BizzarriniEuropa

01

Origins

The Europa of 1966 aimed to broaden Bizzarrini's tiny business: a scaled-down GT on the Strada's principles — glassfibre body, mid-front engine placement, tail-heavy weight distribution — powered by Opel's 1.9-litre four rather than American eight. The idea was sound in outline, a junior exotic against the Porsche 911's price band, and the little car's balance drew praise from those who drove it. But Bizzarrini lacked the capital to industrialise anything; each Europa was effectively a prototype, around a dozen were completed, and the company's 1969 collapse ended development entirely. Survivors are now among the rarest of all Italian GTs, prized precisely for the might-have-been they embody — proof that Bizzarrini's chassis genius scaled down as elegantly as it had scaled up.