Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada – Widescreen Gallery

By Marcel Hundscheid / Speed-O-Graphica.com

Please join us and learn a little about the beautiful Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada from 1965, thanks to this widescreen gallery by Marcel Hundscheid of Speed-O-Graphica.

In his early career, Giotto Bizzarrini built a reputation working with Ferrari and Lamborghini. He went on to work for Iso until 1964, and then moved into developing his own cars.

Bizzarrini, Giorgetto Giugiaro and Renzo Rivolta worked together on Iso’s flagship, the Iso Rivolta 300, using a welded steel monocoque and a American Chevrolet V8-engine. As Renzo Rivolta didn’t want to enter endurance racing with the Rivolta 300 he agreed to develop the Iso Grifo. The Grifo is in fact the precursor of the Bizzarrini 5300 GT and the two are similar in many ways.

In the end the Iso Grifo A3/C and the Bizzarrini 5300 GT turned out to be very much the same, although Bizzarrini broke with Italian tradition for the engine and decided to power the car with the reliable and cheap Chevrolet V8, capable of 365 bhp.

Another aspect was the position of the heavy V8-engine. Bizzarrini decided to put the Chevy V8 back as far as possible to create a perfect weight ratio. He used a 5354 cc longitudinally-mounted Chevrolet V8. Despite the weight of 1250 kgs the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada had a top speed of 280 km/h.