I saw this car race at Goodwood last year at the Revival, getting hit but carrying on nevertheless. Nothing stirs up the night on a race track quite like the roar and reflections of the Iso Bizzarrini A3C Corsa.
As you probably know, Giotto Bizzarrini was working for Alfa Romeo before ending up at Ferrari, where he created the most famous race car of the sixties, the 250 GTO. Of course things couldn’t work out with Enzo for too long, so Bizzarrini went on to create the 250 TR Drogo and the 250 SWB Breadvan next door, both of which were faster than Ferrari’s GTOs. In 1965, he started building speed machines for Iso, only to fell out with Piero Rivolta as well, badging his cars as Bizzarrinis afterwards.
I’ll let DK Engineering explain what they have on offer here:
This car was built at the end of 1965 when Piero Rivolta and Bizzarrini fell out and therefore, although much of the car would have been built alongside other ISO A3C’s, it was originally badged as a Bizzarrini. This is evident due to the fact that it was originally intended to have 4 rear lights but was subsequently changed to have just 2 rear lights. Shortly after production was completed, the car was exported to California, where it remained until 2002. It was repatriated to Europe when purchased by the current owner and sent to his race preparer for a total restoration to a ‘Corsa’ specification with one thing in mind, to win! As such it has since been fine-tuned and had considerable success on the European historic race circuits.
The car has been restored to the specification of first ISO A3C Corsa, which raced in early 1964. It now weighs just 1089kg, thanks to the correct thin gauge aluminium body and the great attention and detail paid to weight-saving when restoring the car. It is also worth noting that any original part that was replaced during the rebuild has been carefully retained which includes all interior trim and bright work etc.
All I can say is that this is what it looks like when it’s beating a Ferrari 250 GTO in its natural habitat:
One other factor you should be aware of before selling all your children, real estate and other cars to get this is the Corsa’s interior. Lightweight or not, it has the nicest leather your racing suit could ask for. Because you’re worth it.
For more very good reasons, head of over to DK Engineering’s gallery.
Contact the author at mate@jalopnik.com.