Iso Grifo!!!!!!!!!!

[ringle]

A few more pics.

[henk4]

thanks, there is this intrigueing picture of the space behind the seats. Is it intended for legless passengers???

[ringle]

A couple more pics.

[ringle]

Last one.

[Sei cilindri]

No Henk I did not sell mine (yet)

The 8V I was interested in is now beiing restored
The unrestored asking price of 135 .000 Euro has therefore gone up to 285.000 Euro which is a bit too much for me
Furthermore I really liked the unrestored look as it was not really in a bad shape.

I have now sort of promised myself to take it out of the showroom and drive it a couple of times this year as it is really a shame that I never use it

[henk4]

No Henk I did not sell mine (yet)


I have now sort of promised myself to take it out of the showroom and drive it a couple of times this year as it is really a shame that I never use it

The Grifo you mean? Give us a shout when you plan to do that and we would interested in doing some pictures....

[drakkie]

The Grifo you mean? Give us a shout when you plan to do that and we would interested in doing some pictures....

Shout a bit harder so that i can hear it too I'd be very much interested in seeing it actually driving.In all those years of loving itnever seen it drive once

[Sei cilindri]

Ok, Well I have learned to promise as little as possible as plans have a tendency to change but if I take it out for a spin I will try to remember to give a shout

[austin healey]

Just a bit of info, the reason they only made around 450 examples of teh iso grifo is because being based on a corvette, it had similar looks, it cost a ton more, and it was slower by a fair amount.

[Sei cilindri]

well mister healey

In another thread we have learned not to take your postings too seriously
Whith this remark you prove that you have very little knowlidge about your classics or are the grapes sour since you are not able to buy one once you will have mastered driving ?

Let me enlighten you:

The Iso Grifo was not based on the Corvette
Yes it did use a Corvette engine (later Ford) which were modified to make it more reliable since europeans and specially the germans reved the engine more on the "autobahn" and the GM V8's couldn't cope with those continious high revs

As for the chassis: this was developed by Giotto Bizzarini, the best engineer ever to work for Ferrari before he walked out with the "palice" revolution.
He was responsible u.o. for the most expensive Ferrari ever :the 250GTO
He also did such cars as the 250 "breadvan" , an ugly car but darn quick !

After the Iso project he was responsible for the famous Lamborghini V12 engine that graced such cars as the 400 and Miura, the best sounding engine ever.

It was this brilliant engineer that developed a chassis that was able to corner at (high) speeds, something the contempory Corvette was never able to do

He went one step further and proved it by producing a racing version which he raced under his own name at such events as Le Mans (Bizzarini 5300 . Iso Grifo A3/C)

I do not know where you get the idea that that the contempory Corvette top speed was higher but the top speed of the Grifo varies ,depending on the engine and axle, from 240 km/h to 300 km/h (!) timed on the autostrada between milano and turin and all this while still making it good to handle at these speeds
I want to see a standard contempory Corvette see do that.

To top it all off the body was designed by the famous Bertone design house and specificly by Marcello Gandini who was also responsible for e.g. the Lamborghini Countach.
He managed to make it a spectacular timeless design which still makes it very collectable. Isn't this why you wanted it at the first place ??

So you see my friend, it is not at all based on the Corvette , it just uses its modified power source
I would hardly call a Armani suit based on a Sears suit just because it might have the same thread manufacturer....

[Revo]

Excellent post, Sei cilindri!

[Ferrer]

well mister healey
After the Iso project he was responsible for the famous Lamborghini V12 engine that graced such cars as the 400 and Miura, the best sounding engine ever.

And still does, the current 6.5-litre V12 engine can trace its roots back to the days of the original 3.5-litre V12.

By the way, fantastic post.

[drakkie]

By the way, fantastic post.

Yea indeed. I guess he is one out of the senior members that really know enough about cars for this


(talking about henk4 and MetA offcourse for the other two)

[Wouter Melissen]

Yes it did use a Corvette engine (later Ford) which were modified to make it more reliable since europeans and specially the germans reved the engine more on the "autobahn" and the GM V8's couldn't cope with those continious high revs

This is an often missed, but very valid point. At Villa d'Este I talked a bit to the son of Peter Kalikow about the Momo Mirage his father was responsible for. This was basically an American engine coupled with a European design. He said that one of the biggest problems they encountered was adapting the American V8 for European highway driving. Things like the lubrication system were not capable of handling the stresses cruising at 200 km/h bring with it. No doubt the engines in the Iso were also extensively modified compared to the ones found in the contemporary American cars.

[austin healey]

I know, that it used the 327 vette but they used styling cues form the vette