and finished 14th – not bad for a first bash.
Bizzarrini road cars initially kept the Grifo name, before changing to “5300 Strada.”
Bizzarrini’s penchant for race cars was not wholly shared by Rivolta, who saw that Iso needed to sell more road cars to achieve financial equilibrium. The engineer and the CEO’s relationship became so stormy that, by 1965, Giotto Bizzarrini and Renzo Rivolta parted ways. Bizzarrini attempted to salvage the A3/C programme by taking over the scuderia and launching a limited production “strada” (street) model under his own name.
The Bizzarrini marque was officially launched in 1966 and about 100 cars made. A new open-top racer was tried out in 1965 with a Lamborghini V12 alongside the Corvette V8, but had less success than the A3/C, which won its class at Le Mans that year. Bizzarrini later tried to diversify their range by proposing the Opel-based Bizzarrini 1900 GT Europa (above) in 1967, but the firm collapsed by 1969.
Above: Renzo Rivolta (1908-1966); below: the car he wanted to complete the Iso range for 1967.
Plans were already being drawn for a four-door Iso, based on a stretched version of the Rivolta chassis. The new Iso’s body was already designed – this time by Ghia. Unfortunately, Renzo Rivolta was not to see his latest creation’s launch. On 19 August 1966, a few days before his 58th birthday, Rivolta suffered a fatal heart attack.
The baton was suddenly passed to Piero Rivolta, Renzo’s 25-year-old son who had recently completed his PhD in mechanical engineering. Though he had the knowledge, Piero Rivolta was by any standards very young to become a CEO – though there was the (rather tumultuous) precedent of Gianni Lancia. Iso pressed on with the launch of the S4 saloon, later and perhaps better known as the Fidia, which hit the motor show circuit in late 1967.
The S4/Fidia, basically a GT coupé with an extra 15cm of wheelbase, was huge and certainly peculiar-looking. The car’s performance was, as always, a strong point, with the Chevy V8 being more than capable of propelling the 2.5-tonne car at its 120 mph-plus cruising speed. Alongside the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, the Maserati Quattroporte or the Mercedes 300SEL 6.3, the Iso Fidia was part of a select group of late ’60s super-luxurious V8-powered European saloons that appealed to folks who could afford the best.
The eggman grinneth…
Famously, one early client was John Lennon, who bought the second production (and first RHD) Fidia after having seen one at the 1967 London Motor Show. The roomy and low-slung Iso was more discreet than the Beatle’s artfully painted Rolls-Royce Phantom V – and yet even more expensive. Lennon had just become aware of the Italian marque while on the set of Magical Mystery Tour, which featured a Grifo. He must have been a happy customer, as he purchased two additional Iso saloons in later years.
Modifications on the Grifo’s looks and powertrain notwithstanding, Iso were not setting new sales records. The GT Coupé was, by the late ‘60s, starting to look a bit stale. Sales were beginning to dwindle and the S4 saloon was also off to a very slow start (only 17 cars made in 1967-69). Piero Rivolta started taking out loans – Iso cars did not have sufficient cash-flow on their own to launch the direly-needed new four-seater coupé.
The Lele was named after Piero Rivolta’s wife. One wonders if she and Monica ever met.
In late 1969, the new Iso was finally unveiled, but many thought it lacked its predecessor’s universal appeal – at a time when the market was getting very crowded indeed. The Lele was bang up to date style-wise, sharing its turf with the Lamborghini Espada, the Maserati Ghibli, the Monteverdi 375L, the Aston Martin V8, the Jensen Interceptor, the AC 428, the Bristols and precious few others in the European luxury GT class. Compared to them though, the Lele’s Bertone body, styled by Marcello Gandini, was lacking in a certain grace. All but the Bristol wore sharply-tailored Italian suits, but the Lele looks like it would have benefitted from a few more fittings. Plus, the half-closed quad lamps give the car a sort of half-awake look that one doesn’t find on the Alfa Romeo Montreal, an earlier (and much better, in the opinion of many) Gandini design with partially-covered headlamps. Someone at Iso thought they looked good though, and they soon contaminated the 7-litre Grifos.
