Sergio Arredondo bought an Iso Grifo, a terrific Italian-American hybrid sports car, back in 1982. This 1969 beauty was sitting at a used car lot north of Los Angeles.
“My company was doing a construction project at the dealership,” says the 67-year-old Arredondo, from Pasadena, California. “I saw the Iso for sale and I fell in love. I took it for a ride, and five days later, it was sitting in my driveway.”
Sergio Arredondo got busy with business and politics, parked his 1969 Iso Grifo in the garage, and basically forgot about it for the next quarter-century. SERGIO ARREDONDO
Even many hard-core enthusiasts have never seen or heard of an Iso Grifo, and that’s understandable. Only 413 were built in Italy between 1963 and 1974 by the Iso Rivolta Company. The beautiful Bertone-designed 2+2 coupe was powered by a variety of American V-8s: 327, 427, or 454 Chevy or 351 Ford. Automatic, four-speed, and five-speed transmissions were available.
The Iso Grifo’s competition highlight was a 14th place finish at the 1964 24 Hours of LeMans. But the car’s strength was never racing; instead, it was a gentleman’s touring car.
Arredondo bought the beautiful, 327-horsepower burgundy sports car when his oldest son, Chris, was just one year old. His younger son, Antonio, wasn’t even born yet. “I’ve always owned a sports car as well as a sedan,” Arredondo says. “I paid about $21,000 for it. I drove it on weekends for about five years.”
Through the urging of his sons, Sergio pulled it into the daylight again! SERGIO ARREDONDO
Then it was parked. He took off his leather driving gloves and placed them on the shifter.
Arredondo, the owner of two businesses, was appointed to leadership positions in local, then national politics. “I worked with presidents, governors, and senators, and I would be away from home for months at a time,” he says. “I no longer had time for all my toys. I didn’t need them; I was too busy.”
He backed his beautiful Iso Grifo into the garage, closed the door, and basically forgot he even owned it. Then one day a couple of decades later, Arredondo was watching the Barrett-Jackson Auctions, and an Iso Grifo went across the block.
“Dad, that’s just like your Iso in the garage,” said his son Chris. Chris also encouraged him to join the Iso Owners Club. He attended an Iso-themed display at The Quail car show Concorso Italiano in conjunction with the Pebble Beach Concours in August 2013.
A word from his son was all it took—the flame was re-lit. “I was like, ‘Hey, look what I discovered in my garage,’ ” he says. “I’m going to take that car out and drive it again! It was dirty and filthy, so my sons and I washed and waxed it.”
He brought the car to a shop recommended by one of the Iso Club members. The mechanic got the engine running and began the process of cosmetic restoration and minor repairs of the engine. “The interior doesn’t look bad and the paint is pretty good, so I think I’ll just drive the car for a while,” he says.
He intends to add Weber carburetors and has already ordered a set of chrome Borrani wire wheels. One thing he won’t have to order is driving gloves. They were still sitting on the shifter, exactly where he left them 24 years earlier.