The Bizzarrini story

3 February 2025

The Bizzarrini name may well sound familiar thanks to the recent revival of the name to produce a limited run of 24 remakes of the company’s stunning 5300 GT. With a price tag of £1.65 million, these continuation cars are being built in the same way Aston Martin and Jaguar have created tool room copies of original cars likes the DB4 GT and C-type.

Courtesy Bizzarrini

However, there is more to Bizzarrini than just a handful of faithfully recreated cars. The Italian firm is also making its first all-new model, the Giotto, since 2005 when it built the Ghepardo concept car. The Giotto is named after the company’s founder, Giotto Bizzarrini, who had a hand in designing and developing some of Italy’s most important cars in the post-war period.

Giotto’s early years

A trained engineer, Bizzarrini graduated from the University of Pisa in 1953, where his final project was a redeveloped Fiat Topolino. That helped him land a job at Alfa Romeo working in the experimental department and working on the new Giulietta. While at Alfa, he also became a test driver, which would hold in him good stead further into his career.

Courtesy Alfa Romeo

Three years after joining Alfa Romeo, the restless young Bizzarrini moved to Ferrari, which by then had a fearsome reputation as a company developing racing and sports cars right at the forefront of what was possible. This was an ideal environment for Bizzarrini and he was soon immersed in work on the roadgoing 250 GT and GTE models, as well as the 250 TR Testa Rossa racer and 250 GT SWB. It’s a measure of how talented Bizzarrini was that he worked across the chassis, engine, and dynamic development of the 250 model range.

The pinnacle of this was Bizzarrini’s work on the 250 GTO, which he helped make far more aerodynamic than the original test mule that he used as his personal car to make sure it was sufficiently robust and reliable. Giotto quickly understood the GTO was not cutting through the air as cleanly as it should, so he set about reducing the car’s frontal area with a longer bonnet to give more high speed stability along with less aero drag. He also decided to move the engine from its original position to much further back and lower in the chassis to again improve the aerodynamic ability of the car while also giving it a lower centre of gravity.

Courtesy Bizzarrini

Post-Ferrari spin-off

One would think that Bizzarrini would have made Ferrari his engineering home after so much dedicated work on the 250 GTO, which went on to become a massively successful race car. Yet, in 1961 Bizzarrini was one of five key staff that left Ferrari to form Automobili Turismo e Sport, better known now as ATS. The plan was to build a Formula 1 car to beat Ferrari at its own game, but in the interim Bizzarrini also completed a private commission from Count Volpi to create a special 250 GTO that was named the Drogo for its aerodynamic style. This car was later nicknamed ‘The Breadvan’ for its elongated roof and abruptly cut-off Kamm-style rear end.

Courtesy Motorsport

Engineering an iconic engine

With little happening with ATS, the itchy feet of Giotto took him to creating his own business called Societa Autostar. The company was quickly asked by Ferruccio Lamborghini to come up with a V12 engine for the tractor company boss’ new sports car. What came about was a brilliant engine that first saw the light of day in the 1964 350GT and was core to every top-flight Lamborghini model right up until 2010 when the Murcielago went out of production.

With Lamborghini very pleased with Giotto’s work, his next major work came when Iso tasked Bizzarrini’s firm with making its new cars work successfully. The engineering genius pulled off a blinder and developed the Iso Rivolta and Grifo models. However, Bizzarrini was still determined to build his own car and the 1964 5300 GT Strada was it. This was closely related to the Iso A3/L and used a Chevrolet Corvette V8 engine. It might seem odd that the man who created Lamborghini’s V12 engine would look to the US for an engine, but finances and practicality dictated the 5300 GT would use a proprietary engine and the Chevrolet motor dished out plenty of power at a reasonable price.

Courtesy Bonhams

Bizzarrini goes racing

Although the 5300 GT came with the Strada for ‘Street’ tag, Bizzarrini wanted to prove the car’s competition ability, so a Corsa model was developed to race in 1965. It had mixed results, failing to finish at Sebring in the US that year but then finishing ninth overall and first in class at Le Mans. It also set the fastest speed down the Mulsanne Straight that year to underscore the car’s aerodynamic style.

The following year, Bizzarrini’s inventive mind had come up with the mid-engined P538 to take on Le Mans. This gorgeous open cockpit race car didn’t make the finish due to a pit lane infringement that ruled it out. In the end, rule changes meant only five P538s were compared to 133 5300 GTs.

Affordable excellence

Undeterred by the P538’s unremarkable career, Bizzarrini applied his mind to making a more affordable model in the 1900 GT Europa. This 2.0-litre model had the engine from an Opel GT and used a fibreglass body that was clearly styled on the same lines as the 5300 GT. It was a brilliant car, but cost meant that fewer than 20 were made.

Courtesy RM Sotheby's

A series of concept cars followed under the Bizzarrini name, but the man himself later went into teaching as a lecturer at Rome University. He still worked on automotive projects and lived to see the revival of the 5300 GT before his death in May 2023 at the age of 96. By then, his name was stamped all over many of Italy’s most desirable cars, yet this brilliant engineer and test driver never fully received he credit he so fully deserves.

Courtesy Bizzarrini