The griffon is a legendary creature with the body, tail and back legs of a lion, while having at the same time the head and the wings of an eagle. It is almost the same story for the Italian car Iso Grifo.
The Grifo was a two-door coupe targa, produced between 1963 and 1974 by the italian car manufacturer Iso Rivolta. It was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Bertone and the mechanical infrastructure was developed by Giotto Bizzarrini, who worked at Ferrari before.
So you will probably ask how the griffon part relates to this Italian sports car. Well, just as the legendary creature, the Iso Grifo has “borrowed” the hood, grille and engine from the American muscle cars, while the rest of the body is pure Italian.
This particular model seen in the video is a Can Am version, and it is powered by a 7-liter Chevrolet Corvette V8 engine producing 435 hp (320 kW), bolted to a three-speed automatic gearbox. In fact, the whole powertrain is American, and it is simple and cheap to run an maintain, making this “hybrid” a very nice car for every day driving.
The noise, “shaker” style hood and hideaway headlight covers, immediately makes you think of an oldschool Corvette, while the rest of the targa body, reminds you of the elegance of European sportcars.
Google News