Bizzarrini Manta to Auction at Monterey

Giurgiaro's first design after starting Ital Design the Bizzarrini Manta will auction at Gooding in Monterey. Est 1-1.5 Mil lot 25
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Not that it matters - but does it run & drive? What powertrain - Bora?

 

Way cool car from a way cool period.

This car has genetics in spades.....started life as a P538 race car and has some history.....powered by a small block Chevy with really cool webers for induction.
The color is just wild and fitting for the 60's. Tri-posto....oh ya.

I'm not certain but it seems the car was originally configured with this side glass and then the car was shown as a silver car with front vent windows and I believe operational side glass. Now it is back to what I believe is non-operational side glass that swings into the interior when you open the door....kinda cumbersome and I would imagine it would be a total solarium in any kind of warm climate. But hey......who cares.....it's a show car and a stunning one at that.

 

It sure is good looking (in its own way, of course).

 

I have crawled around this car a bit and one of the more interesting features is the slits in the front hood so you can see ahead, not to mention the three seats across like the Mclaren.

Although the story has been floating around for many years, the Manta was not the ex LeMans race car. It was build out of pieces from a crashed P538. The frame of Manta is much different than a P538.

It sports a 327 w crossover webers for a nice 400 HP.
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I know they sent out an announcement when they got the car
on consignment but if they say the chassis number is 003 Bizzarrini P538 and
you are alleging it has a different chassis number, then you are accusing Gooding & Co. of fraud. (I wish I had the release which probably states what they think the chassis number is...) After reading several stories about the car, I conclude it was a race
car that DNF'd at LeMans, was sent to the U.S. , somehow "lost" at customs
and sold in a port authority auction and then went to the Italian owner who sold it tot he Swede that first restored it.

 

Understand that I am not accusing anyone of anything I am only stating my opinion. The history of Bizzarrini cars is often more than complex. When you refer to the Manta being lost, that all took place after the Manta was constructed. This is the history prior to the construction as I understand it.


Chassis 001 was built for Gammino to be used in the US Can Am series during testing it was crashed by Edgar Berney. At that time Bizzarrini was planning on making two more P538's . One for a test mule and the other for LeMans. Since Bizzarrini owed Gammino a car he then had to use one of his two other planned cars to fulfill the order. He stripped 001 of parts and used them on 003. 001 frame missing

002 built for Gammino painted blue w yellow stripe lambo engined delivered.

003 built for LeMans using parts off of 001 and round tubes for oil water cooling , this is the only P538 built in this manner. LeMans changed the rules and the car became obsolete. The parts were stripped off the old race car and given to Giugiaro for the Manta. Where did the chassis go?

Today there is a P538 numbered 001 and it has round tube frame up front, just like 003, This is IMO the LeMans car.

Bizzarrini has stated that the only car that had the round tubes up front was the leMans car, that would make the now numbered 001 P538 the LeMans frame.

Could the Manta have a chassis number 003? Sure, just like the LeMans chassis is numbered 001

This is documented by Jack Koobs De Hartog in his books

hope that helps

 

A coupe pics of the Manta when the current owner finished the restoration
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http://www.goodingco.com/car/1969-bizzarrini

Claimed as ex' Le-Mans car, P538-003

Estimate $1,000,000 - $1,500,000

 

history or not i loose a limb for this car however then shifting would be a beeeaaaach.

Gary
Espada
8394

 

Regardless of cost, this car would be worth the $$$$$$$.


Ciao and best!

 

Another story about it

http://classicdriver.com/uk/magazine/3200.asp?id=16210

 

Your post shows a very reckless disregard for the truth. The reasoned post on what the chassis # and history of this car may be is based on serious investigation and physical inspection and is FAR from "accusing Gooding & Co, of fraud." It is clearly expressing an opinion as permitted under the First Amendment, based on believed facts that the catalogue description is wrong. There's a HUGE difference.

