The Bizzarrini P538, also called the P538S, was a rear-engined sports racing car launched by Scuderia Bizzarrini of Livorno in late 1965 or early 1966. It was built around a tubular steel chassis with a fibreglass body, and it used engines from two very different makers: a Chevrolet V8 or a Lamborghini V12.
Bizzarrini P538 at a glance
| Maker | Scuderia Bizzarrini, Livorno, Italy |
|---|---|
| Launched | late 1965 or early 1966 |
| Type | rear-engined sports racing car |
| Chassis | tubular steel |
| Body | fibreglass |
| Suspension | fully independent |
| Brakes | inboard discs on all four wheels |
| Gearbox | five-speed manual transaxle, gearing chosen for each race |
| Engines | Chevrolet V8 of 327 cu in; Lamborghini V12 of 4.0 or 3.5 litres |
| Built | three spiders and one closed coupé |
| Le Mans 1966 | P538-003, number 10, retired |
| Later life | mechanical parts used in the Bizzarrini Manta |
English and French sources differ on why P538-003 retired at Le Mans in 1966 (a broken steering arm and split oil pipe in one account, a cooling problem in the other), so this page does not give a cause.
History of the Bizzarrini P538
Giotto Bizzarrini designed the P538 in 1966 as a racing car to sit alongside the road-going GT 5300. It was a pure competition machine: a tubular steel chassis clothed in fibreglass, fully independent suspension and inboard disc brakes on all four wheels. Drive went to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual transaxle, and the gearing was chosen specifically for the race each car was built for.
The engine bay could take either a Chevrolet Corvette V8 of 327 cubic inches or a Lamborghini V12 of 4.0 or 3.5 litres. Three spider cars were built by Bizzarrini, numbered P538*001 to P538*003. The first had a Lamborghini V12; it crashed during testing and the story ended there, because the chassis was cut up and the engine and running gear were moved to P538*002. The second car was meant to go to Le Mans in 1966, but that plan was too ambitious; it was last reported at the San Diego Automotive Museum in 2017. The third car inherited part of the rear chassis of the first and had a Chevrolet V8.
P538-003 was the car that actually raced at Le Mans in 1966, carrying number 10, with the Swiss driver Edgar Berney taking the first stint. It retired, and the car was entered in two more races that year, one of them at Mugello, after which it received a plexiglass roof. An attempt to enter it as a sports prototype failed because open cars had been banned at Le Mans. In 1967 Bizzarrini rebuilt at least one V8 car as a closed coupé and sold it to the Duke of Aosta; that white coupé, chassis 262 974, never had a spider body. The mechanical parts of P538-003 were later parted out and used to build the Manta show car, while its body was restored by Oliver Kuttner with a Chevrolet engine and finished second in class at Pebble Beach in 1990.
The American Ferrari driver Mike Gammino ordered a car with the 4.0-litre Lamborghini V12, which he drove once; the workshop of Neri and Bonacini and the coachbuilder BBM took part in its construction. Bizzarrini tried to build a second 3.5-litre V12 car for Le Mans but could not finish it before the company went bankrupt.
From the mid-1970s and at least into the 1990s, “continuation” P538s were built, among others by the former Bizzarrini engineer Salvatore Diomante at Autocostruzione SD in Turin, working to commissions from private buyers. They can be told from the 1960s cars by their square rather than round chassis tubing. Giotto Bizzarrini and his wife Rosanna helped with some of the early cars, which used original components from the parts inventory. The first two square-tube cars, P538*400*001 with a Lamborghini Islero V12 and P538*400*002 with a Lamborghini V12, were ordered by Luciano Bertolero. Diomante used the original fibreglass moulds, and at least 25 continuation cars are known today. In the early 1970s Diomante and Bizzarrini had also revived the project under the name Bizzarrini Sciabota.
Design and features
- Fibreglass over steel: a light body on a tubular steel chassis.
- Inboard brakes: discs on all four wheels, mounted inboard, with fully independent suspension.
- Two engines: a Chevrolet 327 V8 or a Lamborghini V12 of 4.0 or 3.5 litres.
- Race-specific gearing: each five-speed transaxle was geared for the event its car was built for.
- Second life: the mechanical parts of the third car went into the Bizzarrini Manta.
Bizzarrini P538 versions
- P538*001: Lamborghini V12, crashed in testing and cut up.
- P538*002: received the engine and running gear of the first car; later in the United States.
- P538*003: Chevrolet V8, raced at Le Mans in 1966, later the basis of the Manta.
- Duca d’Aosta coupé: a closed white V8 car, chassis 262 974, sold in 1967.
- Continuation cars: built from the mid-1970s by Salvatore Diomante and others, at least 25 known.
The P538 chassis and its mechanical parts led to the Bizzarrini Manta, and the racing programme grew out of the Bizzarrini 5300 GT. More cars are in the Bizzarrini collection.
Video: Bizzarrini P538 at Concourso Italiano 2010
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Bizzarrini P538, English Wikipedia: specification, the three cars, Le Mans, continuation cars
- Bizzarrini P538, French Wikipedia: engines, Le Mans drivers, Duca d’Aosta coupé, Sciabota
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