Rivolta
Italian
Renzo Rivolta
RENZO RIVOLTA, founder - and president of ISO Autoveicoli SpA, succumbed to a heart attack on Aug. 19. 1966
He was born in Desio, Italy, on Sept. 5, 1908, and grew up in the family's lumber business. In 1940 he began manufacturing refrigerators under the name Iso Thermo, from which the present firm name derives. He had a passion for cars, motorcycles and inboard, boats and raced them all in his youth; he won 1st overall and three 2nds in the Pavia-Venezia boat races. He used to say, "At the wheel of a car I enjoy myself only above 120 mph."Italy's postwar economic recovery made possible the motorization of the country for the first time and in 1948 Rivolta began manufacturing scooters, light motorcycles and light 3-wheeled trucks under the name of Iso. In 1953 the industrialist conceived and began producing a vehicle which he described as "half motorcycle and half car." This was the Isetta, a thorough failure in Italy. But BMW acquired the manufacturing rights to the design and some 250,000 of these motorized eggs were sold, chiefly in Germany and France.
In 1961 Rivolta conceived the idea of a fine, 4-passenger GT car which would combine the best of Italian coachwork and roadability with an American mass-produced power train. He reached an accord with Chevrolet and with former Ferrari engineer Giotto Bizzarrini as the designer and with Bertone providing the bodies, the first of the Iso-Rivolta GT cars appeared in 1962.
Renzo Rivolta was a hard-driving businessman who combined hobby and career in the creation and production of a very wide range of highly original motor vehicles. He was weIl educated, urbane and multi-lingual. His estate at Bresso, a Milan suburb, is a Bugattiesque melange of palatial villa, parklike formal gardens and sprawling factory buildings. One of these is the modern, efficient plant in which Iso-Rivolta cars are assembled. He was generous, and engaged in many philanthropies, devoting much of his time and energy to the Bressa Children's Asylum of which he was president.
In building his empire Renzo Rivolta planned carefully for its future. His son, Dr. Ing. Piero Rivolta Barberi, was educated as a mechanical engineer and for the past several years has participated in the management of the family's manifold interests. The work of the dynamic and gifted father will be carried on with unbroken continuity by his son.
Author: ArchitectPage
