alessandro villa interior design

one day, winston goodfellow turns up at iso, telling us he is the president of the iso rivolta bizzarrini club in the us “ok” i say.. “you know, i’d like to write a book about iso rivolta and bizzarini” and i say: “fine, what do you need?” we took him around for two weeks!

he interviewed nuccio bertone and other people involved with iso. the mechanics... and then the book was about to come out in two years,then three, four... if i am not mistaken, it was eventuallypublished 11 years later! but it was a success. my name is axel gottschalk. i was born in cologne in germany

and i came to italy in 1975 to work for a german firmhere in milan. i bought the fidia in 1995. being a car lover, in general, to drive such a car was the dream of my life. mostly because its powerful american v8 engine, from chevrolet corvette.

when i first drove it i tought: “ok,this has to be mine”. i have driven the iso severaltimes at monza, giving it a try on the circuit.i used to go there every saturday and sunday. i wore out brakes, tyres,and all the rest.. though i have nevercaused any damage. they were rare stuff, then, you couldn’t find them so easily. also because nobody would lookfor them, to be honest. because it was a peculiar car,

but i liked it. i liked the fidiamore than the gt300. even if some of my friends,who own isos say: “come on man,what are you saying?” but i fell in love with the fidia, especially when i drove itfor the first time. the iso s4 was presented in 1967. it was intended as a competitor

to the maserati quattroporte. which meant a gt with high performance. with an interior designed like a comfortable living room. this time ghia was in charge of it, and they designed a sedan of enormous dimensions. they started producing the s4 in 1968,

but it wasn’t as successful as expected. the car underwent some changes, so, the s4 became the fidia. despite this -let's call it restyling - the fidia’s performance on the market never was really great. you can never, like for large car manufacturers, say from which chassis number on

the changes occurred. there are no visual differencesbetween the s4 and the fidia. i own an iso rivolta fidia, with a 300hp engine. the car has not done many miles. when new, it was bought by the“tutto sport” magazine, and used as an agency caruntil 1973. the s4 was assembled by ghia,

with faults, according to rivolta, that made it necessary to take car production back intothe factory for better quality. the fidia was presented in ’68 in athens on the acropolis, most probably because of the associationbetween the name of the car, and that of the parthenon’s architect, to try and boost the new model. at that time, ghia

was going through a verytroublesome period. that’s why rivolta suggested to try and improve the model instead of developing on a new one, talk through all of the problems,and building processes, to produce a car that was upto the brand's standards. let’s remember thatiso rivolta concentrated on craftsmanship and quality in its cars.

by the way, building a fidia was as expensive as makinga rolls-royce silver shadow. so, this gives you a clear idea of what they wanted to put in the car. the iso is an artisan car, practically handmade. if you have a car and something gets damaged, and you want to buy

a spare part, a door or a hood, and think there is one, you are wrong. because a few millimeterscan make a difference. meaning each car is unique. and they made just a few of them. a german friend and i had bought a second s4. we said: “fine,

let’s sell this one to adam, who was interested. and then, with the money, we restore the other, which was also an s4 but hada more powerful engine. unfortunately, my german friend is not doing very well,he has health problems and he had to give up this project, and... but, we’ll see, sooner or lateri’ll get another one. my s4 is before restoration.

i think there were only 47 s4 cars and that’s why it’s really very rare. i prefer the s4. it has more from the grifo. so, the seats are very closeto the grifo seats. the instruments are thesame like in a grifo, so, i think it’s a bitsportier for me. this is really a sports carwith four seats. it’s fantastic to drive.

there is a flow of lines in this huge body while other cars of this sizecan look very boxy. on the contrary,there is movement inside the car. driving it was so incredibly light i could not believe it. i thought it was my emotion, but it was just real, instead. the car was so easy to drive,

also on normal routes. it was aerodynamic, too... very agile and very elegant in spite of its dimensions. it is so very different toa big, boxy car. it’s a big car, but also has... as you say... grace, it has grace. its shape... its design...

it's fluid! it's fluid...

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