by Mike –
Please answer the two survey questions at the end of this post about this Iso Grifo for sale.
The RM auction site calls this a Series 1 Iso Grifo but it looks like a Series 2 Grifo. Then I read the RM description and see that this car has been converted from a Series 1 front end to a Series 2 front end at the Iso factory.
There are a few typos in the RM description, they call this a 1967 model in one section and they twice state that there were 471 Grifos made when there were actually 412 made before Iso shut down and one was made after the factory shut down for a total of 413.
This Iso Grifo has been converted into a race car and RM says it is a “road legal racing car with HSCC papers”. The engine and the transmission have been replaced and there have been several other non-standard performance enhancing modifications made to this car.
RM does not mention that the gas tank filler appears to be coming out of the trunk lid – certainly not a normal Iso Grifo feature. I assume this mean there is a fuel cell taking up the trunk space.
The RM listing for this Iso Grifo is at this link.
I want to know your opinion about the idea of turning an Iso Grifo into a race car.
The survey has ended and the results are here.
My thanks to Pierre Brunner for sending this to me. I will report the results of the survey in a couple of days.
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Mike,
this is #115 which was prepared for racing by the then owner, Charles Fripp of Cornwall, UK. I saw it race in 2011 at Silverstone. It was straight out of the box, so wasn’t handling too well, but Charles achieved his objective of not finishing last – in fact, he made up a couple of places.
This particular car was built Dec 30 1966 with 350hp, 4-speed and 3.07 axle. It came in to the UK from Italy in 1968 and at some time went back to the factory for the Series 2 nose. I can’t remember why, now.
There’s no reason why a Grifo couldn’t be made into an effective racer which ought to be be quite competitive in the right class – at least as good as a Rivolta, being a little lighter and lower, with the centre of gravity a little further back. Best to start with a rough or incomplete one, though.
It will be interesting to see how it goes at the RM auction.
Chris
Thanks for the info Chris. It will be interesting to see how an Iso Grifo (L) race car does at auction.
May be its not financially rewarding (the auction will answer that question), but it sure looks like a great deal of excitement. Personally, due to the rarity of these cars, I would like to see them restored to OEM specs. Keep up the great work.