What you’re looking at is a recreation of the 1965 Bizzarrini 5300 GT, but because it’s made by the people who now own the rights to the Bizzarrini name, it can more properly be considered a continuation car.
Only 24 will be built and each will cost £1.65million before extras. Which is a lot.
Then again, the Bizzarrini name is one of the most enigmatic in automotive history and, if the breaks had only fallen slightly differently, it could now be up there with Ferrari and Lamborghini. And to understand the car of yesterday and today, you must first understand a little more.
Giotto Bizzarrini is one of the most remarkable people this industry has ever produced. His claims to fame include being chief engineer of the legendary Ferrari 250 SWB, chief architect of the even more revered 250 GTO and designer of the V12 engine that powered every Lamborghini. 12 cylinders since the start of the company in 1963 until the end of the Murcielago in 2010.
In the mid-1960s, he went into business with Iso boss Renzo Rivolta to create the magnificent Grifo A3/L and its fierce sports racing alter ego, the Grifo A3/C.
The Grifo’s greatest success was winning its class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1965, by which time it wore Bizzarrini badges and became known as the 5300 GT after Bizzarrini fell out with Rivolta that year.
Today’s car is as close to a facsimile reproduction of that 1965 race car as possible, although RML, who built it for Bizzarrini, will be happy to adapt it so that it can obtain IVA certification for on-road use.
And when you look at the specifications, you wonder why the car wasn’t even more successful than it was.
Because here’s a car with a low, rattlesnake profile and a 5.3-liter Chevrolet V8 sitting so far back in the engine compartment that there’s room in front of it for an engine literally twice its size. It had over 400 hp in 1965 (and today) and fully independent suspension on all four corners, which no GTO or Shelby Daytona Cobra has ever enjoyed.
Powerful, light, low, slippery and very advanced, it should have been a world champion and, with development budgets the size of a Ferrari or a Ford, it probably would have been. . Unfortunately, despite the production of many other car models, the magic of the first Bizzarrini was never recovered and sales ceased in 1969.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-04-01 09:30:00
