Rare Grifo survives owner: Johnny Hallyday

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When singer Johnny Hallyday – world famous in France – passed away last month, we thought it would be fitting to show some photographs of the man in one of his beloved classics here. As he did have so many. Miura, Cadillac, Cobra, 275 GTB, California Spider, Jarama, TR3, 250 Testarossa, Panther… to name just a few!

In the end we didn’t as we thought it would only be a matter of time before one of Hallyday’s cars would end up for sale. Well, we did not have to wait long! During Retromobile, one of Johnny’s star cars will be sold in auction by RM Sotheby’s. It’s a 1965 Iso Grifo which never drove more than 27,000 kilometres since the day it was bought by Johnny. It’s a rare example, as this is one of only 10 A3/C models, that were made by Carrozzeria Sports Cars of Piero Drogo in Modena with bodies made in ‘avional’, a special alloy of aluminium, copper and magnesium mixed that is very light and elastic but very difficult to weld. Therefore, it needed to be riveted in a similar fashion to an airplane. Not easy, but the advantage was that its construction allowed the car to be exceptionally light, tipping the scales at 969 kg.

Hallyday had enough of the thoroughbred after only a year and sold it in February 1966. Second and third owner shifted it quickly, but number four had it considerably longer. The seller states: “Prince Pierre Sangusko stored the Iso in his castle for 24 years.” You may now become the Iso’s ninth owner, although you’ll need to be able to fork out an estimated 2.5- to 3 million euros for it. See the car here. Oh, and for Hallyday-fans with less deep pockets, RM Sotheby’s has another of his rare vehicles for sale, here…

(Words editor, picture RM Sotheby’s)

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