A Lulu of a Lele, Part II

By Pete Vack

Part II Questions and Answers

As Part I ended, we had “discovered” a rare Iso Lele. But many questions remained. Had this car really been built for Howden Ganley? What was the connection to Marlboro? What was the history of this particular Lele? Why and when had Piero Rivolta signed the dash? Now that it was for sale, who would most likely want to own such a beast?

The dash plaque
As Howden Ganley’s name was on the dash plaque, it seemed to be the first place to start.

"This car specially built for Howden Ganley Esq".

Piero Rivolta, of course, is still around, but contacting him in Florida proved a bit difficult. Besides, Ganley would probably recall more about this specific car than anyone.

We quickly found Ganley through the British Racing Driver’s Club via the Net. Ganley too, was now living in the U.S. Born in 1941 in New Zealand, Ganley moved to Great Britain as a racing mechanic in 1961. He did well, and by 1967 had acquired a Brabham BT21 to race.

Ganley in the early 70's. Courtesy British Racing Driver's Club.

His meteoric rise as a race driver had begun. By 1971 Ganley was driving the F1 BRM, and in 1973, Frank Williams hired him to drive for his Marlboro team. Enter the Iso saga, a brief but interesting story. Ganley quickly responded to our questions about the Iso and it's background. "It certainly appears that this is the car that was built for me by Iso. The colour is correct, as is the plaque on the dash board," he wrote. "I have often wondered where the car had got to, and who has possession of it now. It appears to have been well cared for."

"The F1 team was Frank Williams Racing Cars, and used two different models that year. Up until the Spanish GP, when the chassis rules changed, we had the FW03, and then after that the FW04," wrote Ganley. Above, Ganley in the FW04. Courtesy BRDC.

In the meantime, we had found a copy of the essential Iso book, “Iso Rivolta, The Men, The Machines", by Winston Goodfellow. And there, on page 401 was Ganley and an Iso Lele, complete with a description of what was known about the Iso Lele Marlboro at the time. Goodfellow had even provided the serial number..184. (The full serial number is 500184, the first three digits indicate an Iso Lele model.) These coincided with Dunn's Iso title.

Ganley with the Iso F1 car and his new Iso Lele Marlboro at Dijon, 1973. Photo courtesy Winston Goodfellow, from "Iso Rivolta, The Men, The Machines".

Ganley soon responded with more information about the F1 car. "The car was designed and built at the Williams factory in England. I know that Ing Gianpaulo Dallara, one of the best and most respected designers in motor racing, used to advise Frank on his cars. The car was designated as an Iso-Marlboro."

At that point, we think we had some of the answers. But there was another source who might know more about the subject, and that was Le Belle Macchine d’Italia organizer Joe Corbacio. We knew that before his death, owner Jack Dunn had been photographed with Piero Rivolta at Le Belle Macchine. Corbacio remembered the car and immediately started intensive research. What we didn’t know was that by contacting Corbacio, we would open and close a new page of history for the now-homeless Iso. From Corbacio's research came the answers to most of our questions.

The Connection to Marlboro
Just like many small Italian car manufacturer, in 1973 and ‘74 Piero Rivolta had his own Formula 1 Team and their main sponsor was Phillip Morris. For the 1973 F1 season the Iso Marlboro Formula 1 Team had as its drivers Howden Ganley and Nanni Galli with the position of Team Manager being held by Frank Williams.

The Iso team coaxed 360 HP out of its Ford 351 Cobra Jet engine. Note the Iso Rivolta valve covers.

According to an article in Autocar dated May 1974 in honor of the association, Phillip Morris commissioned Iso Rivolta to construct two special cars for their drivers along with two spares using their Lele model. The cars were to be of higher performance and more sporty than the standard Lele offered to the general public. To develop this special Lele, Iso Rivolta called in the assistance of the legendary Giotto Bizzarrini and also had at their disposal chassis design extraordinaire Gian Paolo Dallara who was working with the Formula 1 Team.

Chassis #185, the sister car, built for Nanni Galli.

The end result was Bizzarrini & the Iso Rivolta team produced a light weight version of the Lele, while coaxing 360 HP out of its Ford 351 Cobra Jet engine mated to a ZF five speed transmission with a deep front spoiler and black fiberglas bumpers replacing the chrome ones on the standard Lele. The interior was completely redesigned with period style racing bucket seats and a more driver oriented dash. The first car (our feature car) # 184 painted red wearing Marlboro badges appeared on the Iso Rivolta stand at the Geneva Motor Show in March of 1973. It was then presented to Howden Ganley at the 1000kms Sports Car race at Dijon. A sister car was built # 185, painted white and given to driver Nanni Galli. In May of 1973 Nanni Galli retired from racing and #185 was returned to Phillip Morris.

The dash of the “works” Marlboro cars have a business-like layout designed for use by a Formula One driver.

Soon after the construction of the two “works” cars # 184 & # 185, Iso Rivolta introduced a new version of the Lele for the general public called the “Sport” that had the external styling cues from the “works” Marlboro cars. The interior was again restyled with a different dash & console as these cars were to be used by the general public, not a Formula One driver. The engine was claimed to produce the same power as the “works” cars.

