Concept Car of the Week: Bizzarrini Manta (1968)

In the latter half of 1965, Giotto Bizzarrini began working on a racing car designed to compete with the Ford GT40, Ferrari 250P and the Porsche 906. The result was the P538, his most sophisticated car to date.

The first two examples built were fitted with Lamborghini V12 engines and sold to American buyers to compete in SCCA races, while the third used a highly modified 5.4-liter V8 from the Chevrolet Corvette. In 1966 it was entered in the 24-hours of Le Mans but, due to a cooling problem, the car had to retire in the second hour.

At the end of the season, new regulations made the P538 obsolete. Without a victory and without the funds to build new cars, Bizzarrini desperately needed some outside support to keep his company afloat.

In the mean time, 28-year old Giorgetto Giugiaro had just left Bertone. He was about to create his own company, Italdesign, and needed a base car for his first project as an independent. As previous collaborators and friends, Bizzarrini and Giugiaro made a deal to build a show car based on P538-003 and to share the profit of the sale. The deadline was fixed for the 1968 Turin motor show, which meant the car had to be completed in just 40 days.

Not only did Giugiaro delivered his first project in an incredibly short space of time, he also created one of the stars of the show. The silhouette is one single curve from nose to tail, giving the windscreen a rake of just 15 degrees. As a result, visibility was compromised but to improve it, a set of louvers were added below the windscreen for low-speed maneuvers.

The perforated sill is a reminder of the racing origin of the car. A large glass panel reveals the heart of the beast and the tail lamps and exhaust were encased in horizontal chrome finishers.

The side glass isn't intersected by a shutline. Instead, the whole window is part of the door so when the door opens, the front part of the window pivots inside the car.

Luckily, thanks the wide track of P538, the cockpit is rather spacious. So much so that Giugiaro fitted it with a three-seat configuration with a central driving position, although the wide arches substantially reduced passenger legroom. Far from racing minimalism, the interior was opulently covered in black leather.

Over its show-car life, it was resprayed silver, then red with white stripes and was finally fully restored in 2005 when it was painted in its original loud aqua blue with orange accents on the rear louvers.

Designer Giorgetto Giugiaro
First seen 1968 Turin Motor Show
Length 4,100mm
Width 1,855mm
Height 1,050mm
Wheelbase 2,500mm
Engine 5,359cc, Chevrolet Corvette V8, 400bhp

What else happened in 1968?
Historically significant events abound, from peak American involvement in the Vietnam War to the assassinations of president JFK and civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King Jr. It was also the year that 2001: A Space Odyssey hit movie theaters, The Beatles released The White Album and the Boeing 737 went into service with Lufthansa. It was also the year that the first Hot Wheels car, a custom Camaro, was sold.

By Flavien Dachet