Hankering for an Italian exotic with an American drivetrain? You have a few choices, and here’s one, on eBay, a 1965 Iso Rivolta IR 340, with an asking price of $139,000. This car is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, and you can drive it home. The genesis of Iso was Isothermos, which made heaters and refrigerators before WWII, then turned to scooters to boost profits fast after the war. Run by Renzo Rivolta, Iso shifted as the market matured, creating the Isetta – barely more than an enclosed motorcycle. When the car didn’t sell well in Italy, Rivolta licensed it overseas, turning the project into a success, particularly in the hands of BMW. As the market for microcars diminished in the mid-1950s, Rivolta moved on to his next act, making niche grand touring cars. The Iso Rivolta IR 300 was the first of these, arriving in 1962. Powered by a 300 hp Corvette engine, with a body penned by Giugiaro at Bertone, and engineered by Bizzarrini, fewer than 800 found homes. Thanks to Jonny for finding this Italian-American!
Rivolta chose the Chevrolet 327 cu. in. V8 with a 10.5:1 compression ratio to power his IR 300. For this car – the 340 – compression was boosted to 11.5:1, increasing horsepower to 340. A four-speed manual rounds out the drivetrain, though a Powerglide automatic was available. Recent work includes new brakes, a new stainless steel exhaust, new suspension bushings, new headers, a rebuilt carburetor, a new fuse box, and new tires. This car spent several decades in Switzerland before being acquired by a Canadian collector, and fifteen years ago, the current seller. In all that time, it accumulated only 35,537 miles.
The Rivolta was an expensive car with high-quality finishes in and out. The many Veglia gauges marked “Iso” are a hint that this is no low-dollar car. The wood dash, leather seats, and three-spoke Nardi-style steering wheel are all in decent shape, with minor fraying here and there. The rear seats are in fine shape, but the door panels need a bit of help.
The car’s underside shows a hint of trouble. The rust along the seam edges bothers me, although – for context – rust makes me apoplectic while it doesn’t phase other collectors. An in-person inspection could generate more confidence than the suite of undercarriage photos in the listing – or not. Meanwhile, flaws and all, the seller’s price is probably not out of line. The majority of Iso production was represented by the 300 variant; only 167 340s were made and these rarely become available. If you must have one this minute, you’ll either be buying this one or spending a lot more over in Europe.
If cars were people, this would’ve been Claudia Cardinale. Beautiful but angry, alluring Soto voce, a mix of backgrounds to make everyone and everything else in view just fail to register on the senses..
“Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin’ alive…” Sorry. There was a whole cottage industry back then, stuffing American V8s into small Italian or English cars, huh?
Yes! While this was a manufacturer’s car, I understand that in California, plenty of custom shops swapped troublesome Italian engines out of celebrities’ cars to replace them with good old American iron. Today we cringe but back then it was a bona fide business.
Back in the day when cars were for driving.
“Many” Ferraris that raced in the USA in the 1950s-60s, when they blew their engines they installed chevy engines as the time and expense of shipping another engine from Italy was too much.
Check out the book “Bowtie Ferraris”
Thanks, I have been looking on the world wide web (ha ha) everywhere for things like “american engines in italian exotics” and “chevy engines in exotics, california” and haven’t had any luck. What I really want is a compendium of the shops that did this work back in the day. I will order “Bowtie Ferraris” – sounds like just what I am looking for. Really appreciate the tip!
In this case, the car was developed to use an American V8 as original equipment, rather than an aftermarket reliability/power swap for some other native mill. There was a somewhat short-lived trend of Italian cars developed this way, perhaps most notably by DeTomaso but also others such as Bizzarrini, Intermeccanica, etc.
And non-Italian like the Jensen Interceptor.
Yes very nice, cool and rare. But that kind of money can get you so much more, like a new Vette. Be sure to check out the sellers other items.
Looks and power to match. This beautiful car is anything but “Rivolting”
The front end has always reminded me of a Rambler American mixing it up with a Javelin and losing
Spot on.
Sadly, Giotto Bizzarrini just passed away at the age of 96.
Corvette engine – easy fix. But how will you get parts for everything else???
I think it was Bizzarini who chose the Chevy engine, not Rivolta. Though the Iso Rivolta only emerged after the partners had rigorously examined the English Gordon GT, also Chevy powered and styled by Giugario.
Rivolta and Bizzarini rejected that design because of its glass fibre body, but it beat Rivolta to the market commercialised as Gordon-Keeble GT.
Bizarrini really wanted to build racers and Rivolta did not. After the Grifo 2 seater, and the A3C race car, the pair split and Bizzarini took over the race car project.
Don’t think you’d need to pay $140K for a red Rivolta in Europe though. And the Gordon-Keeble is acknowledged to be better and less expensive if you can find one of the 99 made (all RHD, I think)
Resembles BMW 507 Roadster!
Notorious for rust and this one looks like no exception. Suspect much is hiding under the pretty red paint.
When I owned an Iso Rivolta, they were still considered quite homely and were universally unloved. Funny to see how tastes have changed over the past several years! I paid $13k for my Iso 2007 when it was listed on ebay. I’d love to own another, but not sure if I’d be willing to pay $139k to get another Iso into my garage…
Ended: May 15, 2023 , 1:00PM
Price:
US $139,000.00
I have an Iso Rivolta IR300 and IR340 Use and maintenance manual. It’s a Xerox copy but would be glad to sell it as they must be pretty rare.