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giotto bizzarrini

A Tribute to Giotto Bizzarrini

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Giotto Bizzarrini passed away on May 13 2023 at the age of 96. This article originally appeared in VeloceToday on December 17, 2008

By Wallace A. Wyss

Bizzarrini Strada and America photos courtesy Funktionauto
Lead photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt

If ever I had a defining moment it was when I was a young lad. Not a defining moment of the caliber of those little girls in Mexico who saw the Virgin Mary, but it was defining enough that it changed my focus in life.

I was college-age, and in a library looking for books on poetry when I opened a magazine called Autosport and lo and behold there was a story on an odd Italian car called an Iso Grifo A3C. That car later became the basis for what was the Bizzarrini Strada.

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Bizzarrini in Paradise

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By Wallace Wyss

We’re supposed to be hunkered down because of the plague. I get it.

But being a car guy, I can’t help (properly masked of course) going to Malibu at dawn each Sunday morning to see what’s at the informal cars ‘n coffee. And recently I was rewarded with the sight of a 1967 Bizzarrini GT5300 Strada so fresh from France it still has French plates (or are those vanity plates?)

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Bizzarrini

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This article originally appeared in VeloceToday on December 17, 2008

By Wallace A. Wyss

Bizzarrini Strada and America photos courtesy Funktionauto
Lead photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt

If ever I had a defining moment it was when I was a young lad. Not a defining moment of the caliber of those little girls in Mexico who saw the Virgin Mary, but it was defining enough that it changed my focus in life.

I was college-age, and in a library looking for books on poetry when I opened a magazine called Autosport and lo and behold there was a story on an odd Italian car called an Iso Grifo A3C. That car later became the basis for what was the Bizzarrini Strada. [Read more…] about Bizzarrini

The Most Beautiful Car in the World

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By Wallace Wyss
Photos by Jim Fetz

OK; I am going to get flack on this, making that claim, but it so happens I have a personal investment in this particular car–I’ve spent hours trying to find out if one of them was for sale. You might say I’ve been carrying a torch for this car for 49 years.

The first time I saw one was in 1966 when Dick Wingerson, my copy chief at the ad agency, said “You oughta go over to the Vette Shop, they got an Italian-bodied Corvette powered car.” I went there but the owner of the shop said it wasn’t for sale, only there for service.

So a decade or two later, I’m driving through Vegas, there’s the same damn car in a gas station with a flat tire. I put a note on it.

No answer.

Then another few years go by, I’m in Malibu going uphill from Pacific Coast Highway, there it is –the same damn car again–in front of someone’s house. I put a note on it.

No one answers.

Eventually I find out it belongs to Mark Sassak and he and I become friends.

Only now the damn Bitz spyders are worth like, I dunno, a million each?

Anyhow there’s going to be a display of all three at an upcoming concours.

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Experiencing Giotto, Part 2: Lamborghini and Europa

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Lamborghini in Bizzarrinil. Photo courtesy of Graham Earl.

By Graham Earl

Bizzarrini Lamborghini

One interesting car which came and went through my hands while working for auction companies was a prototype for the America, based on a Lamborghini 350GT. The story, which came directly from Giotto himself, is that after designing the V12 engine for Lamborghini he somehow ended up with a rolling chassis for a 350GT, possibly as part payment. He used this chassis to develop the car, which would become the America. I believe this is the only genuine Bizzarrini GT with a Lamborghini V12 motor, although I think another copy exists somewhere. [Read more…] about Experiencing Giotto, Part 2: Lamborghini and Europa

Experiencing Giotto Part 1

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Strada coming at you, but is it the real thing? Photo Courtesy Graham Earl.

By Graham Earl

Words of wisdom from one who knows

(Note that none of the photos herein should be misconstrued as to being a replicar; they represent Bizzarrinis in various forms.)

My first encounter with Bizzarrini was as a student in London in the late 1970s. I was walking home along the A316 at Richmond one afternoon, vaguely noticing the busy rush-hour traffic hustling along the two-lane road. There was an old car repair shop on this road, and for a couple of weeks, I had been intrigued by a Fiat 2300 Ghia Coupe which had been languishing on the forecourt waiting for attention. [Read more…] about Experiencing Giotto Part 1

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