Iso Grifo GL: a waiting game

By Nigel Boothman

| 23 Nov 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Iso Grifo GL: a waiting game

The Iso Grifo has a powerful effect on some people.

The owner of this car, Peter Wolfers, only had to see a few photos in Classic and Sportscar to start searching for one.

Blame Mike McCarthy, who drove the Grifo belonging to Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi for the May 1983 issue.

More recently, the Grifo was described as ‘one of the sexiest GT cars of the 1960s’ in a Classic & Sports Car rundown of Giorgetto Giugiaro’s finest designs, and the model always pops up when motoring journalists are asked to pick an all-time favourite – as it did when new.

The epic saga of one enthusiast’s lengthy revival of his dream Iso Grifo

Take, for example, the usually objective John Bolster, writing in Autosport in 1967: ‘I felt it was the best car I had ever driven.

‘It was supremely beautiful, it had supreme roadholding and above all it had extremely high speed combined with aerodynamic stability. Yet the machine behaved perfectly in the heaviest traffic.’

He also mentions the ‘almost complete suppression of exhaust noise’, leading you to wonder what all those years of unsilenced Specials at Shelsley Walsh had done to his hearing.

Iso Grifo script on the bootlid

When Peter squirts the Grifo past our photographer along this quiet Essex lane, it isn’t putting me in mind of the reading room at a monastery, it’s transporting me to the paddock at the Le Mans Classic, watching a Bizzarrini 5300GT light its tyres and come thundering out to the assembly area.

There’s something about a tuned Chevrolet small-block V8 that’s tricky to disguise, even with silencers intended for street use.

This one is a high-compression version with a promised 350bhp.

That’s impressive enough even if it’s only a net figure at the flywheel, as was the custom in the United States at the time.

The Iso Grifo GL’s rebuilt 350bhp Chevrolet V8

The sound it creates is such a contrast with the car’s svelte, sensuous looks.

It’s a fabulous design: shapely and lifted by jewel-like details, but with a muscularity that hints at what’s hidden.

If it were British, it would sound quieter, more subdued, probably a straight-six; if it were entirely Italian, there would be a busy, musical V12 or a multi-cam V8 – but, of course, Iso always used American engines.

This Iso Grifo GL is one of just 31 right-hand-drive examples

Chevrolet Corvette motors were a long way from Renzo Rivolta’s daily stock-in-trade in the 1950s.

His company had done very well manufacturing household refrigerators and heaters, then it branched out to build scooters and small motorcycles, which provided an engine for an innovative bubble car in 1953.

This, the Isetta, earned Rivolta a handsome income when BMW licensed the design and, by the end of the 1950s, he was yearning to make a much larger, faster car.

Rivolta found ideal assistance in the form of Giotto Bizzarrini, whose sacking by Enzo Ferrari for his part in the ‘palace revolt’ of October 1961 proved very timely.

The Iso Grifo GL has four round headlamps

Bizzarrini specified the chassis and suspension layout that would serve all of Iso’s road cars, with some adaptations, until the end of their run in 1974.

The first Iso Rivolta IR 300 arrived in 1962 with a 327cu in (5.4-litre), Corvette-sourced engine, a handsome three-box shape and four seats.

The Grifo A3L entered production in 1965, and the company’s kudos soared with that superb fastback body, a shorter wheelbase, lower stance and more performance.

This time Iso was not aiming at the Lancia/Jaguar niche, as the IR 300 had.

This Iso Grifo GL’s side grilles went AWOL after a paintshop debacle

In the UK, in June 1966 and after 20% Purchase Tax, a Grifo cost £5950, which was some £300 more than the Maserati Mistral, £1000 more than an Aston Martin DB6 and only £23 less than a Ferrari 275GTB.

A bold proposition, then, to say the least.

Lift the bonnet of those three rivals and you were greeted by thoroughbred engines with upstairs camshafts and multiple carburettors, not a pushrod V8 that was only a few tweaks away from powering a pick-up truck.

Others tried the formula and failed: the almost equally gorgeous Gordon-Keeble died from a terminal gap in the company’s cashflow in 1966, despite offering an identical recipe of Giugiaro styling and a Corvette V8 for £2000 less than the Grifo.

The Iso Grifo GL, styled by Giugiaro, was pitched boldly against far better-established and more upmarket rivals, but carved its own niche

Yet the Iso’s European sales reach, plus the wonderful styling, did just enough to keep the numbers ticking along.

