The Iso Rivolta name is back

With just 19 examples of Zagato’s revived Iso Rivolta scheduled for production – with nine already pre-sold, the first due for customer delivery in October – the svelte new GTZ has been designed as a tribute to the original 1963 ISO A3/C, a Goodwood Revival race regular that is more commonly known in its later Bizzarrini GT 5300 form.

Like the Giotto Bizzarrini engineered and Giorgetto Giugiaro styled 1963 original, Zagato’s new Iso (price still t.b.a.) will combine handcrafted Italian coachwork with roar American V8 grunt; the new model using a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 platform with its 6.2-litre supercharged V8 engine, mated to a lightweight carbon-fibre Berlinette body.

A clear homage to Bizzarrini’s original A3/C, Zagato’s purposeful new GTZ borrows a number of key styling cues from the 1963 model. These include snorting front split air vents and bonnet induction intakes, a truncated Kamm tail with twin rear circular lamp units, plus air scoops positioned on each side of the rear windows to draw air from under the car to help cool the brakes and improve the car’s air flow.

Zagato’s planned October reintroduction of Iso Rivolta will be at least the fifth attempt at reviving the Italian marque since the exclusive sports car maker’s demise in 1974. Founded by Renzo Rivolta in 1953 to initially produce refrigerators, scooters and the original Isetta bubble car (the production rights to which were quickly sold to BMW), Iso Rivolta’s first expensive sports car was revealed in 1963, the Corvette-powered IR300 GT coupe.

Following Iso’s 1974 bankruptcy, the Company’s Lele GT coupe model was briefly continued by Enzeta, with this venture only lasting until 1978. In 1993, the distinctive Iso Rivolta griffin logo and name briefly reappeared on the stillborn Grifo 90 concept car, with another prototype and failed revival attempt in 1996. In 1998 Zagato presented a cute Iso IsiCity microcar prototype with the marque name making yet another brief comeback in 2017 via the Milanese styling studio’s Iso Rivolta Vision GT Zagato concept. Hopefully this time around the Iso Rivolta name will be here to stay, and we look forward to seeing the first GTZ production car this coming October.