One to Buy: ex-Luis Roussy / Briggs Cunningham 1968 Bizzarrini 5300 GT
/
Despite having been a gifted engineer, Giotto Bizzarrini’s curious decision making and desire to compete at the top level of sports car racing ultimately played a key role in the downfall of his auto making company.
Having fallen out with Enzo Ferrari in late 1961 after four years at the Maranello firm, Bizzarrini later burnt his bridges with Renzo Rivolta who had commissioned the Tuscan maestro to design cars for Iso. The generous severance package negotiated by Rivolta in the summer of 1965 enabled Bizzarrini to become an independent car builder, but as the racey Iso Grifo A3/C became the Bizzarrini 5300 GT, plans were already afoot at the Livorno works to create a costly machine that could win Le Mans.
Somewhat inevitably, Bizzarrini’s company found itself in financial trouble less than three years later and, by 1969, the Livorno firm had closed its doors after only around 130 examples of the 5300 GT had been completed.
Today, these handsome Coupes from the golden age of the Italian Gran Turismo have come to be regarded as among the most sought after vehicles of their era and currently on offer at the Fiskens showroom in London is a particularly fine example: chassis IA3 0305.
Supplied new in 1968 to the President of Nestle, Luis Roussy, chassis IA3 0305 was dispatched from the Bizzarrini works in the elegant and rarely seen combination of Azzuro with Nero upholstery. A year later, the car was acquired by noted sportsman Briggs Cunningham who exported it to the United States where it joined his renowned collection in San Diego.
The car’s most recent custodian acquired it in 1988 and brought it over to the UK where it was beautifully restored around the turn of the century. IA3 0305 is being offered in superb condition throughout with a more tractable 300bhp engine currently installed and the original 365bhp motor included.
