Bizzarrini BZ-2001

Hopefully, this car brings back memories of when you could buy a Ferrari Testarossa, remove its body, modify the suspension and other components, pop a fancy body on top, and boom—you were in business.

Well…not quite.

Talking about Bizzarrini isn't an easy task — this is a name that has been involved with countless icons, starting the moment its namesake Giotto Bizzarrini was one of the many employees who walked off the job at Ferrari in 1961. 

According to a number of sources, Giotto’s personal motto is, “I am not a designer, I am a worker” — though I haven’t met a worker who has coined his own motto beyond “Let ‘er rip!”.

Anyway, he still is a prolific designer, even though his back catalogue contains cars like the Ferrari 250 GTO, Ferrari 250 TR, and the Lamborghini V12 engine — not to mention the beasts constructed by the first years of Bizzarrini S.p. A. 

His pursuit of creating amazing machines never really resulted in the fitment of a Bizzarrini-designed engine into a Bizzarrini-designed car, though the history of Bizzarrini-designed anything is patchy, at best.

Next time you see one, ask its owner which engine is in the car, and if it matches the chassis. Then ask if its bodywork matches the chassis. Then ask when it was all put together. 

(Bizzarrinis are not unique in this—many Iso owners will have a few tales to tell, as well.)

OK. So. The BZ-2001. Built after the Bizzarrini factory was closed and Giotto was on his own as a freelance builder, the car started as sketches by an American named Barry Watkins. 

Designed and built in California, Bizzarrini lent his name and, later, engineering talent to the project when the team began to construct a chassis to replace the Testarossa one. Concept car builder Luis Romo handled the build. On Watkins' website, he writes:

“I started looking for a project manager or someone that could build this show piece. Soon thereafter, I met Luis Romo, under rather strange coincidence at a park one mile from my house. His van had a dead battery and we helped get it started. We asked each other what we did for a living. I told him that I had inherited an inventive nature never to be satisfied with compromised production-run cars and always had to design and build things to suit that desire. My current project was a joint venture with Ing. Gioto Bizzarrini to build a new super car.

“Romo, coincidentally, was a world-class prototype builder and greatly admired Bizzarrini's work. Luis was curious about how I ever got Bizzarrini to do something with me and I said, 'I asked him'.”