VIN: the works Iso Grifo A3/C Corsa chassis B-0210
History of chassis B-0210
Chassis B-0210 was one of two brand new Grifo A3/C Corsas built by Giotto Bizzarrini’s outfit ahead of the 1965 racing season.
The ‘65 campaign started in Florida with the annual Sebring 12 Hour race on March 27th for which the Bizzarrini-Iso squad ran their two new cars: B-0210 and B-0214.
Chassis B-0210 was allocated to Silvio Moser, Mario Casoni and Dave Greenblatt while chassis B-0214 was entrusted to Charlie Rainville and Mike Gammino.
To assist with the logistics of running two cars across the Atlantic, Rino Argento was enlisted to help manage the operation at Sebring; Giotto Bizzarrini would look after B-0210 and Argento would manage the American-crewed B-0214.
An early difference of opinion between the two men occurred when Argento advised Bizzarrini to use Castrol brake fluid (which had a much higher boiling point than the Dunlop product), but Bizzarrini chose to ignore this advice.
Despite having been told not to push too hard in practice, Moser / Casoni / Greenblatt qualified 24th on the 66 car grid and Rainville / Gammino lined up 25th.
The race got underway at 10am in blisteringly hot conditions. However, things did not go well for Silvio Moser in B-0210 which began to experience severe brake fade as its Dunlop brake fluid boiled and evaporated.
During the second hour things came to a head when, on lap 16, Moser’s brakes failed completely as he approached the hairpin. B-0210 flew over a sandbank and into the spectator’s area where it slammed head-first at high speed into a stationary Volkswagen Beetle. With its front end pummelled-in, the brand new car was wrecked and three spectators were slightly injured.
A couple of hours later the sister car B-0214 was also wrecked in an even more spectacular incident when Mike Gammino lost control in torrential rain and smashed sideways into the Mercedes-Benz bridge slicing B-0214 in two behind the cockpit.
Neither B-0210 or B-0214 returned to Italy. The wrecked remains were sold off and eventually grafted together to make one complete car.
Notable History
Iso Rivolta
27/03/1965 WSC Sebring 12 Hours (S. Moser / M. Casoni / D. Greenblat) DNF (#8)
Wrecked during Silvio Moser’s crash at Sebring
Remains sold off while still in the USA
Photo copyright: Paul Rainville & The Henry Ford Archive - https://www.thehenryford.org/
