Giotto Bazzarrini has contributed more to the automotive world than most of us realize. Anyone who has admired or lusted after a Lamborghini, a Ferrari GTO or even an Alfa Romeo Giulietta has lusted after a work of this master engineer who has often worked in the background.

Born in Livorno, Italy in 1926 into a family of means Bizzarrini later trained to become an engineer at the University of Pisa. After finishing his studies he went to work for Alfa where he was instrumental in developing the chassis of Alfa's first and very successful foray into mass marketing; the Giulietta.

Somewhat like the Forrest Gump of that golden moment in Italian car making post WW2, Giotto soon jumped to Ferrari where his engineering solutions were imprinted on the 250 series and it ultimate derivative the GTO. Unfortunately, Bizzarrini's strong personality and that of Enzo's couldn't co-exist and so he fell victim to the purge in 1961.

After a brief detour at ATS, he found collaboration with Ferrucio Lamborghini developing that marque's V12 that would define this challenger to Ferrari. Finally, to take some of the spotlight that was rightfully his, he placed his own name on a version of Iso Rivolta's Grifo-a car that he developed- leading to the fantastic Bizzarrini Strada 5300GT, a hybrid of Italian styling and chassis development teamed with reliable and inexpensive American, in this case Chevy, V8 power.

The Strada unworldly in pictures is more so in the flesh with lines that shouldn't even be on the same car but are and work beautifully. The Strada is a fitting statement to Bizzarrini's brilliance and is his most visible calling card.