As with many of the Rudi Klein automobiles, this Series I Iso Grifo has led a very quiet existence, with the available published registers commenting only that it was built on 4 July 1966, equipped with the more potent 365-horsepower V-8, four-speed transmission, and 3.07 rear axle, and originally intended for the Italian market. Indeed, when Rudi Klein acquired the car in 1971, what was then a five-year-old “used” automobile was purchased from Robert J. and Patricia L. Kalis of La Habra, California, as noted in a Bill of Sale on file. Newspaper articles of the period indicate that Mr. Kalis had recently served in Europe with the US military, and so it is likely that he acquired the Iso in the service and brought it home with him.

Photographs also in the file record that the car as-purchased was in much the same condition externally as today, with fresh collision damage to the driver’s door—likely the reason for the sale. Additional dents are visible throughout the rear passenger-side fender and there is visible corrosion to the lower edges of the doors and to the sills, while the interior appears to have had its seats removed. The car retains its original serial number stamping in the engine compartment, as well as a Chevrolet small-block V-8 and four-speed transmission—given the duration of its time at Porche Foreign Auto, likely to be the original units. At the time of cataloguing, it had recorded 80,469 kilometers (~50,001 miles), equally likely all covered prior to its arrival at the yard.

Ideal as a basis for restoration, and surely one of the few surviving Grifos still “virgin” for that purpose, this car offers the opportunity to return to the road an exciting Italian-American GT, which has not seen tarmac since 1971.