Headquartered in Livorno, Italy Bizzarrini made some beautiful Italian sports cars before ultimately going out of business in 1969. Fortunately, many of those wonderful vehicles still exist today and are in various collections across the world.
This 1968 Bizzarrini Manta was built by famous designer and founder of Ital Design, Giorgetto Giugiaro with help from Giotto to promote and launch Ital Design in 1968. The car features a middle position driver seat and various creative design concepts. The chassis of the car is debatable and neither Bizzarrini nor Giugiaro remember if it was sourced from a period Corvette or the Bizzarrini P538 chassis #3. This particular car went through many evolutions and color combinations before ending up in the teal color shown today by its current owner in the U.S. It is presented here on the lawn at Pebble Beach in 2016.
Bizzarrini S.p.A. was a small Italian car maker founded in 1964 by Giotto Bizzarrini. Bizzarrini was an engineer for companies like Alfa Romeo, Iso and Ferrari before deciding to build his own cars. Giotto came from a privileged family. His father a rich landowner, and his mother a biologist who worked with Guglielmo Marconi, sent Giotto to the University of Pisa in 1953 to get his degree in Engineering. Throughout his engineering career, Giotto helped develop amazing cars like the Ferrari 250 TR and the Ferrari 250 GT. Giotto was eventually fired from Ferrari during the Great Walkout of 1961. Giotto later went on to develop such cars as the Ferrari 250 GT “Breadvan”, the Iso Grifo and Iso Rivolta before founding his company.
