1971 Bizzarrini 128P Prototype Sport Barchetta

Giotto Bizzarrini once said, 'I am not a designer, I am a worker.' During the early 1970s, he closed his factory and returned to consulting which later resulted in a pair of sleek new competition Barchettas, designated 128P with fiberglass bodywork and rode on tubular space frames and an 87-inch wheelbase. Designed and developed in 1971, the car was displayed at the 1972 Turin Motor Show. This car, #128P01, is a left-hand drive prototype for the subsequent right-hand drive competition car. Aggressively purposeful, the 128P was powered by a transverse-mounted Fiat 1,300 cc inline four-cylinder engine fed by a pair of side-draft Weber carburetors. The 130 bhp output was transferred through a Colotti T46B VW-derived rear transaxle with gearing allowing it to reach a top speed of 140 mph in racing trim. This prototype's fiberglass body was found dormant in a field outside the original factory and restored around 1990 by the Bizzarrinis.