Carey Loftin and his three Bizzarrinis

I was driving on Lankershim Ave, bout 40 years ago and I passed a bar and saw a green Bizzarrini parked by the curb, I went inside and asked who the guy was with the Bitz and was introduced to Carey Loftin, stunt man, who drove the Mustang in Bullitt,the Challenger in Vanishing Point,etc.

Anyway I think this green one,a horrid emerald green, might have been a fiberglass one. He also had a pale yellow one which I later bought for a client when he was retired in Huntington Beach. And he had a dark red one. I bought the yellow one as a non runner
but he told me he had sold the green one earlier after he had a fuel line break en route to somewhere and wrapped it in cardboard in a field fix and it caught fire and cracked the windscreen and he was worried he would never find a replacement windscreen so he sold the car for $4000. I was wondering if this story was heard by anyone else and what year the green car was sold? Incidentally Carey told a lot of great stories on how he told off this big star or that great director. And one time in some small town where they were filming, some local girl saw him driving that car and glommed onto him and married him...hey, car like that makes a Furrari look, well,dainty..

 

Carey Loftin owned more than 3 Bizzarrinis and I think they were all alloy bodied. The green one was in the opening sequence of Bullitt and is now a dark maroon color and lives in Canada.

A friend of mine (a long time Bizzarrini GT 5300 owner) who used to hang out with Carey Loftin and Max Balchowsky on occasion told me that it was impossible to tell who owned which car because Loftin and Balchowsky would trade off cars depending on their mood and maybe the condition of the car.

Read more here: Carey Loftin ? One Of The Best Movie Stunt Drivers Liked To Drive Fast
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Maybe he was confused? The metallic green car was red to begin with...and is most certainly an alloy car...
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So, maybe Carey Loftin painted it that green?

 

I think there were as many as three Bitz's in Max's shop at any one time, I remember Carey told me the emerald green one had a different rear suspension than the other ones, He also told me of losing the brakes on a car (maybe a Bitz) and having to slow down by rubbing the wall on the freeway--I bet that made some bodyman's whole day! One of his Bitz's is also in the movie The Love Bug in a racetrack scene, Max of course was a race driver and would drive the car. When I visited Carey in Huntington Beach he also had a Pantera but looked contemptfully toward it compared to the Bitz's he owned

Still like to hear what he dumped the car with fire damage for,,,

 

Here is the big race in the Love Bug, the Bizzarrini GT 5300 on the right and the Thorndyke Special that we now know is an Apollo GT on the left.
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It's a Strada so would have different rear suspension than the fiberglass bodied America. Same as every other Strada though...DeDion setup with Salisbury differential and inboard disc brakes.

 

Correct the GT America with fiberglass bodies had an independent rear suspension.

 

I think the car in Canada IA30286 gets confused with a fiberglass car because of the two vents near the rear windows and the GT America designation/ logo.

IA#0258 was the Love bug car but Loftin may have driven another Bizzarrini to the shoot location.

Loftin was also the truck driver in "Duel" and the wild Ferrari scene in "Aginst all odds" he was 68 years old when he took that job.

Here is Loftin with 0286 while green

The rear vents are a dead give a way to what car this is.
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