by Mike –
I don’t care what anyone else may tell you when you take a Bizzarrini GT 5300 out for a drive it is an adventure and you better be paying attention. No texting and driving allowed.
This magnificent race car will not drive itself. It requires the full attention of the driver unlike modern cars. I am not talking about driving this car on a race track I am just driving it around the local streets on an early Sunday morning when almost no one else is around.
You feel the surface of the street because the car sits so low it seems like you are scraping along the ground. The Dunlap race tires like to follow to contours of every bump and rut on the road. In California these days we have many streets that have not been repaved in a long time and there are a lot of bumps and ruts on all of the roads.
The Bizzarrini GT 5300 is a blast to drive. It is amazingly fast and agile and will accelerate, corner and brake with the best of anything that was made in the 1960s or even the 1970s. It does take some muscle when driving slow but when the speed picks up the steering is easy to manage as long as you pay attention.
Getting out of a Bizzarrini takes practice.
It feels good to stand up again.
There are many other posts about the Bizzarrini GT 5300 on My Car Quest.
Photos by Michael Menetto.
There were owners that drove them to work in LA. Keith Martin in that group. You should drive it to Santa Cruz via 17 head north and cut back across 92 then take a high speed run home on 280.
That is a great route but I think I made need a gas station along the way.
Thats what the three gas tanks are for
Very funny, you know that the three gas tanks are required to get from one gas station to the next provided they are not too far apart.
What’s the horsepower and what mufflers are you using. It sounds great!
The horsepower is right at 400 hp and with a weight of 2550 pounds this has an excellent power to weight ratio.
The mufflers are the standard Bizzarrini stuff meaning I do not know. I can post a picture if that helps.
Probably doesn’t matter because I can’t get them for my Rivolta anyway.
The overall tone is so guttural it sounds like a grizzly bear that is warning you away from it’s cubs before it tears you a new a-hole.
I like that analogy.
This Bizzarrini also has a race like cam that is different than the standard Strada cam. The original owner of 36 years liked driving very fast.
Remember he put the custom made front air spoiler on this car because at 150 MPH the front end became a little light. So, naturally he would have a special cam installed.
I have yet to get up to 150 MPH so I have not experienced the front end lift. But just in case the custom aluminum air spoiler is sitting here in my office.
Is it possible that he gave you a receipt with the cam specs listed? I was going to mention the cam. It’s has just enough roughness(?) but it’s not crazy to the point that the wife won’t get in the car.
I do not think that I have the specs but I could probably get them.
You are right about the cam level – it provides a perfect combination for comfortable yet fast driving. And what a cool sound.
A stop in Santa Cruz then the longest haul up Hwy one, a stop in Half Moon Bay prior to 92, then maybe you can coast into Santa Clara.
I forgot about the gas station in Half Moon Bay – I should be able to make it.
Another great drive is to go up Big Basin through Saratoga up to Skyline Drive turn North and drive to Hwy 92 turn right and come back down on I280.
There are points on Skyline where if you look to the west you can see the ocean and if you look east you can see the San Francisco Bay.
What a drive. The motorcycle folks love this drive on the weekends.
Big Basin is excellent, but a lot of turns, your right about the motorcycles,
another good one is Hwy 132 stop at Lick Observatory on top of Mt Hamilton. This was the Observatory that Einstein used to help prove that light could bend, and then down the backside to Livermore. Lots of tuns and long runs. Almost no traffic
I drove my former Ferrari 360 on that road but what a looong drive.