Bizzarini 5300 GT Strada Spyder (Targa)

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Company Bizzarrini S.p.A. (1964-1969) was an Italian automotive manufacturer, founded by very talented former Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and ISO engineer for engines, Giotto Bizzarrini (borned in 1926). The company built a small number of highly developed and advanced sport and racing automobiles before failing in 1969. Father of Giotto Bizzarrini was a rich landowner who came from a family with strong roots in Tuscany and the city of Livorno. Bizzarrini graduated as an engineer in the University of Pisa in 1953. He taught briefly before joining Alfa Romeo in 1954. He worked for Alfa Romeo from 1954 to 1957. He began working for Ferrari in 1957, eventually becoming controller of experimental, Sports and GT car development. He worked at Ferrari as a developer, designer, skilled test driver, and chief engineer for five years. Bizzarrini was fired by Enzo Ferrari during the "palace revolt at Ferrari company" of 1961. He became part of Automobili Turismo e Sport (ATS)), a company started by the ex-Ferrari engineers to build a Formula 1 single seater and a GT sport car, the A.T.S. Serenissima. Bizzarrini's engineering company, Societa Autostar, was commissioned to design a V-12 engine for a GT car to be built by another dissatisfied Ferrari customer, Ferruccio Lamborghini. Lamborghini considered the resulting engine to be too highly strung, and ordered that it be detuned. Bizzarrini worked since 1964, for Italian automotive manufacturer Iso, who was producing the iconic Isetta bubble car of the 1950s, and a number of powerful performance cars in the 1960s and early 1970s. His work was to develop a pressed steel frame chassis for Iso cars. Due to the complicated deal with ISO, Bizzarrini left in 1964 and founded Societa Prototipi Bizzarrini (Bizzarrini S.p. A), which produced some 140 cars through 1969 at its Livorno factory. Giotto Bizzarrini was a dedicated race car designer and builder. Mr Bizzarrini is still very busy with personal projects and conferences. He is teaching and collaborating with the Roma University developing advanced projects and designing, building and developing his own sport cars. He often said: "I'm not a car designer, I am a worker". On October 23, 2012, the occasion of the inauguration of the University of Florence new Design Campus in Calenzano, Professor Giotto Bizzarrini was given the Honoris Causa Degree in Industrial Design.