Iso Lele

Iso Rivolta
	Iso Lele
Lele
Production period:	1969-1974
Class :	Upper class
Body versions :	Coupe
Engines:	; Petrol engines : 5.3-5.8 liters ; (224-265 kW)
Length:	4650 mm
Width:	1750 mm
Height:	1350 mm
Wheelbase :	2740 mm
Empty weight :	1610 kg

The Iso Lele (also: Iso Rivolta Lele and Lele IR6 ) was a sports coupé built from 1969 to 1974 by the Italian manufacturer Iso Rivolta . The strikingly designed Lele was available with Chevrolet and Ford engines. It was the last new model that Iso presented before production was discontinued due to bankruptcy in 1974.

background

The Lele goes back to a one-off that Iso produced for an American customer in 1969. On the technical basis of the Iso Rivolta 300 , Marcello Gandini designed a stylistically independent hatchback coupé for Bertone . The vehicle was exhibited at the Turin Motor Show in 1969 and received an unexpectedly high level of approval, so that Piero Rivolta, who had taken over the management of the company after the death of his father in 1966, decided to go into series production.

The Lele was available from May 1970; the first copy with the chassis number 500001 was completed on May 2, 1970. The name of the car was a tribute to Piero Rivolta's wife Rachele, who was commonly called "Lele".

In the model range of the Iso brand, the four-seater Lele was positioned between the two-seater high-performance sports car Grifo and the four-door sedan Fidia . He took the position of the IR 300 presented in 1963, whose production Iso stopped a few months after the Lele was presented.

Structure and technology

The body

Iso Lele in profile

The essentially new thing about the Lele was the body. The lines were a mixture of curves and acute angles. The front section featured double headlights, half of which were concealed under a flap integrated into the bonnet. When activated, the lid lifted slightly. This design feature was later adopted for the revised Iso Grifo and then copied by various competitors. Thus, half concealed headlights also found on Lamborghini Jarama , also a Gandini design, also on a design by Pietro Frua for a second series of the Maserati Quattroporte and finally to an individual piece of AC Cars , called 429 , which on a Monteverdi High Speed 375 -based and was also designed by Frua. Lele's sideline was also remarkable. The waistline first lowered from the high side posts and then rose again at the stern. This motif was repeated on a side bead and also on the line of the bumpers. The vehicle ended with a sweeping hatchback into which a small trunk lid was integrated. Finally, the taillights came from the first series Fiat 124 Coupé. The rear design thus corresponded to that of the Iso Fidia .

The interior was particularly elegant, making an extremely valuable impression through the lavish use of leather and the clever use of subtle wood inlays. This interior design was adopted shortly afterwards for the Iso Fidia sedan. However, the somewhat random placement of the sharp-edged levers and switches was criticized in the press. The Lele Marlboro and Lele Sport models had a different dashboard.

The technology

Used from 1972: Ford Cleveland V8

Chassis and chassis largely corresponded to the Iso Rivolta IR 300. With regard to the engines, the Lele went through the same development as the Grifo and the sedan Fidia: After initially installing Chevrolet engines, Iso switched to eight-cylinder engines from Ford in 1971 . This was due to repeated Isos payment difficulties and the fact that General Motors demanded payment on receipt of the order.

There were different power levels that could be combined with different axle ratios. The 7.0 or 7.4 liter versions of these engines used in the Iso Grifo were not available in the Lele. The following engine and transmission versions were available:

Iso Lele 300 with a 304 SAE-hp 5.3 or 5.8 liter Chevrolet V8 ( Chevrolet Corvette Turbofire 327) and a manual four-speed gearbox from Chevrolet or an automatic three-speed gearbox from General Motors .
Iso Lele 350 with a 5.3 or 5.8 liter Chevrolet V8 ( Chevrolet Corvette Turbofire 327) tuned to 335 or 350 hp and a manual four-speed gearbox from Chevrolet or a manual five-speed gearbox from ZF Friedrichshafen .
Iso Lele IR6 with a 330 SAE-PS Ford -Cleveland-V8 (5.8 liters), combined with a manual five-speed transmission from ZF Friedrichshafen or a Cruise-O-Matic three-speed automatic from Ford.
Iso Lele Sport or Iso Lele Marlboro with a Cobra-Jet eight-cylinder from Ford and a manual five-speed gearbox from ZF Friedrichshafen .

In addition, the Lele used numerous other technical components from different suppliers. The differential was obtained from Salisbury , the steering column corresponded to that of the Fiat 130 .

The versions

The basic model

The base vehicle was initially sold as the Iso Rivolta Lele. From 1971 the model got the addition IR6 , without anything - apart from that - having changed.

The Lele Marlboro

In 1973 a version called Lele Marlboro appeared with a more powerful engine. This version was developed by Giotto Bizzarrini and Giuseppe Caso. The engine has been revised; this particularly affected the inlet and outlet ducts. The factory specified the engine power as 360 hp. At the same time, the weight of the Lele was reduced by dispensing with insulating material and a lighter interior, which mainly consisted of a simpler dashboard. The bumpers were made of plastic, and on the front end, Caso and Bizzarrini installed a simple but eye-catching black front spoiler. The Lele Marlboro version was intended to make a direct reference to the Formula 1 appearance initiated at the same time by Iso Rivolta, which the plant undertook together with the British racing team Frank Williams Racing Cars and the cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris International in the 1973 season . Early advertising photos showed Piero Rivolta and Frank Williams next to a (albeit normally equipped) Lele, later pictures were taken showing a Lele Marlboro together with the racing driver Arturo Merzario and an Iso-Marlboro IR1 Formula 1 vehicle .

