Brief history of Iso A3C ad A3/L--Anything to add (or delete?)

Going to donate this to a club newsletter (if I can find one that wants it...) Got facts from auction descriptions but you know how those are....

The Iso AC3:The Mystery car that led to the Bizzarrini


By now those who regularly read this website know of the lasciviously styled Bizzarrini. but did you know before the Bizzarrini, there was the Iso Grifo A3/C race car and its 'street twin ,the A3/L;
Though books on Bizzarrini are thin on the ground, the essential facts, are:

• Giotto Bizzarrini built 20 Iso Grifo A3C race cars with the rare Drogo riveted alloy body
• Lightweight aluminum Drogo riveted body designed and built by Carrozzeria Sport Cars Modena
• They had a 5.3L Chevrolet V8 with sidedraft Webers with 400 HP

As well engineered a car as the Iso was, however, it did not sell as expected.
While Ferrari and Maserati had built their reputations
on racing successes, Renzo Rivolta, owner of Iso, remained unmoved.
Bizzarrini had repeatedly tried to convince Rivolta to follow Ferrari's philosophy, that of racing to get the nme known, but the Milanese industrialist would
have nothing to do with that. because his goal was to build luxury GT
cars for businessmen The disagreement led to Bizzarrini’s departure,
on amicable terms, to establish his own company,
“Prototipi Bizzarrini, S.a.r.l., Progettazione e Construzioni Automobili.”

Wanting to part on friendly terms, Rivolta commissioned Bizzarrini to
design a car before he left, a steel bodied grand touring car as a follow-up to the IR300, a four seater family car, using the same basic chassis , Corvette engine and transmission. The two agreed the car would bear the Iso name along with one suggested by Iso's retained design firm Bertone.
“Grifo” is Italian for the mythical Griffin, defender of
treasures but also the traditional enemy of horses, including, one may infer, those of the prancing critter seen in the Ferrari crest
To satisfy Bizzarrini’s desire to enter competition,(and so as not to lose his brilliant
engineer) Rivolta had initially offered to supply Bizzarrini with the parts necessary to build a Grifo-based car of his own design. At first, the race car was a part-time project, only sporadically worked on. One account says Bizzarrini was also busy designing Lamborghini’s V-12 engine at the same time , but, in November 1963, the Bizzarrini A3/C (C for Competizione) Grifo made its initial rollout at the Turin Auto Show, on the Iso stand, while curiously,a slightly more civilized version, the A3/L, was unveiled on the Bertone stand. That revealed the conflict between Bizzarrini and Rivolta.

The two cars were big hits at the show, , raising the Iso marque to new visibility, as did the Bertone-designed (by Giugiaro who worked at Bertone) Grifo convertible.

All shared common features with the Iso—monocoque construction, a Chevrolet
Corvette drivetrain, De Dion rear suspension and superb performance—
but the A3/C sacrificed comfort for speed, such as moving the engine 15.75 inches rearward for ideal 50/50 front/rear weight distribution.

The race version had the single carburetor thrown out in favor of the four side-draft Weber carburetors which pushed it from the street car's 340 peak HP to more than 400,

. The completed A3/C tipped the scales at 2,750 pounds versus the A3/L’s 2,970, and was capable of 170 MPH. It was a match for the 250GTO which, more than coincidentally, was engineered by Bizzarrini (who had left Ferrari in the famous "palace revolt." a walkout of several Ferrari engineers.)

The A3/C’s most interesting deign feature is its lightweight Drogo aluminum
body which guess what had almost the same side profile as the
250GTO, except the Bitz had flat lower sides, and a lower Kamm
effect tail. but Ing. Bizzarrini had designed the GTO without need of
a stylist. Bizzarrini’s draftsman, Piero Vanni, is credited with the A3/C shape, which was
refined aerodynamically by Bizzarrini, then passed on to Bertone and then finally
Giugiaro for a full-sized rendering. Built by Piero Drogo’s Carrozzeria Sports Cars
in Modena, the bodies were assembled using more than 7,000 rivets.
The process gave the finished A3/C an undoubtedly raw unfinished
appearance, which reportedly ticked off Nuccio Bertone .
Bizzarrini was only able to complete 20 copies of his racing coupe, which
due to lack of homologation (you had to make over 100) , was forced to run as a prototype against such competition as the Ferrari 250LM which had tried to get homologated but also didn't make enough to be deemed a production car and had to run as a prototype.
Still, the Iso Grifo A3C's accomplished a remarkable record for a new marque,
including a ninth overall at Le Mans.

Once he had the rights to build them on his own, Bizzarrini left for his native Livorno to start production. The way he got the rights was interesting. He had "accidentally" registered the name Grifo under his own name. When Bertone and Rivolta wanted to mass produce the steel bodied tamer Grifo using that name, they had to go to him, hat in hand, for the rights to use the name. Bizzarrini was happy to oblige, in
exchange for the right to make the A3/C and 3/L under his own name.



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