The average production for the small-block Grifo works out at about one a week over what would be a nine-year run.

Of that total of 414 examples manufactured across two series, only 31 were built in right-hand drive, one of which is the car you see here.

It was signed off by the works on 10 June 1966 and landed on UK shores five days later. From there the history is lacking.

This Iso Grifo GL’s superb interior was ultimately worth the three-and-a-half-year wait for the trimmer to complete the work

Peter believes that the car was upgraded to a factory 350bhp specification some time in 1967, and he would love to hear from anyone with memories of this Grifo before it passed to Watford-based Concorde pilot Bill Dick, more than a decade later.

Peter found the car in 1986. “Looking back, I was a bit too fussy about specification, but I was young and headstrong,” he says.

“I test drove a lovely 300bhp example with a two-speed Powerglide automatic ’box, but I wanted a 350bhp car, ideally a five-speed manual, and this one ticked the boxes.”

Towing the Iso Grifo home – with a Fiat Uno! – in 1986 (left); all smiles at first, but the car needed more attention than originally anticipated

That was about all it did. Dick had taken the engine and gearbox out to replace the clutch, and in doing so he discovered some structural corrosion.

An attempted theft meant the side windows had been smashed, the steering lock broken and the fuel filler damaged.

The price? Just £5000, which sounds tempting until Peter points out that the going rate for a good one in 1986 was £8-9000.

But, with Peter and his wife-to-be having bought a derelict schoolhouse that needed lots of work, it had to be this one.

The Iso Grifo GL’s fuel-filler cap

By the mid-1990s, Peter had amassed the funds to invoke the skills of Chris Lawrence of Wymondham Engineering, renowned creator and repairer of exotic bodywork.

Lawrence quoted a worst-case sum of £10,500 to fix the extensive rust, but when the task was complete the bill had soared to £30,000.

Today, Peter is philosophical about this, and he recognises the high standard of the work and the near impossibility of buying body panels, even through Italian Iso specialist Negri.

The Iso Grifo GL is stable at speed and happiest in fast, sweeping bends

“Realistically, it was well spent,” he says. “Any rust was cut out and fixed – new boot floor, box sections under the wings, inner wheelarches and the whole of the front of the car.

“Both front wings and the nose were created by Chris on his English wheel.

“I went to Negri to see what they could supply, and they quoted an amount in lire with so many zeros I didn’t pursue it… But they became good friends and were very helpful over the following years.”

Those would be long years: the huge bill not only crippled Peter’s savings, but also cooled his enthusiasm for the project.

‘It has plenty of torque and is dramatically fast, with a battering soundtrack that’s pure Le Mans or Goodwood’

He had been assembling parts – items as large as aluminium cylinder heads came back in his hand luggage during frequent work trips to California for his employer, Lockheed – but it took many years to recover the willpower to push things onward.

“I realised in 2012 that if I didn’t get on with it, I might never drive the car,” he recalls.

“I began doing the bits I could and eventually, in 2017, I handed the engine over to Mass Racing in Cambridgeshire for a rebuild.”

Bar the lighter aluminium heads and minor changes to guarantee good behaviour on modern petrol, this refreshed the engine to standard 350bhp specification.

The Iso Grifo GL has Veglia dials

The worn-out Holley four-barrel carburettor was replaced by a new one, the points were swapped for Hall-effect ignition and the old choke mechanism with a flap projecting into the exhaust was discarded.

Getting the bodyshell painted proved to be a somewhat more fractured process: the first specialist Peter chose suffered some personal problems in the middle of the job and had his workshop repossessed by the landlord, which meant four weekends’ work for Peter as he hunted down bits of the Iso.

“Everything was there for a trial fit, but luckily I’d photographed every piece I took to him, and I found all but five of the parts,” he recalls.

This Iso Grifo GL’s interior is good as new

“The fins for the grilles on the flanks are individually shaped to fit the apertures, and they turned up in a box of dishwasher tablets.”

Peter found a specialist near Cambridge to finish the paint and underseal the body, giving better protection than it had ever enjoyed when new.

With the work finally done, he began rebuilding the suspension and electrics, while the interior went to a trimmer in Leeds who produced a beautiful job – eventually.

The Iso Grifo GL’s low ride height accentuates its long-nosed profile

“Five months turned into three and a half years,” says Peter, ruefully. “But I had waited a long time to get the car right, and that’s life.

