by Mike –
There are many stories that come out of Monterey Car Week. The Quail, A Motorsport Gathering was especially interesting because of the celebration of Iso Rivolta classic cars.
There were fifteen Iso Grifo models at The Quail out of a total of 27 Iso cars. They are all special in their own way.
The First Iso Grifo
The 1963 Iso Grifo A3/L Prototype was the first Grifo and you can see the many Giugiaro design features that did not make it into the production cars. This Grifo is owned by The Blackhawk Collection.
The hood scoop, the crease down the middle of the hood and louvers are noticeable but so are the door handles which remind me of the series one door handles on my Bizzarrini GT 5300.
The Last Iso Grifo
The last Iso Grifo made by the Iso factory before they closed, chassis No. 412, is this beautiful blue Grifo owned by Mike Hart.
The One After That
This Iso Grifo was left unfinished when the factory closed. It was completed in 1977-78 by a company called Ennezeta (Roberto Negri).
Roberto Negri sold this Grifo to Salvatore Diomante who restored it and renumbered it to chassis No. 223, which is from the 1967 year, and converted it to a 7 Liter with a Rivolta GT style hood scoop and Lamborghini Miura style sill-cover scoops in front of the rear wheels.
This is why the Grifo made after the last Grifo in 1974 is a 1967 model year. It is owned by Brock Vandervliet.
More pictures are in the slide show below.
This was one of the few shows that was able to showcase all the Grifo styles. They included the Bertone prototype, the preproduction (like 009), production open headlight, Series oneTarga, 7 litre, The Series two, Series two targa and Series two Ford,
For the Iso lover it was one of the best displays ever!
Yes, correct – this will likely not happen again for a few years. What a treat not only for the Iso fan but all car lovers.