Iso entered the ‘70s as a rather frail operation. All models combined, production was in the 100-200 range per year on average. This was a tightrope Iso could survive on, but certainly not thrive on. In 1972, GM changed their policy as regards the Corvette V8 and asked for money upfront, which Iso did not have. Engine supply switched to Ford, who were already present in the Italian peninsula through De Tomaso. The switch to Ford did not adversely affect the Iso cars: the Fidia, the Lele and the Grifo remained capable of extremely high top speeds.
Ford-powered Fidia at the 1973 Barcelona Motor Show; one of four Fidias bought new in Spain.
The Rivolta family started looking to divest from Iso Autoveicoli S.p.A. by this time. The GM/Ford engine switch had been a close call, but what obstacle might come in the future could prove insurmountable. A deal was made in early 1973 with New York-based Ivo Pera, who thought he could inject the marque with a new direction and American business know-how. The first order of business was to relaunch the Scuderia to improve Iso’s image – this time with Formula One racing. Piero Rivolta did not agree with this view; outgunned by the new shareholders under Ivo Pera’s control, he left the company.
Iso-Marlboro F1 driven by Gijs van Lennep at the 1974 Dutch Grand Prix. The car did not qualify.
Iso’s 1973-74 F1 campaign was on shaky ground from the start. The idea was to buy out a stake in newbie constructor Frank Williams’ outfit and, through a sponsorship deal, get the cars repainted to a familiar red and white colour scheme and revised under the supervision of Bizzarrini, who worked freelance in those days. Even with the Philip Morris’ backing, the Iso-Marlboro floundered at the back of the grid – when it got qualified at all. The cost of running the F1 scuderia made Iso’s precarious finances take an immediate nosedive and the Italian firm pulled out of the Frank Williams team before the start of the 1974 season, though the team was still registered as Iso-Marlboro. The road cars were not exactly flying out of showrooms, either.
What the future could have been: 1972 Iso Varedo mid-engined concept car.
The effects of the first Oil Shock were disastrous for Iso. Industrialized countries were imposing highway max speed limits almost everywhere and Iso’s 7-litre monsters were suddenly looking like expensive money pits. Not just Iso, but the whole luxury GT class were now in jeopardy. AC, Aston Martin, Jensen, Lamborghini, Ligier, Maserati, Monica and Monteverdi all fell on very hard times in the mid-‘70s. Some, like Iso, never recovered. Production came to a halt in late 1974, even before the new management had time to turn things around. If anything, Pera increased the nosedive’s angle of attack. Piero Rivolta bought back the Iso name from the bankruptcy proceedings, but was not looking to try and continue making cars.
Iso sold 797 GTs (1962-69, above) and 504 Grifos, including a few one-offs, such as this ’64 spider.
Two former Iso employees, Zanisi and Negri, put together some financing and bought the dies and leftover parts for the Lele and the Grifo, building at least one of each in 1976 and presenting a “nuova Lele” at the 1976 Turin Motor Show under the Ennezeta brand. The plan soon fizzled out, but Iso had left an impression in Italy.
Like other famous automotive names (e.g. Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Maybach or Isotta-Fraschini), rumours of a resurrection were always in the air and occasionally produced some artwork, blueprints and/or an actual car or two, as was the case with the (rather anonymous) 1990 Iso Grifo 90 above. But, like most projects of this nature, nothing really came of it. The name Rivolta strangely re-emerged in 2017 on a Zagato-made sports car. The famous coachbuilder never had any history with Iso back in the day, but Piero Rivolta’s daughter married into the Zagato family.
Iso made only 192 S4/Fidia saloons (1967-74) and 285 Lele coupés (1969-74).
Without their founder at the helm, it was perhaps likely that Iso was destined to become extinct in relatively short order. The V8 Isos, all closely derived from the original 1962 coupé, demonstrates how dangerous it can be to stick to one sole recipe for a decade. Once circumstances changed, Iso and a number of similar automakers were caught unawares and were wiped out within months.