“Meanwhile, I stripped every single mechanical and electrical item on the Grifo. I dismantled all the switches and cleaned the contacts, restored them, reassembled them.

“Same thing with the motors, window winders, door catches and so on. I went back to first principles for the torsion bars that lift the bonnet, did the calculations and had them made.

“Most Grifo bonnets either fly up too rapidly or won’t rise at all – this one rises smoothly.”

The Iso Grifo GL’s badge was specially commissioned

This attention to detail soon grew legs, in a manner of speaking.

Peter copied the stitching pattern for the underbonnet insulation blanket using ironing-board-cover material and scrim foam, attaching it with a high-temperature contact adhesive, and now he makes them for other Grifo owners.

Something similar happened with the badges: Peter’s son works for The Cambridge Building Society and found out who made the enamel badges worn by the counter staff.

This turned out to be a firm in Birmingham, which was able to reproduce the ‘Iso MILANO’ badges, 76 pairs of which now adorn other Iso models all around the world.

Owner Peter Wolfers’ DiY bonnet insulation resulted in a small-scale business opportunity

What with making a new wiring loom, waiting aeons for dashboard instruments to be refurbished and reconstructing the car from its stripped-down state, the Grifo wasn’t back on the road until 2023.

The following year it made a tentative entry on to the show circuit and immediately picked up prizes, including the Classic & Sports Car Editor’s Award at the London Concours in the summer.

Peter never expected to rival the big-name professional restorers, and perhaps a nit-picker could detect minor differences, but, as we know, a Grifo exerts a strange power over observers.

As it does in the cabin. It’s so pretty in here that I wonder if actually starting and driving this car is where it’s all going to go wrong. What could live up to such promise?

The Iso Grifo GL only has two seats, but decent boot space

Astonishingly, the driving experience is no let-down after the looks, and neither is there any sense you’re missing out by not having an exotic, highly strung V12.

A bit of throttle helps the V8 burst into life, and it feels like any 350bhp small-block must do: a little grumpy, but with the certain knowledge that you have a choice either to exercise great caution, or unleash a tiger.

The stubby gearlever reveals a pleasingly precise gate, the clutch is weighty but not impossible and there’s a little judder on take-up, unless you’re bold and don’t mind a neck-whipping launch.

It has plenty of torque everywhere and, when given its head, is dramatically fast.

Our May 1983 issue inspired Peter Wolfers to buy this Iso Grifo GL

Extend the revs in second and third gears and you’re well past 100mph, with a battering, blaring soundtrack that’s pure Le Mans Classic or Goodwood from inside the cabin, as much as it is outside.

Powerful 1960s machines from low-volume manufacturers can be alarming to drive, so you have to credit Iso and, of course, Bizzarrini for knowing their business.

The de Dion rear suspension, aided by the low ride height, is well planted and builds confidence as speeds increase.

It’s far happier sweeping through long bends at 60, 70mph and more than it is negotiating tight corners at half those speeds.

The Iso Grifo GL’s svelte but muscular lines

The brakes are good enough for you not to make allowances for them and it rides pretty well, better in this regard – and in handling – than another key rival, the Jensen Interceptor.

And, if you’re planning an impromptu weekend away in St Moritz, the Grifo might not claim any plus-two rear seats, but it at least rivals the Interceptor for boot space.

It’s a sporty, satisfying, capable, practical, beautiful, blisteringly fast mile-muncher.

When you put it like that, there’s no mystery at all about the Grifo’s effect on people.

Images: Max Edleston

Factfile

Iso Grifo GL

Sold/number built 1965-’74/413 (all variants)
Construction steel body, steel chassis
Engine iron-block, alloy-heads, ohv 5354cc V8, Holley four-barrel carburettor
Max power 350bhp @ 5000rpm
Max torque 360lb ft @ 4000rpm
Transmission five-speed ZF manual, RWD via limited-slip differential
Suspension: front independent, by double wishbones rear de Dion axle, trailing links, Watt linkage; coils, telescopic dampers f/r
Steering worm and nut
Brakes discs, with servo
Length 14ft 6in (4430mm)
Width 5ft 10in (1770mm)
Height 4ft 3in (1200mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 2in (2489mm)
Weight 3197lb (1450kg)
Mpg 14
0-60mph 6.2 secs
Top speed 160mph
Price new £5950 (1966)
Price now £350-500,000*