By the end of Formula 1 involvement, only a few copies of the Lele Marlboro were made, which were primarily delivered to representatives of Philip Morris. In the motorsport literature, a range of two to five copies is mentioned. One of the vehicles was delivered to Formula 1 racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi .

Iso Lele Sport

Lele Sport , presented in 1974, continued the concept of the Lele Marlboro. Technically, the car corresponded to the Lele Marlboro in almost every detail. It was available to general customers at a very high original price; In view of the oil crisis, which reached its peak in 1974 and caused the demand for high-performance sports cars to fall sharply, only a few vehicles were built. Taken together, around 20 copies of the Lele Marlboro and the Lele Sport were created.

The British automobile magazine Car tested a Lele Sport in the summer of 1974. The testers questioned the accuracy of the performance information published by the factory and, in view of the measured acceleration values, were of the opinion that the actual value was less than 300 hp. The driving behavior was described as "lively, but not uncomfortable". The engine "reluctantly" exceeds the level of 5,400 revolutions per minute, but the maximum output is delivered at 5,800 revolutions per minute. The powertrain of the tested vehicle was faulty. The testers complained about jolts and noises during load changes, and after running 7,000 miles the clutch broke. Overall, the testers thought the Lele Sport was a disappointing car.

In the spring of 2011, one of the rare Lele Sports was put up for sale at £ 52,000.

The production numbers

The Lele was not a commercial success. In total, no more than 295 vehicles in all versions were produced between 1969 and 1974. The production numbers are distributed as follows:

1969: 1
1970: 59
1971: 42
1972: 70
1973: 86
1974: 27
unknown: 9
not completed: 16 (including 500317 completed in 1976)
1976: 1

Production numbers of the different versions:

Prototype Chevrolet 5.3 liter engine (300 hp): 1
Chevrolet 5.3 liter 300 hp engine: 42
Chevrolet 5.3 l engine (350 hp): 6
Chevrolet 5.8 liter 300 hp engine: 74
Chevrolet 5.8 L engine (350 hp): 4th
Ford 5.8 l engine (325 hp): 129
Ford 5.8 l engine (360 hp) "Sport": 24
Ford 5.8 l engine (360 hp) "Marlboro": 5
Configuration unknown: 9
Unfinished bodies: 16 (including FGN 500317)

The Ennezeta Lele

Former ISO employees Roberto Negri and Maurizio Zanisi founded Ennezeta Srl in Paderno Dugnano , 5 km from Iso's old factory in Bresso , in 1976 and manufactured a few of the Grifo , Fidia and Lele models until 1979 .

literature

Georg Amtmann, Halwart Schrader: Italian sports cars. (From Abarth and Alfa Romeo to Vignale and Zagato. Brands, history, technology, data). Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-01988-4 .
Mel Nichols: Exotica's Black Sheep ... or unsung trailblazer? Test Iso Lele Sport. Car, issue 8/1974, p. 32 ff.
Frank Oleski and Hartmut Lehbrink: Series sports cars . 1983.

Web links

Commons : Iso Lele - collection of images, videos and audio files

isoclub.de Isoclub Germany, association for research and documentation of the brands Iso and Bizzarrini, non-profit association

isorivoltaclub.de German-language website with information on Iso Rivolta

IsoRegister.de interest group "7 Litri" for Iso Grifo, Rivolta, Lele etc.

ibics.ch , Iso & Bizzarrini Interest Circle Switzerland.

isorivolta.reckel.de Private website (under construction), mainly for Iso Rivolta Lele.

Individual evidence

^ Martin Buckley: A hybrid for heroes - Grifo . In: Classic & Sports Cars, issue 11/1994.
↑ Road Test: Iso Lele Automatic . In: Classic Cars, issue 9/1974.
↑ Arturo Merzario, the Iso-Marlboro IR1 and an Iso Lele: Image at www.ibics.ch ( Memento from October 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on October 23, 2013).
↑ ^a ^b Rob Scorah: Italian Stallion. Iso Rivolta Lele Sport . In: Classic Cars . No. 6 , 2011, p. 64 ff .
↑ Mel Nichols: Exotica's Black Sheep ... or unsung trailblazer? In: Car . No. 8 , 1974, p. 31 ff .
^ Sales advertisement from May 2011 on the website www.auto-invest.co.uk (accessed on May 15, 2011).
↑ Figures on production and variants are taken from handwritten notes from the review of Iso Rivolta factory documents by Winston Goodfellow (author of "ISO RIVOLTA The Men, The Machines, ISBN 8879111485 ") and Chris Lackner
↑ ^a ^b Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .
^ ^A ^b Nick Georgano: The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 (English)

[1] Martin Buckley: A hybrid for heroes - Grifo . In: Classic & Sports Cars, issue 11/1994.

[2] Road Test: Iso Lele Automatic . In: Classic Cars, issue 9/1974.

[3] Arturo Merzario, the Iso-Marlboro IR1 and an Iso Lele: Image at www.ibics.ch ( Memento from October 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on October 23, 2013).

[ClassicCars-2011-4] Rob Scorah: Italian Stallion. Iso Rivolta Lele Sport . In: Classic Cars . No. 6 , 2011, p. 64 ff .

[5] Mel Nichols: Exotica's Black Sheep ... or unsung trailblazer? In: Car . No. 8 , 1974, p. 31 ff .

[6] Sales advertisement from May 2011 on the website www.auto-invest.co.uk (accessed on May 15, 2011).

[7] Figures on production and variants are taken from handwritten notes from the review of Iso Rivolta factory documents by Winston Goodfellow (author of "ISO RIVOLTA The Men, The Machines, ISBN 8879111485 ") and Chris Lackner

[DVD-8] Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .

[Beaulieu-9] A ^b Nick Georgano: The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 (English)