On the death of Giotto Bizzarrini
05/18/2023
Very few people are granted the privilege of working for even one of the great Italian sports car manufacturers. Giotto Bizzarrini not only worked for four of them, but in some cases even helped them to achieve a breakthrough - or an ambitious downfall.
After developing the 250 GTO into a sports car weapon that was as invincible as it was beautiful, he left Ferrariin 1961 in a dispute and founded the company Automobili Turismo e Sport ( ATS ) together with his five fellow renegades. But the ambitious mid-engine counterattack on the road and circuit failed early on.
But without Bizzarrini's help, another now famous brand might never have existed. The twelve-cylinder engine of the Lamborghini350 GTV, the first sports car prototype from the tractor factory, is attributed to the designer from Livorno - even if it is unclear how great Bizzarrini's creative contribution to the V12 really was.
Renzo Rivolta's sports car plans also only became reality thanks to Giotto Bizzarrini. When the boss and the designer came to blows here too, Bizzarrini realized the racing version of the Iso Grifo under his own name. However, even a version with an Opel engine instead of a Chevy V8 could not compensate for the lack of business acumen of the ingenious engineer.
After his company was dissolved in 1969, Bizzarrini confined himself to theory. He advised other car manufacturers and lectured at the University of Rome. Over the next 50 years, he occasionally designed cars, but none of them made it past the prototype stage. Giotto Bizzarrini died on May 13, 2023 at the age of 96.
