The Iso Grifo was called the Ferrari you could live with. This was a beautifully designed, brilliantly built grand tourer that could match Ferrari and Maserati in looks, but came with a bulletproof American V8 engine that was reliable and easy to work on.
Today, as collectors rediscover the magic of the golden GT era, the Grifo stands tall as one of the most captivating cross-Atlantic collaborations ever built. This car’s creation, engineering philosophy, unmistakable presence, and the American love affair with this automotive phenomenon made it an underground legend.
Origins Of A Cross-Atlantic Icon: How The Grifo Came To Be
The Italian company Iso Rivolta manufactured refrigerators, but owner Renzo Rivolta dreamed of making performance machines, fast motorcycles, and sports cars. His vision was to create a car with Italian styling and mechanical sophistication, but without the fragile complexity or astronomical maintenance costs associated with sports cars of the early sixties. To build his dream, Rivolta assembled the cream of Italian automotive talent. Giorgetto Giugiaro, then a rising star at Bertone, created the overall shape. This car would be low, long, wide, and above all, elegant. Giotto Bizzarrini, former Ferrari chief engineer and one of the creators of the 250 GTO, was in charge of the engineering.
1963 Launch At Turin
The Grifo A3/L prototype was launched at the 1963 Turin Motor Show to wild acclaim. It looked like a futuristic supercar, more imposing and muscular than the Ferraris and Maseratis of the day, with sharp, modern lines, and a long, aggressive nose. Even when parked, the Grifo looked poised, ready to go fast. It was a dramatic car, but practical for everyday driving.
Exotic Style, Familiar Power
The Grifo was new and fresh, and its styling was unique. It turned heads, but perhaps the biggest thing about it was the powertrain. Italian sports car engines of the day were fast and powerful, but they could be temperamental and expensive to run. The Grifo stood out because, from the beginning, it used American V-8 engines.
Buyers could choose between the famous Chevrolet small-block and big-block V-8s, and later, some Ford V-8s as well. These engines were powerful in their own right, but their practicality made the Grifo so attractive in the U.S. market. Italian styling and engineering with American power was a compelling combination.
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Engineering The Perfect GT: Performance, Reliability, And Muscle
The Grifo was described as a car with the soul of a Ferrari, the body of a Bertone masterpiece, and the mechanical reliability of a Corvette. Beneath the Grifo’s sculpted body was engineering ahead of its time. Bizzarrini’s chassis was low, very rigid, and superbly well-balanced. The front/mid-engine layout provided brilliant weight distribution, while the use of American components kept running costs very low, especially when compared to the Ferrari V12s of the day.
Chevy V8 Power
Early Grifo’s used the Chevy small-block V8 with power ranging from 300 to 350 horsepower, depending on the tune. In the era when many European GTs struggled to produce sustained high speeds reliably, the Grifo could cruise at 150 mph for miles on end, roaring along and keeping cool while doing so. The smooth delivery of the small-block was the perfect match for the balanced chassis, and this gave the Grifo a driving feel that even modern drivers can relate to.
But by the late ’60s, there was a serious horsepower war on the go. Ferrari, Maserati, and Lamborghini were adding more and more power to their cars, and the Grifo had to do the same to stay in the game. Its response was the monstrous Chevrolet 454 big-block V8, which made 390 to more than 400 horsepower, as well as loads of torque. This engine was so big, it needed a raised hood called the penthouse to accommodate it. This raised hood gave the Grifo an even more aggressive stance. The big-block Grifos were among the fastest road cars in the world, able to top 170 mph at a time when 160 mph was considered the barrier. Not only could the Grifo go this fast, but it could keep at that speed all day long.
Reliable And Affordable To Drive
Many Italian exotic cars of that era, while beautiful and fast, took a lot of work. They suffered from temperamental carburetors, cooling was often a problem, and their transmissions were often fragile. The American drivetrains used in the Grifo were already proven as reliable, and they came with a ready supply of affordable aftermarket parts, aftermarket support, and industrial durability. The Grifo was that rare exotic sports car that owners felt comfortable driving, not just storing for the odd day out.
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Styling That Stopped Traffic: The Grifo’s Iconic Design
The 1960s and ’70s were among the golden years of sports car designs, and even in this storied company, the Iso Grifo stood out as one of the most visually appealing cars ever made. The shape and proportions were art, showing Giugiaro’s early genius. The Grifo sits seriously low, almost impossibly by today’s standards. Add to that the wide stance, the long, imposing hood, and the compact rear, and you have a car that looks fast even when parked. The Grifo stood out because it looked aggressive from whatever angle it was viewed from.
Futuristic Look
The Grifo had design highlights that made it instantly recognizable, and some of which were used by performance cars years later. The hidden pop-up headlights, sharp fender lines, and flush-fitting glass gave the Grifo a futuristic look. The cabin was trimmed in quality leather and chrome, and it balanced Italian charm with an unusually ergonomic layout. The hood, particularly the higher one needed for the big-block engines, became Grifo’s visual signature. The raised intake bulge set the pattern for modern supercars to use such dramatic visual features to define them.
Refined Muscle Car
During the time the Grifo lived and thrived, the most iconic brand was still Ferrari. Grifo borrowed some of the Ferrari charm with 275 GTB-like elegance, but mixed it with the brutality of the American muscle car. No other carmaker succeeded in finding this difficult balance. The Grifo did not try and be a wannabe Ferrari, but if this car came with the prancing horse badge, it would be one of the most valuable collector’s cars ever.
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The American Obsession: Why The U.S. Bought So Many Grifos
Americans loved cars from Europe. British two-seaters, German luxury sedans and sports cars, and Italian performance cars of all shapes were firm favorites. The Iso Grifo became a cult favorite, and a very high percentage of all Grifos ever made were sold in the US. It is often said that more Grifos were sold than Ferraris in the US, but this is not accurate. Grifo was a very limited-run model, with only around 400 made during the nine-year run of the car from 1965 to 1974.
So more Ferraris than Grifos were sold in the US, but a greater percentage of the Grifos made were sold here. The Iso Grifo has a unique place in automotive history. It is a car that transcends the sum of its parts, not just a beautiful Italian GT crossed with a muscle car, but a unique model that shone briefly, but did not have the financial resources to survive the upheavals of the mid-’70s.
Practical Considerations
If you owned a Ferrari in the ’60s and ’70s, you owned a commitment. Parts were expensive, engines fragile, you needed mechanics with specialized skills, and fixing something that broke could take a lot of time. This made the Grifo irresistible to American buyers because they could get Italian flair with Chevy practicality. The Chevrolet V-8 was seriously mainstream in the US. Any halfway competent mechanic could work on it; parts were cheap and readily available. Grifo owners could enjoy the car without worrying about the costs.
Built There, Bought Here
The Grifo had a weird everyday, any man, character in the U.S., even though it was one of the rarest cars ever made, and priced beyond the reach of anyone except the seriously wealthy. American buyers somehow squared the sum of a car that was rare, beautiful, fast, and expensive, with the same car as not at all pretentious.
American roads were made for the Grifo, and the strong car culture of the ’60s embraced this. The Grifo’s blend of torque and high-speed refinement touched a nerve among US drivers, and the wide open roads and long highway stretches called for a beautiful car that could roar away the miles all day long. So many Grifos were sold in America that the car is still a rarity in Europe, and if you could find one there, it most likely came via the US.
Sources: classicmotorsports.com, Classic.com