The Amercian-V8 / European styling mix, potent though it was, had had its moment in the sun, but the market was much smaller than what Renzo Rivolta thought back in the early ‘60s. A few exceptions proved this rule: De Tomaso (top left) survived with their Iso-style saloon/coupe/supercar line-up well into the ‘80s. In West Germany, where half of the Grifos made were sold, Erich Bitter started making Opel-based four-seater coupés in 1973 (top right) and continued for 15 years. In the UK, Bristol had an even longer life, thanks in part to their activities in the second-hand car market and restoration. There are fewer examples originating from the other side of the pond, aside from the Cunningham C3 of the early ‘50s (middle right). Sure, Pininfarina built the Eldorado Broughams and Ghia made limos for Imperial and a few specials for Mopar, but these were usually designed in Detroit. The only recent Euro-American hybrid made for US consumption would be the infamous Cadillac Allanté (bottom left). And that didn’t go too well either. The Chrysler-Maserati TC might also qualify – certainly by production numbers alone, but it was more of an American design built by an Italian firm.
Iso’s Deadly Sin was perhaps not down to a specific car model. The Lele and the Fidia were definite duds, but all were based on the 1962 GT. The whole Iso concept was a viable one in 1962, but too many competitors were vying for a market that would always be very small. Rising costs meant fewer profits and shaky finances, which were wiped out by the F1 programme – just when the Oil Crisis struck. Though not fatal in itself, this last fact was more than most, including Iso, could bear.
See you tomorrow for a look at the third and final part of this installment of European Deadly Sins, as we look at the many deaths of Lancia.
* * *
European Deadly Sins series
French DS 1 (Hotchkiss, Panhard, Citroën) — French DS 2 (Bugatti, Facel-Vega, Monica)
British DS 1 (Jowett, Armstrong Siddeley, Daimler) — British DS 2 (Alvis, Lagonda, Gordon-Keeble)
German DS 1 (BMW, Borgward, Glas) — German DS 2 (Neckar, DKW, NSU)
Italian DS 1 (Autobianchi, Iso, Lancia)
Another great tutorial of an obscure but tasty Italian dish.
The original Rivolta was and is beautiful, and the Grifo was not bad. I don’t find any of the rest of them particularly attractive, though I am on record as not being much of a fan of early 1970s Italian design which I find to be almost brutalist.
I agree that ’60s Italian designs are more pleasing than ’70s ones. But the Fidia is still very ’60s – even though it’s not my favorite saloon of the period, it still looks more Baroque than Brutalist. The Lele, however…
GT front end seems reminiscent (or prescient) of Mustang lines.
Funny you mention that. Giugiaro’s Mustang…
Another great but sad story. I was very impressed and entranced by the Iso coupe and the Grifo as a kid. I loved the Italian styling, and the idea that a cheap mass-production American V8 could equal and/or out gun the exotic Ferrari V12s.
You only barely pointed out that the Grifo got the Chevrolet 427 engine in 1968, as the “7 Litri”. That required quite a bit of surgery to make it fit, as well as this “penthouse” hood. A bit crude, but it was a monster.
I didn’t go into much detail engine-wise – engines were the most solid part of the whole story, in a way. Until they switched from GM to Ford.
The 7 Litri Grifo does look like a monster. Bit too much for my taste – I’d rather go for the GT. There’s not a line on that car I’d like to be different. Whether it’s good for 230kph or 260kph would not really be a concern for me.
I think the hood looks more like a birthday cake or a scale model of an office building.
Really like the Rivolta, with a 327 and a 4 speed that would be a nice driving car…
That was a travesty, and the last iteration half-sleeping eyes version was worse. Both the coupe and cabriolet prototypes featured their own unique hood embellishments not continued onto the production cars.
I remember the Fidia from car magazines back then and still like it – especially the green one at the top of the article. The big Euro exotic sedans have always interested me, from the much rarer French Monica to the comparatively common Maserati Quattroporte.
There is a Fidia that shows up at Italian car events in Arizona. It is local here, despite the New York plates, and its custodian claims very long term ownership. It is not perfect but is always among the very most interesting cars at these shows. Photo attached from Scottsdale a year or two ago.
