ISO

Grifo

The Iso Grifo was the dream car of Renzo Rivolta's Iso Autoveicoli, the Milanese firm that had grown from making refrigerators and the tiny Isetta bubble car into a builder of exotic grand tourers. First shown as a concept at the 1963 Turin Motor Show, the Iso Grifo brought together an exceptional combination of talent: the elegant, muscular bodywork was penned by a young Giorgetto Giugiaro at Bertone, while the engineering was the work of the brilliant Giotto Bizzarrini, fresh from his role in creating the Ferrari 250 GTO. Rather than build a temperamental Italian engine, Iso chose dependable, powerful and easily serviced American V8s, and the first production Iso Grifo GL of 1965 used Chevrolet's 327 cubic-inch Corvette small-block driving through a Borg-Warner four-speed gearbox. The result was a car with supercar pace and grand-touring comfort, but without the fragility of its exotic rivals. In 1968 Iso unleashed the spectacular Iso Grifo 7 Litri, fitted with Chevrolet's 427 big-block and crowned by a dramatic raised bonnet scoop, capable of a claimed 300 km/h. A Series 2 Iso Grifo arrived in 1970 with sleek hidden headlamps, and late cars switched to Ford's 351 Cleveland V8 as Chevrolet supplies dried up. When Iso collapsed in 1974, just 413 examples of the Iso Grifo had been built, of which around 90 were the mighty 7 Litri. Rare, beautiful and brutally fast, the Iso Grifo is one of the most desirable of all the Italian-American hybrid grand tourers.