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The History of Bizzarrini
Giotto Bizzarrini was a very important man for Alfa Romeo and Ferrari. For example, he has designed the Ferrari 250 GTO but many other cars as well. After an argument with Enzo Ferrari, he left the company and started for himself. He designed the first Lamborghinis and Iso Rivoltas. In 1965, he designed his first own car: the Bizzarini Grifo Stradale. This car was identical to the Iso Grifo, which he had designed for Renzo Rivolta. The mechanical parts were from the Chevrolet Corvette. The body (first aluminium, later synthetic) was built by Piero Drogo in Modena. After a year, the name of the car changed in Bizzarrini 5300 Strada.
In 1966, Bizzarrini built a smaller version of his Stradale. The engine was a Fiat 1500 and after some time, Bizzarrini changed the engine for a 1.9-liter Opel GT. The last model was the Bizzarrini Europa. There developed four sport cars more: three spiders and a coupe with folding doors, which all were sold as the Bizzarrini P538. All models were driven by cross placed engines (a V8 Corvette or a Lamborghini V12). One of the sport cars was sold to Giugiaro, which made his well-known 'Manta'-show car of it.
In 1969, Bizzarrini had to stop with the production of his beautiful cars by financial reasons. He worked several years as an advisor for his ex-concurrents. Nowadays, he restores and builds cars for rich customers.
