The Iso Grifo Spider: A Mystifying Recent Sighting

by Wallace Wyss –

Iso Grifo Spider Story Part 1

Originally Renzo Rivolta, founder of Iso in Italy, thought an open car would be a good companion for the Iso Grifo coupe. And so a one off Spider was made. It is not known if that too was penned by Giugiaro, then at Bertone. It was a one off that had several features not on the production steel bodied coupes. Among them:

– side vents aft of the rear wheels cut into the fender

– a vertical slot on the front fenders with horizontal “blades” almost hiding vertical exhaust pipes, one per side

– a dull-finished rocker panel; counting slots, ostensibly for exhaust (functional?)

The one off car was sold at some point, later crashed and a new production Grifo nose grafted on. Most people couldn’t tell the difference–but the prototype nose has sharper more defined features. At some point the one off made it to America and the nose was hit like the one off sister car the A3/L coupe. The Spider changed hands several times and the author himself saw it in a Culver City, CA car showroom in the ’80s for $22,000 and decided not to bid because of rust, not realizing it was the only one on Earth. At the present time it is indoors in a building at Por-Fer Auto Wrecking, a junkyard infamous for salting away incredibly valuable cars.

Iso Grifo Spider Story Part 2

I was reading a foreign car show report and saw a picture of a forest green Iso Grifo Spider at a car show in Europe. I was surprised to see it since Iso as a company had folded in 1974. Then flash forward another few decades and I see more pictures of one on the internet, still the same color.

OCTANE magazine, a very slick hi-brow car magazine from England came out with a story in their recent issue on a cut car, this one cut in Germany, and featured in the story is Stuart Parr, a noted architect and classic car dealer. His car does not have the vertical side slit with hidden exhaust or the slotted rocker panel.

Once I saw the car in OCTANE I was on the hunt and able to find the pictures of that Austrian road rally that took place in 2013 and confirm that car in that event had the vertical “hidden exhaust” and the rear fender vents and rocker arm slits.

This Iso Grifo Spider is for sale and his website shows several Grifos, two for sale, and past ones that he owned. It is safe to say he is the only dealer in America stocking Iso Grifos (and one Bizzarrini GT5300 and the only Bizzarrini 2+2).

I am concluding there are now three Iso Grifo Spiders existent, the original and two green Spider converted from coupe, one with all the styling cues of the A3/L coupe the other sans the A3/L design cues listed above.

And so it is. With only a little over 400 Grifos made, you wonder if anyone else will cut one to make the arguably more beautiful Spider. What you lose in originality you make up in rarity.

Or if the company name is ever bought (Renzo’s son Piero is still with us) will the body styling be retained for a new retro model?

At any rate we’re glad to see this fairly faithful conversion.

The late Greg Garrison, a former TV producer (Dean Martin show), owned and restored a variety of unusual cars – including the Iso Grifo Spider. He had a Ferrari 400 Spyder built for him out of a test mule the factory had been working with. I haven’t found out if he showed the Grifo at any event before selling it to the junkyard owner. The Grifo Spider is the kind of car Garrison liked to find, something no one else has.

Let us know what you think in the Comments.

THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is the author of 18 car books. He is co-host of the Autotalk show broadcast weekly out of KUCR-FM Riverside.