Bizzarrini Manta

Bizzarrini
Bizzarrini Manta next to a Bizzarrini P 538 with factory body
manta
Presentation year:	1968
Vehicle fair:	Turin Motor Show
Class :	Sports car
Body shape :	Coupe
Engine:	Otto engine : 5.4 liters
Height:	1060 mm
Production model:	none

The Bizzarrini Manta is a concept vehicle by the Italian design studio Italdesign , which was presented to the public in 1968. The body designed by Giorgio Giugiaro in the so-called one-box style is considered to be groundbreaking for the design of later mid-engine sports cars. According to the manufacturer, the frame and chassis come from a Bizzarrini P 538 , the engine is a high-volume eight-cylinder from Chevrolet .

History of origin

Italdesign

The creator of the Manta is the Italian industrial designer Giorgio Giugiaro. Giugiaro, born in 1938, had headed the design studio of the body manufacturer Bertone from 1959 and performed the same task at Carrozzeria Ghia from 1965 . After separating from Ghia in early 1967, he first founded the design studio Ital Styling , which only existed for about a year. In order to be able to offer construction services in addition to pure design work in the future, Giugiaro entered into a collaboration with Aldo Mantovani, the long-standing production manager at Fiat . Together they founded the company SIRP (Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi SpA) in February 1968, which was renamed Italdesign that same year. The company's first design study was to be presented at the Turin Motor Show in October 1968.

Bizzarrini

Technical basis: Bizzarrini P 538

The technical basis for Italdesign's first show car came from the Tuscan sports car manufacturer Bizzarrini , which at that time was already in economic difficulties. In 1966, Bizzarrini designed the P 538 racing car as a supplement to the roadworthy GT 5300 sports car , which, contrary to expectations, was only used in two competitions and was no longer legal from 1967 due to far-reaching rule changes. Only four P 538s were built by 1968, one of which was destroyed early. The chassis P 538-003, which Bizzarrini's works team had used in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1966 , was thus overtaken and was for sale. Giugiaro took over the chassis in the summer of 1968. In 45 days, the specialist Autocostruzioni SD built the show car , which was not ready to drive at the time.

Individual sources doubt that the P 538 is the technical basis of the Manta. Some authors see significant technical differences between the P-538 chassis and the ready-to-drive Manta and are therefore of the opinion that the Manta cannot be based on the P-538 chassis. Giugiaro only declared the car as Bizzarrini in order to have a catchy name for his first own show car . Giorgio Giugiaro, however, expressly confirmed in 2008 that the Manta is based on a P-538 chassis. He pointed out that the Manta was only made roadworthy decades after its first exhibition. Technical deviations could therefore also be attributed to this work. Italdesign's website, which is no longer managed by Giugiaro himself, incorrectly names an Iso Grifo - a car with a front engine - as the base vehicle in 2019 .

Exhibitions and further whereabouts

The car was publicly shown in light green paint ("acid green") as the Bizzarrini Manta in October 1968 in Turin, shortly afterwards it appeared, painted red, at the Tokyo Motor Show and then at a fair in Los Angeles . On the way back to Italy, the car disappeared in 1969 and remained missing for about 10 years. It did not appear again until 1980 at an auction by Italian customs. The car was taken over by Giovanni Giordanengo, an operator of an automobile workshop in which counterfeit classic sports cars were repeatedly built. A Swedish collector later bought the Manta, after which the car went to the USA. In the meantime it has been made roadworthy with the participation of Autocostruzioni SD and is shown repeatedly at exhibitions in the USA. After it was painted silver in the meantime, it is now back in its original acid green.

Model name

The model name refers to the manta ray (Italian: Manta). The General Motors -Designer Charles "Chuck" Jordan was the name on in Turin. On his initiative, Opel adopted the term, which Italdesign had not protected, for its large-scale coupé, which was presented a little later .

Model description

One-box design : Bizzarrini Manta in profile

High rear end

A special feature of the only 1.06 m high Bizzarrini Manta is its one-piece body. Because the car body forms a unit when viewed in profile, this form of design is known as a one-box design . The front of the car merges steplessly into the windshield, which in turn merges into the flat roof section. There is another window underneath the windshield in order to increase the clarity towards the front. It is covered by slats that can be opened if necessary. The passenger compartment is set very far forward, while the engine compartment located behind the driver takes up a lot of space. This proportioning underscores the mid-engine concept. A stylistic specialty is the one-piece side window that protrudes far beyond the door stop into the fender area. When the doors are opened, the protruding parts of the panes pivot into the interior of the vehicle. The tapering roof over the rear is glazed. An additional vertical pane of glass is inserted at the rear, which is slightly drawn in downwards.