 

Thank You and for the record, to my knowledge the only P538 to have a chassis number stamped by Bizzarrini was the Duke of D Aosta's car, this was done because the Duke wanted to drive it on the street and had the means to register it. Bizzarrini would scratch the numbers into the paint on his P538 cars to pass race inspections.

 

Is the car drivable? Does it have AC? I saw it at Villa d'Este when we were there with Dino Competizione and it looked pretty cool but making show cars fully functional isn't for the faint of heart.

 

I passed this information on to Gooding and they are aware that their description may have an issue and will look into it.

They thanked me for passing it on.

Best

 

Those first two shots remind me an awful lot of the Bora. Especially the round holes in the rockers just like the Bora has under it's rocker skins.

This thing must be huge?

 

In the 70's it was purchased by Giovanni Giordanegro and he made it into a drivable car. Not sure about the air, but knowing how well the the owner takes car of his other cars I would guess it does.


I followed it into Concorso a few years ago
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Totally agree.
Bizzarrini had a very odd numbering system in his cars, but with P538 chassis he did even worse due the accident of first chassis.
May be parts of that first wrecked chassis where used as starting basis for the Manta frame, but it had so different features some people think is a complete new built frame, so the logic points it was the Le Mans chassis.

 

Next images are showing the Mantra during construction and assemblage. You can see the tubular chassis. Looks like the P538 chassis or not? Also note the curved pipe at the rear end of the car (manta004l.img). Why is it necessary?

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4626/manta001.jpg

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/2968/manta006.jpg

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/1328/manta004l.jpg

 

Cool Shot!

 

I belive thats where the spare wheel was attached on P538.

 

Thanks for posting these images. Interesting use of plywood for the buck.

I always notice the guys/workers/builders shoes. Some wear no socks. Standing all day in those must have been quite fun!

Ciao and best!

 

LOL I notice the shoes too, here is a shot of Bizzarrini and his test driver, notice the leather shoes the test driver is wearing.
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Very cool photos.....thanks for posting!!

There are many times I wish these cars could talk. I've always thought of the history of a car as a film, the car would not be the car without every negative in the film....you can not cut out any of the film and have the complete history.

Without even discussing the inclusion of any of the P538 chassis or parts and LeMans history some of the photos of the car as the Manta pose questions. There are a ton of pictures of this car on google (Bizzarrini Manta).

Period photos show the hoop at the rear of the car, which does not appear on the car today, is it still there?

Period photos show bulges in the rear coach work in the approximate location of the hoop, there are also photos of the car in a silver color without these bulges and now they are back on the car. Why did this happen?

The car appears to have originally been built with one piece side glass (which I think would not allow the windows to operate as the glass would run into the door hinges), then the car had a vent window installed (when presented in the silver color). Now the car has one piece glass again. Why did this happen?

A minor detail are the front marker/signal lights. They appear in period just below the headlights and are no longer on the car.

A good friend was at the LA show when this car was shown in period. He vividly remembers the car having a dirty engine in it and the car having 58 DCO weber carbs (he said he knows the carbs as they are the same ones as the ones on a 2 litre Abarth Simca that he restored), yet the exterior was that of a fresh show car. The car currently has DCOE carbs on it. Could it be that the P538 chassis that Bizzarrini provided had a race engine with the DCO carbs and it was installed?

Is it possible that this car was only a pushmobile in period and was made functional by Giordanengo at a later date?

Did anyone see the car run in period?

Like Napolis, I also asked Gooding about the P538 chassis claim to see if the car currently has the P538-003 number in it anywhere (and subsequently found out through Jack Koobs de Hartog's book that the only car with a 538 VIN was the Duca d Aosta car). I also asked if the car has the 6901 Italdesign number on it and have not heard back form Gooding.

It is a very interesting car to say the least, it would be nice to have answers to some of these questions or better yet see the whole film on this car without any missing negatives.