1964 Iso Grifo GL Series I

Known as the Grifo GL or A3/L, this Coupe was designed as a road-going version of Giotto Bizzarrini’s race cars. Released in 1965, its Bertone styling and race-bred pedigree made this model one of the little known treasures in the Italian market.

Well before Giotto Bizzarrini ever made a car under his own name, he gained a reputation working with companies such as Ferrari and Lamborghini. His aim was to beat these past employers on the track, but that also meant selling road-going versions to help pay the bills.

The 5300 GT stems from a long and complicated relationship between Bizzarrini, Giugiaro at Bertone and Renzo Rivolta. These three worked together to create the Iso Rivolta 300, a flagship car for Iso, having a welded sheet steel monocoque and Corvette V8. Due to sporting nature of the chassis and the reliability of its American power, Bizzarrini wanted to go endurance racing but Rivolta, who owned Iso, did not agree.

Fortunately, by 1963, Rivolta was finally convinced to finance the development of a more sporting Iso Rivolta. The result was the precursor to the 5300 GT, the Iso Grifo.

Both Bizzarrini and Bertone worked extensively on two cars which debuted at the 1963 Torino Motor Show. To satisfy Rivolta, both a competition Grifo A3/C and a 2 + 2 Grifo A3/L were displayed. These cars had distinctly different bodies and different design objectives, but were in many ways the same. Both Grifos were styled by Giugiaro at Bertone, used the same chassis and the same engine. Immediately after the successful show, both versions of the Grifo were put into production.

All of the chassis were built in Bizzarrini’s workshop at Livorno. Iso provided the engine and other components. Drogo manufactured and delivered bodies for the competition cars to Livorno for final assembly. The A3/Ls, the 2 +2 grand tourers, were finished at Bertone where Bizzarrini shipped bare chassis.

In total around 475 cars were completed.

Iso Grifo GL Series I Gallery