The event on Sunday of Monterey Car Week is The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, one of the most exclusive concours in the world.
Today we reach back into the My Car Quest archives and re-post The Bizzarrini Class At Pebble Beach Was Awesome in 2016. This is the sixteenth of the My Car Quest Archives Series.
This was originally a two part posting in 2016 but today I have combined it all into one post.
Next year there will be an Iso class at Pebble Beach and it will be great! Until then enjoy this look back at the Bizzarrini class.
Mike Gulett, Publisher and Editor
by Mike Gulett –
Regular readers of My Car Quest know I am a big fan of all things Bizzarrini and Iso. Look at the top of this page and you will see my former Bizzarrini GT 5300 Strada.
In 2016 the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance included a very rare Bizzarrini class where assembled on one field was the best gathering of Bizzarrini built cars that I have ever seen, and maybe better than anyone has ever seen.
Not all of them carried the Bizzarrini brand but that doesn’t matter because they all have Giotto Bizzarrini’s DNA.
Below are my photos of each of the 13 cars from Pebble Beach and a summary of each car scanned from the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Car Guide.
Click on the images, the scan documents and the slide shows for a larger view.
1966 Bizzarrini P538
1965 Iso Grifo A3/C
This is the most successful Iso/Bizzarrini race car – it won its class at the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Iso Grifo A3/C and owner Bruce Meyer
1967 Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada
This is the first Bizzarrini GT 5300 that I saw in person and the owner, the late Gerd Eckstein, let me sit in it many years ago so I could be sure that I would fit before I bought my own. I fit just fine, thanks Gerd.
1970 American Motors AMX/3
1966 Bizzarrini 5300 Spyder Prototype Stile Italia
This one-of-a-kind won second in class – congratulations to Allison and Mark Sassak.
1969 Bizzarrini GT 1900 Europa
1968 Bizzarrini 5300 Spyder Stile Italia
1968 Bizzarrini 5300 Spyder Stile Italia with owner Don Meluzio
1964 Iso Grifo A3/C
This is a real race car with period racing history.
1953 Fiat 500 Bizzarrini “Macchinetta” Berlinetta
This is Giotto Bizzarrini’s first car project.
1966 Bizzarrini Manta by Italdesign
This was the first design by Giorgetto Giugiaro when he started his own design firm, Italdesign. The Manta was a design concept with the driver sitting in the middle between two passengers like the later McLaren F1.
The Manta is a multiple award winner and always draws a crowd – it placed third in this Pebble Beach Bizzarrini class.
1968 Bizzarrini 5300 Spyder Stile Italia
1969 Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada
This red Bizzarrini won its class at Pebble Beach many years ago and is an outstanding restored example.
1969 American Motors AMX/3
And the winner is … this American Motors AMX/3 super car – the first AMC car to win its class at Pebble Beach, ever.
This is the AMX/3 that was tested on the Monza track by BMW and Giotto Bizzarrini himself. Bizzarrini also put his name on this car, he labeled it “AMX/3 by Bizzarrini”.
This special AMC AMX/3 was sold through My Car Quest in 2013 – see old photos at this link.
Much of the credit for the success of this class at Pebble Beach goes to Don Meluzio, the president of the Iso & Bizzarrini Owner’s Club.
The many owners who brought their cars from around the world so we could see them and admire them are to be praised as well – thank you all.
That’s it – the best gathering of Bizzarrini cars is over and and a good time was had by all.
The way it goes at Pebble Beach there may not be another Bizzarrini class for 20 years or so.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
Giotto Bizzarrini touching up the Bizzarrini Spyder No. 0315S at Pebble Beach in 1990 – still striving for perfection
Mike Gulett and Giotto Bizzarrini – 2013 in Livorno, Italy
That was a wonderful show, and we as a Club will get to do it again next year with the Iso Rivolta Class. Piero, Andrea and Marella will be in attendance.
Thanks Mike for allowing us to relive one of the best classes ever to grace the Pebble Beach show field. It was a large class with almost half of the cars coming from outside the Inited States. Very special….indeed.
A memorable event indeed, great cars and great pics; thank you, Mike, from all of the docents at the Blackhawk Automotive Museum!
I think the installation of a class for them really shows Pebble management has an instinct for what was long needed, I don’t think for instance they have had the same treatment for DeTomaso cars which has fewer memorable highlights. I think the pandemic with its cancellation of Pebble for 2020 shows that you can’t always count on events happening like clockwork. If you love a certain car and it’s going to have its own class, you’ve got to go, even if you have to stay at a no-name hotel 100 miles away to be able to handle the Pebble ticket. And the reporting in this story was extra detailed and thorough.