Some cars take a few years to reach production. This one took sixty. The Bizzarrini 5300 GT Aperta Lusso, revealed this week, is a car that should have existed in the late 1960s. Giorgetto Giugiaro drew a targa-top version of the 5300 GT back then, but the company folded before a single prototype was built. Now, thanks to Bizzarrini's 2020 revival, that drawing has become metal and carbon fibre.
The story starts with Giotto Bizzarrini himself, the Italian engineer whose fingerprints are all over some of the most celebrated cars ever made. He developed the Ferrari 250 GTO. He designed the V12 engine that powered Lamborghini's first GT cars and the legendary Miura. In 1964, he founded his own company to build supercars bearing his name, and the result was the 5300 GT Strada: a three-inch-taller GT40 powered by a Chevrolet 327-cubic-inch V8, which provided the kind of reliable, thunderous performance that Italian engines of the era often could not.
The Aperta Lusso takes that same 5300 GT platform and gives it the open roof that Giugiaro always intended. Two removable carbon fibre panels sit over the cockpit, and can be stored in the rear for proper open-air motoring along the coast. The body is entirely carbon fibre, bonded to a semi-monocoque chassis reinforced with steel. From the outside, it looks almost indistinguishable from a 1960s original: the same long bonnet, the same Kamm tail, the same delicate mirrors and door handles. The only giveaways are LED fog lights and taillights, and headlight covers that disguise modern optics.
Under the bonnet, the 5.3-litre V8 has been updated with modern fuel injection and is offered with either a five- or six-speed manual gearbox. Output stands at 400 horsepower, which, given the car's minimal weight, should provide genuinely serious performance. Top speed is claimed at 175 mph. The chassis features adjustable Koni dampers, ventilated brakes and a limited-slip differential, all hidden beneath the classic styling.
Inside, Bizzarrini has partnered with Zegna for the upholstery, blending leather and wood with Alcantara in a way that feels genuinely period-correct rather than retro pastiche. There is proper air conditioning, a contemporary stereo and wireless phone charging, but the design remains resolutely analogue: toggle switches for lights and wipers, round gauges, and a wood-rimmed steering wheel.
Only ten examples of the 5300 GT Aperta Lusso will be built, each at a price that Bizzarrini has not publicly disclosed but which will be, to put it mildly, considerable. The car sits alongside the sold-out 5300 GT Corsa continuation models and ahead of the forthcoming Giotto hypercar, which promises to be the brand's first entirely modern creation. For now, though, the Aperta Lusso is the most compelling argument yet that the best ideas are worth waiting for, even if the wait takes six decades.
