Racing
Giotto Bizzarrini was a dedicated race car designer and builder. Likely one of the sources of disagreement between Renzo Rivolta and Giotto Bizzarrini was Bizzarrini's desire to build race cars and Renzo Rivolta's desire to build high quality GT cars and family transportation cars. They decided to part ways in 1964.
Bizzarrini had mixed success in racing. The lowlight for Bizzarrini must certainly have been the Sebring 12 Hours on March 27, 1965, where both Iso/Bizzarrini race cars crashed causing serious damage, placing them beyond repair.
The highlight came later that same year at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 19–20, 1965 where an Iso Grifo/Bizzarrini won the 5000 cc and over class and was ninth overall.
C. Rino Argento helped Bizzarrini manage the race cars during that terrible week in June 1965 at Sebring. He has written a detailed account of that week, which was originally published in the Griffon, the magazine of the Iso & Bizzarrini Owner's Club.[1]
Car No. 8, driven by Silvio Moser, went off track due to brake failure and crashed into a Volkswagen bus. Nobody was injured, but the car was a total loss.
Later during a very heavy rain storm car No. 9, driven by Mike Gammino, aquaplaned, hit the pedestrian bridge and split in two. The car split right behind the driver and Mike Gammino did not realize how close he came to being killed until he stepped out of the car.
The famous California race car builder Max Balchowsky was also at Sebring helping the Bizzarrini team. He took all of the pieces of these two Iso/Bizzarrini race cars back to his shop in Southern California with the intention to build one Iso/Bizzarrini from the pieces of the two destroyed cars. This recreated Iso/Bizzarrini race car has never been seen again.
There was a morbid end to the week: a plane crash killed Iso and Bizzarrini supporter Mitch Michelmore and his son as they were on their way back to California. Michelmore "had a Chevrolet dealership in Reseda, California and he had sold quite a few Iso Rivoltas; he was enthusiastic about the cars and interested in the racing version (the Grifos) and was seriously considering a sales activity for them in this country", according to C. Rino Argento.
Argento summed up the week: “This was the end of a terrible week and the pain was unbearable for me, the organizer of this adventure! In great part because of my initiative and planning all these people had congregated at Sebring for what was supposed to be a fun, interesting, successful, and profitable race and it turned out to be a human and material disaster!”[1]
P538S
Bizzarrini's advanced ideas emerged again with the Bizzarrini P538S, P for posteriore, 53 for the 5300 cc Corvette engine, 8 for V8 engine and S for Sports car. The first V-12 car was ordered by American racer Mike Gammino.
This Barchetta raced in the 1966 Le Mans (DNF) and was even entered in 1967, but did not start (DNQ). In 1966, after a spin at the start line, it lasted less than a half an hour and retired due to a cracked oil line. During the short race time, the P538 was clocked as one of the fastest cars on the Mulsanne Straight.
In 1968, Giugiaro rebuilt one of the P538 bodies as the Bizzarrini Manta. After some years in Sweden, it was dismantled for an extensive restoration. Later featured in various classics car events, it is now in the United States.
