Iso Adventures In Belgium – Photos From A Classic Car Lover

by Mike –

I love it when My Car Quest readers send in photos and stories. I try to publish them all but I know I take a long time to do so sometimes. Here are some photos below and a slide show sent in by Alexander Oet in Belgium.

He has been an Iso fan and collector for many years and he seems to keep his cars too including an Iso Grifo, Iso Fidia, Iso Rivolta GT and Iso Lele.

Iso Fidia

Text and photos by Alexander Oet

Hi Mike,

I have to congratulate you on My Car Quest; it is nice to be with a big group of classic “hybrid” car people.

I have collected cars through the years and many are sometimes very rare cars.

The first car I bought was a light blue Iso Lele 351 Cleveland, which I bought in Brussels from a wealthy factory owner. He just bought a new Silver Shadow and gave the Lele to his wife. She was afraid to drive it and I was lucky to be able to buy it.

I was 19 years old and paid 200,000 Belgium Francs for this Lele (5,000 Euros now).

Two years later I was able to buy from the first owner Iso Grifo No. 411. Again a wealthy factory owner who lived in a castle near Hasselt.

Iso Grifo and a fan

He parked it in his garage there but during the test drive he told me he was selling it because he was afraid that his 19-year-old son would drive it and crash it. I was 21 and drove off as a happy new owner with this Grifo.

The price I paid was 400,000 Belgium Francs (10,000 Euros now) and it took me several months to pay it off. This was 32 years ago. And believe it or not I still own those cars!

Looking back now it is funny to see that the prices of those two different cars are now really out of proportion with each other. [Back then the Grifo was 2 times the price of a Lele and today the Grifo is 8 to 10 times the price of a Lele…Mike]

The Lele, when sorted out well, is a fantastic car to drive, high speed AND low speed. Since then my strange collection of cars has grown gradually.

I sent pictures of the Iso Fidia that we restored. As you can see when well done it is a real head turner and great driver.

Iso Fidia

I sent some old pictures of a gathering we had near Venlo with Iso’s about 28 years ago, where you see the Grifo No. 411.

Iso Gathering

Iso Gathering

With the Iso Rivolta 327 cid and 5-speed I went on a rally through 2,000 miles of desert in Morocco two years ago with no problems – even at 200 km an hour with a police escort!

Thank you and greetings from a fellow car guy in Belgium,

Alexander

[Show as slideshow]