That’s a beautiful pic. The Fidia is an acquired taste – I don’t remember seen one in the metal, but I’m sure I’d love it. Just pure excess.
Agreed, I like the delicate lines but the rear window seems too vertical at the roofline, ruining it in my eyes
The Iso Grifo. Now, that was a car that turned me on as a 13-14 year old. Way more than the Corvette Sting Ray.
To me the Grifo was the only Iso that was unarguably attractive and that was before the finned box was put on the hood. The Rivolta was a little too busy, especially with details like the metal eyebrows over the headlights. The Fidia suffered from a messy clash of lines in the rear door window area – how could Giugiaro get it so wrong? Plus it was way too expensive. The unfortunate Lele looks like the unwanted love child of a Lamborghini Jarama and a Morris Marina coupe.
Fascinating and entertaining read—well done! I’m trying and failing to put together a lame joke along the lines of “That’s Bizzare…and Rivolting!”, but not havin’ any luck, so I’ll just leave the pieces on the ground here and walk away, whistling tunelessly.
The thing about John Lennon buying several is interesting; by all accounts he hated driving and was no good at it. But I guess “Baby you can drive my car” scans better than “Baby you can drive my Fidia”.
it is interesting. as you point out, lennon wasn’t a car guy. he had exotic taste in guitars so it isn’t surprising that he would like unusual cars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon%27s_musical_instruments#Guitars%5B10%5D
Lennon had a serious car crash in the Scottish Highlands in 1969, which injured himself, Yoko (pretty badly) and her daughter Kyoko. The car wasn’t an Iso or Royce, but a common-or-garden Austin Maxi, which was taken back to Lennon’s house in the home counties are mounted in the grounds as a memento. I think he gave up driving himself after this incident.
Daniel,
Back in the early 70s, Australia’s Wheels magazine had a column written by Bill Tuckey under the name of Romsey Quints, always a funny and entertaining read, I have a memory of him mentioning a “Whyso Rivolting” or something like that, so you were close.
Australian soil seems particularly well suited to growing that variety of automotive writer. Tony Davis, for example, whose one–two–three lemonic screeds are of much higher quality in terms of factual basis and hilarity than British attempts at the same sort of book (Davis also wrote a definitive and highly excellent book on the Australian-market 1962-1981 Chrysler Valiants. Called “The Valiant Book”, it’s out of print—so I’m glad to have my copies—but still well worth chasing by anyone who cares even slightly about those cars.)
Another invaluable contribution to your canon, Tatra87.
Giotto Bizzarrini is probably the most curious character here. The mass layoff at Ferrari you mention was characterised by Brock Yates in his exhaustive bio of Enzo as the ‘Palace Revolt.’ A number of his top employees had complained to Enzo of his wife’s meddling, and his response was to just sack them.
Included in this purge was racing team manager Tavoni (fresh from Ferrari’s 1961 F1 World Championship in their first mid-engined racer), Carlo Chiti (who would go on to create Autodelta and the Alfa 33 Stradale) and Bizzarrini.
Pretty much straight away, Chiti and Bizzarrini created ATS with its partially prescient mid-engined 2500 GT road car. Also around this time, Bizzarrini was involved with Lamborghini at its inception – another relationship that didn’t end well. Curiously, the Giugiaro Catalogue Raisonne features the 5300, but the Bertone catalogue (not Raisonne but still quite comprehensive) doesn’t mention it.
Enzo was right in the underlying assumption of his purge. None of these pretenders survived except Lamborghini, thus proving a successful sportscar manufacturer needs more than just talent to prosper.
With that in mind, its hard to put a single Deadly Sin on this failure (as you’ve mentioned T87), but on looks alone the Grifo was leagues ahead of all the others including the Lambo 350/400 GT. What an absolutely gorgeous beast.
Couldn’t have done it without you, mate. 🙂
[Don read these in draft form and provided much-needed feedback, for which I am eternally grateful!]
