Bizzarrini 5300 GT Corsa Revival

The Bizzarrini 5300 GT was the first car built by talented Automotive engineer Giotto Bizzarrini under his own name. He was instrumental in the development of the Ferrari 250 GTO, the innovative mid-engined ATS 2500 GT, the Ferrari 250 ‘Breadvan’, the legendary Lamborghini V12 engine and the ISO Grifo A3C, which he used as a basis for his own development. The original Bizzarrini was a high performance version of the Iso Grifo A3C, using a tried and tested V8 engine. This made the 5300 GT as a fast, lightweight, reliable sports car. It is famed for its performance at the 1965 Le Mans 24 hours race. French racing drivers Regis Fraissinet & Jean de Mortemart took the over 5 litre class win, finishing 9

th

overall. It ran at an average speed of 169 km/h. After the race, the car was driven back to base in northern Italy by Giotto Bizzarrini After fifteen years the brand has been revived in 2020, under new ownership. The first Bizzarrini GT Corsa Revival has had its final endurance testing before the first customer cars are finished. Built at Bizzarrini’s dedicated facility in the UK, it is the most authentic replica of the 5300 GT available. It has been built using the original blueprints and used materials from original suppliers, while also adding some improvements for modern safety requirements. The Bizzarrini 5300 GT Corsa Revival series will consist of just 24 hand-built

vehicles. They will be constructed of a lightweight one piece composite carbonfibre body shell, fitted to a steel frame. The original body was made from Glass-fibre, if the Revival vehicle is to be used for historic racing, a glass-fibre body shell will be used, The two seater driver cockpit is protected by a comprehensive six point roll cage and the addition of a safety fuel cell which meets FIA Appendix K historic racing regulations. This makes the car feel more rigid than the original car. The independent rear suspension design is retained from the original, with all round disc brakes. A period-specific 5.3 litre V8 engine powers the vehicle, fitted with Weber 45 DCOE carburettors. This produces over 400 hp. With a weight of just 1250 kg, this gives the Bizzarrini Revival an excellent power to weight ratio. The Revival takes it livery inspiration from the legendary Le Mans car. The dedication to authenticity even extended to the paint. There

are many shades reporting to be Rosso Corsa, so the team managed to track down a paint colour sample from an original panel which had been hidden from light since it

was first painted, which had perfectly preserved the Bizzarrini Rosso Corsa colour. This shade was then colour matched for thew Revival to create Rosso Corsa Bizzarrini 222.

The original car had bespoke independent rear suspension and the front mounted engine was mounted as far back in the chassis as possible. This gave greatly improved weight distribution compared to the front heavy cars of the period. The modern Revival model follows this design layout and modern

measurement shows that each corner carries 25% of the vehicles entire weight. Another improvement was to the cars fuel tank. The original had the fuel tanks were located deep in the sills as well as behind the driver. Now, using advanced 3d scanning, the Bizzarrini engineers have created an intricately shaped tank filling the space in the chassis, to tolerances and accuracy not available to the original engineers. The overall fuel capacity of 95 litres is only marginally less than the original. It also keeps the vehicles range within the requirements for a multiple round race series.