The Iso Grifo in question. Photos courtesy Coys.
At first, it appeared that the 1966 Iso Grifo Lusso that Coys offered at last weekend’s Techno Classica auction in Essen, Germany, sold for a respectable $332,000, but after Iso enthusiasts cried foul over the car’s chassis number, the sale was canceled and questions now linger over the car’s true provenance.
Described by Coys as an original-condition car with its original Chevrolet small-block V-8 engine and four-speed manual transmission, Coys didn’t belabor its provenance, noting only that it came from “an important Italian collection of historic vehicles, where it has resided for many years,” that it only came available after the death of the owner of the collection, and that it came with German historic registration documents. Designed by Giugiaro with a chassis by Bizzarrini, the Grifo debuted in 1963, powered by the Corvette 327, and over the next decade or so, Iso went on to build more than 400 Grifos, including the dark blue over tan leather interior example that Coys listed.
What caught the eye of a number of Iso experts and enthusiasts before the auction, however, was the chassis number listed for the Grifo, B740001, displayed on a number plate riveted to the passenger-side upright in the engine bay, which was also stamped with the number. However, according to Mike Gulett, the director of marketing and media for the Iso and Bizzarrini Owners Club, and the experts he has quoted at My Car Quest, chassis numbers are typically stamped on metal plates welded to the upright. And what’s more, the chassis number belongs to an early Iso S4 – the four-door sedan later known as the Iso Fidia – according to those experts. Further investigation into the stamping numbers on the engine in the Grifo revealed that it was a 350 built in 1974 for non-Corvette applications.
As Gulett related the story, Iso club members approached Coys with the discrepancies, but in response, Coys officials claimed that they had not only confirmed with the club that the chassis number was authentic, but that it was the chassis number for the Iso Grifo prototype. Except, as it turns out, the actual 1963 Iso Grifo prototype – chassis number 420001, which has appeared at Pebble Beach twice and features a number of variations from the production Grifos – currently resides in Don Williams’s Blackhawk Collection in Danville, California.
“If (Coys) is calling theirs a ’66, then it’s obviously not the prototype,” Williams said. “Everybody makes mistakes – it could be a misunderstanding – but don’t try to defend a car that’s undefendable.”
No mention was made in the Coys auction description of the Grifo being the 1963 prototype. Nor has Coys yet released the complete results from the auction.
Gulett reported that the Grifo sold this past Saturday for €220,000 (about $332,000), right in the middle of its €200,000 to €250,000 pre-auction estimate, and then, citing a single anonymous source, that the Grifo was then seized by German authorities. Ben Willis, a salesman at Coys, confirmed that the Grifo’s sale was not completed, attributing it to “a description error.” In a followup to Gulett, Chris Routledge, another salesman at Coys, said that the car’s transaction did not take place and that the matter is being handled in Germany.
“The case of historic motorcars due to the nature of their age where some confusion arises about their history is unfortunately commonplace throughout the world and in this particular instance upon the acknowledgement of claims being made of an alternative car with the same chassis number the matter was handled in an entirely appropriate manner and the sale has not proceeded,” Routledge wrote to Gulett. “This situation, although unfortunate, is simply no more complicated than that.”
The situation, for what it’s worth, comes less than a month after another Iso Grifo – chassis number 250223, claimed to be the last Iso Grifo built – sold for $440,000, a world record for an Iso Grifo at public auction, at the recent RM sale at Amelia Island.
In the meantime, Iso enthusiasts are left wondering what lies behind the Grifo’s incorrect chassis number and incorrect engine. Some have speculated that its actual chassis number was appropriated for use in another Grifo, while another theory posits that it could be one of two cars stolen in Italy. No theory has yet been proposed for how it ended up with the chassis number of the first S4, however.
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