True, the Grifo was an astonishing car, but I still prefer (as most Iso clients did) the GT Coupe. Might go for a Monteverdi or a Facel II instead of an Iso, if I’m brutally honest about extremely unlikely circumstances.
This is the one thing I think Iso lacked: a sense of range. The cars were all pretty much the same underneath, but there wasn’t a common esthetic identity. Facels looked like Facels. As did Monteverdis, after a little hesitation. Or Bristols, or Maseratis or Astons, etc., etc. The four Iso models don’t share any visual DNA. And when they did think of trying to remedy that, they went and put sleepy eyes on the Grifo (but not on the Fidia).
Part of the death of a thousand little DSs that Iso endured, I suppose.
“Bizzarrini was involved with Lamborghini at its inception – another relationship that didn’t end well.”
Not surprising really, as Bizzarrini was (and still is) quite a character. See:
https://youtu.be/ZoBFcV0WyWw?t=425
“None of these pretenders survived except Lamborghini…”
Even Lamborghini found itself on the brink of bankruptcy several times over its history.
When I was 11 or 12, in the beginning stages of appreciating cars, an issue of Popular Mechanics arrived at the house, featuring the Grifo in a small photo and blurb.
I thought it was STUNNING (I still do)!
So I wrote the importer a letter requesting a catalog, as the blurb in PM prompted interested. Mind you, I wrote it on lined paper in my left-handed scrawl (I may have printed it but I don’t recall now).
In return, I received a very nice, typewritten letter and a lovely full-color catalog featuring all of the Iso models available in 1967 or 1968. It was printed in several different languages, too.
Sadly, I no longer have it. We moved several times after that, and I don’t know if I threw it out or someone else did.
I don’t recall seeing the article, but in the late 1960s or early 1970s “Matchbox” made a beautiful little diecast model of the Iso Grifo, which was the first time I ever saw or heard of the car.
Guess I’m an outlier here; these Italian jobs never did a thing for me.
Interesting tidbit about John Lennon owning three Isos. It reminds of Frank Sinatra’s cars. Besides his famously op-art Rolls, another of Lennon’s cars (one of last) was a quite ordinary fuselage Chrysler station wagon. While not as extensive as Frank’s cars, a CC on Lennon’s transportation might not be so bad.
To put it into context, Frank had a Miura, Lennon drove Isos, and Miles Davis favored Ferraris.
george was known as the car guy of the beatles. i believe he had an interest in formula 1 racing. i know he had an aston martin. also, there’s a scene in the movie let it be with him parking his mercedes 300sel 6.3 in front of apple hq. ringo famously owned a facel vega and i personally saw paul driving a circa 1975 bentley about 10 years ago.
i just found a great link on beatles’ cars.
http://theclassiccarfactory.blogspot.com/2014/01/cars-of-beatles-baby-you-can-drive-my.html
The only possible Deadly Sin that stands out regarding Iso would be that they never considered producing cheaper vehicles after the Isetta, let alone even thought about downscaling the European sportscar with a Big American engine concept yet better executed and without the issue of producing their own engines unlike the Facel Vega Facellia.
The question then becomes what suitable 4/6-cylinder engines did GM or Ford, etc have for a smaller model to allow Iso to theoretically survive the fuel crisis 70s?
The converse argument is that they didn’t produce their own engine at that top end, as had Lamborghini. Despite the fact that it took the double act of the (serendipitous) Miura and (gobsmacking) Countach to solidify the Raging Bull marque, I can’t help but wonder how an Iso Grifo with purebred engine might have fared.
But then again, Pegaso.
Of course, they did have the services of Giotto Bizzarrini after all prior to a dispute between him and Renzo Rivolta of Iso. One of the likely sources being Bizzarrini’s desire to build race cars and Renzo Rivolta’s desire to build high quality GT cars and family transportation cars.
Did Bizzarrini develop any other engine designs suitable for Iso? While he developed the Lamborghini V12, it appears the Lamborghini V8 was designed by Giampaolo Dallara.
The Italian language Da Iso a Isorivolta. Il fascino di un marchio by Flavio Campetti does mention a 1956 Iso 400 project that was front-engine RWD and to be available as a 2-door coupe, 4-door saloon and 3-door Parad wagon that were styled by Michelotti.
