Ultra-Rare Bizzarrini for Sale, Just in Time for the Holidays.
This Corvette-powered exotic needs a good home.
An unrestored 1966 Bizzarrini 5300 Strada is on sale with only 8907 miles on the odometer. Aston Martin of New England, a dealer in Waltham, Massachusettes, is offering it for $1.65 million.
Red, with a red leather interior, the low-slung exotic has not been on the road since the 1980s. Classic Driver, an international marketplace for cars and other collectibles, described the 51-year-old survivor as a well-documented example of the brand. The car was imported to the U.S. in the late 1970s and multiple marque experts have inspected it. "This Bizzarrini may be the last remaining original unmolested 5300 Strada," Classic Driver noted.
A supercar in its day... and today...the 5300 Strada is the creation of Giotto Bizzarrini, a former chief engineer at Ferrari, who's also worked for Alfa Romeo, Iso Rivolta, Lamborghini and other marques. He ran his own namesake car company from 1964 to 1969 and managed to produce 133 examples of the 5300 Strada in that time. The car is tiny in size, well under four-feet high with a 96.4-inch wheelbase, but Top Speed noted its interior is versatile and luggage space plentiful. It can move too. In period tests, the road-going Strada ("road" in Italian) hit an impressive 161 mph.
Power comes from a contemporaneous Chevrolet Corvette's 327-cubic-inch V8 putting out 365-horsepower. A race version of the Bizzarrini put out around 400-hp and competed in Le Mans.
The car's combination of Italian flair and American muscle was uncommon, but not completely unique. Alejandro de Tomaso employed this approach in creating his Pantera and Mangusta. Giotto Bizzarrini himself used it with the Iso Grifo he had earlier engineered. The Italian-American union had benefits, Road and Track noted that the Bizzarrini's Corvette engine and BorgWarner four-speed transmission were relatively easy to service compared to other exotics.
We hope this particular red exotic finds a good home.
