A-Z of Marques: No. 25 ISO
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Your support makes all the difference.The marque: Italian bubble-car pioneer becomes Maserati rival.
The history: Maybe Renzo Rivolta was a frustrated meterologist, because he named his pre-war refrigerator company Isothermos. After the Second World War he started a scooter company in Milan, which led to his Isetta bubble car of 1953. Two years later he sold the design to BMW which, in turn, eventually sold it on to a British company which continued to make the Isetta behind Brighton station until 1964.
By then, Rivolta was into a very different project. The Iso Rivolta of 1962 was a handsome four-seater coupé whose Italian styling (by Giugiaro while working for the Bertone design house) clothed an American Chevrolet V8. In the UK, Gordon-Keeble made a remarkably similar car, also Bertone/ Giugiaro-styled and Chevrolet-powered. The flattery was mutual.
The Rivolta's chassis design was by Giotto Bizzarrini, a brilliant engineer who later created Lamborghini's V12 engine. Next came the Iso Grifo, a low, sleek GT on a shorter version of the same chassis. Bizzarrini also created a racing version under his own name but still called Grifo; they were raced with a minimal budget but maximum enthusiasm. The ultimate roadgoing Grifo had a 7,443cc engine and 395bhp.
Renzo Rivolta died in 1966 and his son, Piero, took over. His first effort was the Fidia of 1967, a saloon longer than the Rivolta, styled by Ghia and devoid of the elegance of the previous two cars. And, finally, Iso launched the Lele in 1969 to replace the Rivolta. Wisely, the company returned to Bertone for the body design. This car, the Grifo and the Fidia gained Ford V8 power in place of the Chevrolet engines.
Iso also had a brief adventure in Formula One with Frank Williams - the car was called a Williams-Iso-Marlboro - but the oil crisis was biting into the market for exotic cars and by 1975 it was all over. Piero Rivolta and an associate tried to revive the Iso name with the Grifo 90 concept car in 1991, but it came to nothing.
Defining model: Grifo A3L; looked gorgeous, did 170mph, sired a racing car.
They said: Who needs a complicated Ferrari V12 anyway?
We say: From bubble to burble. Pity the bubble burst.
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