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Car of the Month - June 2005

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Bizzarrini_1900_GT_Europa_1969

Bizzarrini 1900 GT Europa - coupe body - manufactured in 1969

Italian engineer Giotto Bizzarrini has played an important part in the post-war Italian sportscar scene, though his name never became that famous as those of the men he has worked for. His dream was to create a car with a self developed engine and chassis bearing his own name, and he came very close to achieving that goal.
Bizzarrini started out at Alfa Romeo in 1954 as a development engineer but after a few years he switched to Ferrari where he was chief engineer. In a period of only five years time he worked on some of the most influential models that made the Ferrari name what it is today. These models included the Ferrari 250 GT 2+2, the Testarossa and the 250 GT SWB but most importantly he was responsible for the fabled Ferrari 250 GTO, one of the most classic cars in the world. The GTO appeared on the track in 1962 to dominate the GT racing scene but by then Bizzarrini had already left factory after a clash with Enzo Ferrari.
Bizzarrini continued developing racing cars and by 1963 he was contacted by another Italian who had found fault with Enzo Ferrari, Ferruccio Lamborghini. Bizzarrini and Lamborghini joined forces which resulted in great cars like the Lamborghini 350 GT. Having concentrated mainly on chassis, development and design the next important step for Giotto Bizzarrini was the creation of an engine. This was realized in 1966 when a mighty Bizzarrini-designed 4-litre V12 was presented in yet another epic Italian sportscar: the Lamborghini P400 Miura.
Alongside his work for Lamborghini Giotto Bizzarrini also worked for another important Italian industrialist: Renzo Rivolta. Rivolta owned the ISO factories which made refrigerators, scooters and of course the small Isetta cars. By 1961 Rivolta wanted to diversify into the sports GT-market and bought the rights to the British Gordon-Keeble. With the help of Bizzarrini this design was developed into the ISO Rivolta GT, an elegant Corvette V8-powered 2+2 coupe which was remarkably more successful than the original Gordon-Keeble. The combination between Italian engineering and American power proved to be a strong one and ISO set its aim even higher and decided to create the world's fastest GT. This resulted in the ISO Grifo A3L in 1963, an aggressive fastback coupe styled by Giugiaro, engineered by Bizzarrini and powered by a big-block Chevrolet V8. It was big, beautiful, luxurious and frighteningly powerful.

Bizzarrini was more interested in creating racing cars than luxury sportscars and converted the Grifo A3L into a competition sports car. This was named the ISO Grifo A3C at first but wasn't very successful. In 1964 Bizzarrini and ISO went their separate ways and the A3C became the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada (and from 1968 the GT America), a street legal racing car and the first to bear the Bizzarrini name. It featured a low aluminum body by Piero Drogo (after a Bertone-design) with a typical long nose covering the Chevrolet V8 which was placed as far back in the chassis as possible. The Bizzarrini company was officially founded in 1966 and ultimately about 104 Stradas and 10 Americas (with plastic body and updated chassis) were produced.
The Strada however wasn't enough to ensure the company's future and Bizzarrini set out to create a more affordable and practical sports car which could be produced in higher volumes. Having established a good relation with the General Motors concern he decided to make a proposal for an Opel GT sportscar. It was presented in 1966 and was essentially a scaled down version of the Strada with plastic (Labron) bodywork and an Opel 1900 cc 4-cylinder engine. The car was named the 1900 GT Europa and was a pretty 2-seater with classic yet aggressive Italian styling.
Unfortunately for Bizzarrini the 1900 GT Europa found no favour with the executives at GM-Opel, who opted for a design from their own studios which resembled a small Corvette Stingray which became the 1968 Opel GT. The Bizzarrini 1900 GT Europa was made only 12 times with the Opel engine in addition to about 5 with Fiat 4-cylinder engines.
Still Bizzarrini followed his dream to create a car with a chassis and an engine of his own design. With the introduction of the Bizzarrini-designed Lamborghini V12 engine in 1966 this became possible. A new chassis was created to fit the transversely mounted V12 (with the Chevrolet V8 as an option) and it was of course a thoroughbred competition sports car with the engine placed behind the cockpit. The chassis was fitted with a lightweight and ultra-low plastic Barchetta body (by boat builder Catarsi) and the car was named the P538. It was entered in endurance races in 1966 and 1967 but suffered reliability problems and was sadly unsuccessful. Only 3 were made, of which two had the V12 engine.

The lack of commercial and competition success spelled the end for the Bizzarrini make in 1969. Giotto became an engineering consultant and established a car restoration business. Once in a while he presents a concept car bearing his name and on special request a street legal replica of the P538 model with Chevrolet V8 engine can be ordered up to the current day.
It's remarkable how one man can be instrumental in the creation of 3 different sportscars in one decade which all are influential highlights in their own right: the Ferrari 250 GTO as the ultimate all-round competition sportscar, the ISO Grifo as the ultimate tire-burning monster GT and the Lamborghini Miura as the ultimate mid-engined avant-garde supercar of that era. It's undeserved that he couldn't capitalize on this with his own brand of sportscars but in a way it also adds to the myth surrounding the Bizzarrini name. A Bizzarrini car is the ultimate exotic and always a surprise and a pleasure to encounter for those interested in recent car history. And how rarer the model the better as far as I'm concerned; hence the 1900 GT Europa this month...

© André Ritzinger, Amsterdam, Holland

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