The dash of the Lele Sport & Replica Marlboro cars was designed for use by the general public. With a thickly padded center console, more creature comforts like power steering, the radio and ash trays within easy reach of the driver. While the secondary gauges were moved across the dash in front of the passenger.

It is from this Sport version of the Lele that at least two or more of the “Spare” or Replica Marlboro cars were built. While they had the same badges as the ‘works” cars, they did not have the unique dash or console configuration which only appeared on the two ‘works” cars. The dash & console was that of the standard production Lele Sport.

This has obviously lead to a lot of confusion as to how many of the “Replica” Marlboro cars were built, since one only needed to add the Marlboro badges to claim their Lele Sport was a Marlboro. It is believed that # 202, # 204, and # 208 may be legitimate factory “Replicas”. Winston Goodfellow writes that “The factory build sheets only list # 184 and # 185” as being Lele Marlboro cars.

History of chassis 184
At the end of the 1973 Formula 1 season, Ganley left the Iso Marlboro Team taking # 184 with him. His position for 1974 was filled by the flamboyant Italian driver Arturo Merzario. While not officially an owner of the car, it appears that Merzario was given use of # 185. The end of the 1974 Formula 1 season also saw an end to the Iso Marlboro Formula 1 Team. With that in 1975 Phillip Morris gave # 185 to Marlboro McLaren driver Emerson Fittipaldi in celebration of his 1974 World Championship. Fittipaldi drove the car for about a year before selling it to a Dutch gentleman in Monaco who kept the car until 2003, when it was sold to its present owner.

Meanwhile # 184 remained with Ganley until he sold the car into the New Jersey area in 1976. Ganley remembered driving the Lele in those years. "When I left Williams at the end of 1973, I went to drive for March F1 team, but yes the Iso was mine so I kept it. I was still driving the Lele when I was No 1 driver for the Maki F1 team as well. It did lots of mileage between Grands Prix, and World Sports cars races. It has been in the paddock at race tracks (apart from Dijon) such as Monaco, Le Mans, Nurburgring, Brands Hatch, Silverstone, and others." Ganley recalled on his return trip from Dijon in the Hot Rod Lele he did see 260kph + (160 MPH) on the motorway between Lausanne and Geneva. "It would probably have done more than 160 mph on the motorway, but there was too much other traffic ! Slow cars kept pulling out in front of me!" Bizzarrini had undoubtedly worked his magic.

Jack Dunn stands beside the Iso while at a paint shop.

The exact where abouts of # 184 are unknown after Ganley sold the car in 1976 until it surfaced again in the late 80’s when it was sold to Charlottesville, VA dealer Rick Mayo by Ed Waterman a dealer from Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Mayo kept the car until 1998 when he sold it to Jack Dunn.

Piero Rivolta’s signature on the dash
It seems that Jack Dunn had chosen to have the engine & transmission on # 184 rebuilt at a shop in the Wilkes-Barre, PA area. As luck would have it, the Iso Bizzarrini Owners Club’s East Coast Annual Meet was being held near the Wilkes-Bare area as part of Le Belle Macchine d’Italia. A special guest that year happened to be Piero Rivolta. Dunn took the car to the event where he met Piero and had him sign the dash. Sadly it was only 6 months later in December of 2001 that Jack would tragically lose his life in the accident. So there # 184 sat in the heated garage of the now empty Dunn mansion with a fresh engine and transmission rebuild, run occasionally by a caretaker.

Dunn's car as found in the Williamsburg mansion.

Who would want such a beast?
Obviously, Corbacio had been aware of the rare Iso from the start. He had heard a few years ago that the family was looking to sell the car, but never pursued it. Joe & his partner Jerry Kaye have put together a small collection of what has been called “Joe’s Home for Previously Unloved Italian Cars”. They are cars that have been somewhat forgotten about in the history of their manufacturer, cars that you just don’t see very often, even at large events. Included in the collection so far are cars such Lamborghini Islero, Jarama, and Countach, a Maserati Khamsin (Car & Driver Test Car), Mistral (’67 NY Auto Show Car), Ghibli SS and a Bora (next to last production car), a Laforza and a couple of Ferraris. In that group the Lele would fit perfectly.

At the time our story began, the 2006 Le Belle Macchine was approaching fast, Joe mentioned that he thought it would be a great car to have as part of the Iso Bizzarrini Club display and that he would be interested in purchasing it, if could be done in time for the show. We put Mr. Dunn in contact with Joe and in the final days leading up to Le Belle Macchine an agreement was reached for the sale of the Lele Marlboro serial number 500184. As was mentioned in VT’s review of Le Belle Macchine due to the weather conditions the Lele arrived at the show just as the Concorso was ending.

Full Circle
In August 2006, while attending the Monterey Historics, Joe was walking though vendor area at Laguna Seca. A crowd was gathering at a book signing that was taking place, a glance at the sign revealed that, of all people, none other than Howden Ganley was signing books. Talk about luck. Joe talked to Ganley for about fifteen minutes and they are presently corresponding by email tying to fill in the gaps in the history of # 184.

So the story of the cigarette-labeled Iso Lele stranded in a basement of a deserted mansion in Williamsburg had come full circle. In the process, it seems everyone was happy. Frank Shaffer had helped Mr. Dunn clear his basement, Howden Ganley recalled those glory days, Joe Corbacio added another car to his collection, and VeloceToday got the story.