It was to be powered by a Pierluigi Raggi designed 400cc air-cooled Flat-Twin as seen on the Iso Isocarro 400 that could of grew to 500cc. Iso also explored a Steyr-Puch Haflinger inspired car and using the twin in their 3-wheeler or a motorcycle none of which entered production (not too dissimilar to the PUCH 500 SGS engine wise).
https://www.isorivolta.fr/utilitaires.html (French)
ISO could have probably embraced a BMW and Steyr-Puch route with the boxer vehicles up to the mid-1960s, maybe even used their tentative links to BMW to gain the Glas engines and designs (e.g. think Glas 1004 engine in 1967 BMW 1000 prototype but at front) or be like an Innocenti analogue.
Outstanding article — I’ve always been attracted to these Iso cars (for some reason, the Lele and Fidia in particular… maybe I thought the Grifo was too common!), though have never seen one.
In any event, I somehow never learned much about the company’s history, so this was quite an enjoyable piece to read. It’s somewhat impressive that Iso was able to remain in the car business for as long as it did, given the many hurdles (financial, staffing, partnerships, etc.) that had to be overcome. Thanks for the great research and photos here!
It reminds me more than a little bit of the DeTomaso Deauville, which is, like this one, a really tasty piece of machinery.
Fascinating article, the early Griffo is a beautiful brute of a car, definitely masculine rather than feminine unlike Ferrari.
I had a 72 Corvette convertible with a 350 and 4 speed, also drove many Jensen Interceptors with the Chrysler 383 and 440 so can appreciate the grunt, rugged simplicity, and lets be honest, the cheapness of the American V8s.
The downside was their great weight could upset the handling, the Corvette couldn’t keep up with a 1.8 hot hatch on the twisties but caught up in the straights. The Jensen was fabulous in all respects but they do suffer from body panel rust
Isos are rare cars, in the South Wales town of Ystrad Mynach where I worked 5 years ago , I often saw an early Rivolta in the car park, I believe the owner had a classic car business.
The only other time a saw an Iso was in the mid 70s, in Cowes , Isle of Wight during the Cowes week sailing regatta when many wealthy people would visit the island; a silver Griffo purred by, as a 14 year old car nut I knew what it was, but seeing it in the metal made a strong impression
Tony the Watch, a watch dealer had them in the sixties.
A few Grifo’s he bought brand spanking new.
The dealer importer was in Amsterdam this was the only dealership in Holland.
He is now in his eighties but in the sixties and seventies he’d make money like hell selling watches and 80% went directly into his pockets.
He told me he took delivery of a new Grifo and the thing drove like a bat out of hell.
He did not understand, he sold his former Grifo to a shady character -watches expensive ones were a shady business- but the new Grifo was faster then anything he ever owned.
When he went for the first service he asked the mechanics he knew well -he had given all of them a nice watch- and the senior mechanic gave him the following explanation :
Iso had planned to go racing in Le Mans, they prepared cars and also prepared engines for the event. Apparantly they pulled the plug because there was no money.
So they decided to install the race prepped engine blocks in production cars and sell them to customers saying nothing.
Tony the Watch also told me the Italians fine tuned the American V8 blocks before they used them.
And Melita, the German coffee filter manufacturar had a Grifo as a company car.
“The name Rivolta strangely re-emerged in 2017 on a Zagato-made sports car, though the coachbuilder never had any history with Iso back in the day: Piero Rivolta’s daughter married into the Zagato family.”
Wasn’t the Varedo designed by Ercole Spada during his Zagato days?
And Zagato also designed the Iso City for them in the 90s
And the Baader Meinhof gang liked the Iso Rivolta too…
https://archive.ph/KsUrj
Regarding the pictures I ask myself: Is the famous Hofmeister-kink a Rivolta-kink in reality ?
Did Ferrari ever produce another car as desirable as the ones that Bizzarrini designed for him? Giotto is pretty much the man behind all of the eight-figure Ferraris.