Background
Bubblecar manufacturer Iso joined the ranks of supercar constructors in 1962 with the launch of the Giotto Bizzarrini-designed Rivolta coupé at the Turin Motor Show.
Renzo Rivolta's Isothermos company had begun life pre-war making refrigerators, turning to the manufacture of scooters, under the Iso name, after the war and thence to the highly successful Isetta bubblecar.
Interviewed for Octane magazine (issue 151) Renzo's son Piero recalled that his father liked sports cars but could not find one that really suited him; one that was fast, comfortable and reliable. “He decided that Iso should produce a fast car that was genuinely useable every day, and priced somewhere between a Jaguar and a Ferrari.” The result was the Rivolta.
Styled at Carrozzeria Bertone by Giorgetto Giugiaro and powered by a 327ci (5.4-litre) Chevrolet V8 engine, the four-seat Rivolta employed a steel platform chassis featuring independent front suspension, a De Dion rear axle and disc brakes all round.
Iso's first supercar set the pattern for those that followed: Bizzarrini-designed chassis, Bertone coachwork and Chevrolet engines, its future developments including the long-wheelbase, Ghia-styled Fidia four-door saloon, the muscular, short-wheelbase Grifo and the Rivolta-replacement Lele.
Iso's most successful model, the Rivolta was produced up to 1970, by which time a total of 797 cars had been built.