The Bizzarrini Manta is a three-seater. To the left and right of the driver's seat in the middle there is a seat for the passengers. Pininfarina had already shown this arrangement in 1966 in the Ferrari 365 P Speciale . In the case of the Manta, however, it was less a Ferrari copy than due to the design of the Bizzarrini chassis. Because the P 538 was designed for use in automobile races, the driver's seat was positioned approximately in the middle of the car for optimal weight distribution. Accordingly, the steering column was offset only 7 cm from the central axis. Italdesign did not have time to change this interpretation during the construction phase; That is why the concept of the three-seater with a central driver position emerged from this, which McLaren first implemented in small series in 1993 in the F1 super sports car .

From a technical point of view, the Bizzarrini Manta, similar to the base vehicle from Bizzarrini, has a frame made up of tubes with a round cross-section. In the factory versions of the P 538, the pipes carry the cooling water. As with the regular P 538, an eight-cylinder V-engine from the Chevrolet Corvette C2 with 5.4 liters displacement, which in the Bizzarrini version with four double carburettors developed 420 hp (331 kW), serves as the drive . It is uncertain whether the show car at the exhibition actually had a Corvette engine revised by Bizzarrini.

Importance of design

The Manta is considered to be one of the most important design studies of the 20th century. It is the first car to fully implement the one-box design . This shape shaped the design of numerous mid-engine sports cars in the 1970s and 1980s, but can also be found in minivans . Marcello Gandini implemented the concept in the Lancia Stratos Zero (1970) and the Lamborghini Countach (1971), among others , and Toyota copied it in the EX7 show car presented in 1971 .

Aside from that, Giugiaro reintroduced some features of the Manta design in later designs. The flat roof section can also be found on the Maserati models Bora and Merak designed by Giugiaro , and the rear end is also found in a similar form on the Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint .

literature

Wolfgang Blaube : A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 44 ff.
NN: The Phantom Bizzarrini . In: Sports & Exotic Car, edition 7/2008.
Philippe Olczyk : Bizzarrini & Diomante. The Official History , 3rd edition 2017, ISBN 978-84-697-6659-0
Alessandro Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani , Società Editrice Il Cammello, 2017, ISBN 978-8896796412
Halwart Schrader , Georg Amtmann: Italian sports cars . Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-01988-4 .

Web links

Commons : Bizzarrini Manta - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

↑ From 1967, the prototype class was advertised for closed vehicles. Bizzarrini retrofitted the open P 538 with a plastic roof and gullwing doors, but was not given a starting permit for this version in Le Mans. In 1968 the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI) surprisingly limited the displacement of the prototypes to 3.0 liters. The P 538 did not meet this limit with any of the factory-installed engines that were 4.0 or 5.4 liters. On the whole, see Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 47.
↑ Giovanni Giordanengo is referred to as the "King of Forgers". S. Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 48.

Individual evidence

^ Giorgio Giugiaro: Design Mission for the Automotive Industry . In: Hans-Hermann Braess, Ulrich Seiffert (eds.): Automobildesign und Technik: Formgebung, functionality, Technik , Springer-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 9783834894113 , p. 183.
↑ Alessandro Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani , Società Editrice Il Cammello, 2017, ISBN 978-8896796412 , p. 305.
↑ Model history of the Bizzarrini P 538 on the website radical-mag.com (accessed December 8, 2019).
↑ Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 50.
↑ Italdesign's website (accessed December 8, 2019).
↑ ^a ^b Joe Breeze: Classic Concepts: 1968 Bizzarrini Manta. www.classicdriver.com, July 29, 2012, accessed December 8, 2019 .
↑ Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 48.
↑ Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 47.
↑ Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta. Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 45.
↑ auto catalog No. 14 (1971/72), p. 148.

[3] From 1967, the prototype class was advertised for closed vehicles. Bizzarrini retrofitted the open P 538 with a plastic roof and gullwing doors, but was not given a starting permit for this version in Le Mans. In 1968 the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI) surprisingly limited the displacement of the prototypes to 3.0 liters. The P 538 did not meet this limit with any of the factory-installed engines that were 4.0 or 5.4 liters. On the whole, see Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 47.

[8] Giovanni Giordanengo is referred to as the "King of Forgers". S. Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 48.

[1] Giorgio Giugiaro: Design Mission for the Automotive Industry . In: Hans-Hermann Braess, Ulrich Seiffert (eds.): Automobildesign und Technik: Formgebung, functionality, Technik , Springer-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 9783834894113 , p. 183.

[Sannia_305-2] Alessandro Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani , Società Editrice Il Cammello, 2017, ISBN 978-8896796412 , p. 305.

[radical-mag-4] Model history of the Bizzarrini P 538 on the website radical-mag.com (accessed December 8, 2019).

[Blaube_50-5] Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 50.

[6] Italdesign's website (accessed December 8, 2019).

[Breeze-7] Joe Breeze: Classic Concepts: 1968 Bizzarrini Manta. www.classicdriver.com, July 29, 2012, accessed December 8, 2019 .

[9] Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 48.

[10] Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 47.

[11] Wolfgang Blaube: A fish called Manta. Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 45.

[12] uto catalog No. 14 (1971/72), p. 148.