THE ONE AND ONLY

Only a single original Iso Grifo convertible was built: This car, actually a companion to the original A3/L prototype coupe, with which it shared such distinctive features as the side exhaust rakishly snaking through the passenger side of the cowl and under the rocker panel trim with its nearly matte finish, a nose with a crisp “dual-nostril” fascia, and angled vents in the rear fenders. Indeed, as a one-off body, almost every line was at least subtly different from the subsequent Grifo production coupes. Completed by Bertone as something of a surprise for Iso management, it was exhibited by the coachbuilder at European auto shows in-period, most prominently at the Geneva Motor Show in 1964, and was amusingly photographed with its designer, a very young Giorgetto Giugiaro, serving as the “model” behind the wheel.

Following its show career, the one-off Spider was exported to the US, likely in 1967 as it has long been titled by that year. Its original owner is believed to have been David Ellis of New York City. Mr. Ellis would offer the car several times through advertisements in Road & Track, whose classifieds section was then “the” source for interesting automobiles; his ads, beginning in July 1969, described the car as having a “powerful yet docile 425-hp Corvette engine specially tuned by Bizzarrini” (perhaps a bit of creative license) and in June 1971 as being finished in “sage green with black leather interior.” An article in the Spring 2006 issue of Griffon, detailing the known history of the Spider, recounts that it was seen being street-parked in New York City!

The car was sold to a dealer in Southern California, and in 1973 acquired by Greg Garrison. Producer of numerous successful television programs, most prominently the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, Garrison was at the time one of Southern California’s best-known enthusiasts, nearly in the same realm as Steve McQueen. While he owned numerous significant automobiles over 40 years of collecting, he is best remembered as an early VIP client of Ferrari, who ordered or was a later owner of many unique and significant cars, and indeed counted Enzo Ferrari as a close personal friend. Everyone who was anyone on the West Coast sports car circuit knew Greg Garrison—Rudi Klein very much included. Correspondence between the two men, discovered in the Klein files, indicates that one was often pursuing a car from the other!

In this instance, Rudi won the tug-of-war and purchased the Spider from Mr. Garrison in 1980. By this time the car had been refinished to its present shade of red and fitted with a small luggage rack on the rear deck, both of which remain. At some point prior to this work, it had also been involved in an accident, necessitating the fitment of a stock front Grifo front clip, with a slightly different nose arrangement than the original. In this form the car was used by Rudi for a time as an occasional road automobile, as indicated by charming photographs in the file…and then into the yard it went, and there it remained until now, with the balance of its original distinctive features wonderfully intact.

Ripe for restoration after decades in hiding, the unique, one-and-only Grifo Spider is a wonderful opportunity for the true devotee to acquire and return to its original condition a truly distinctive example, long considered the greatest unseen prize of the Iso world. Concours fields await.