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5 (Relatively) Affordable Ferrari Lookalikes with American V-8s
Regardless of taste, it would be tough to look a (prancing) gift horse in the mouth should a classic Ferrari materialize in one’s garage. I mean, who could decline the joys of bright-red ’60s curves, a 12-cylinder engine, and supple Italian leather? A GTO, GTB, or SWB lives rent-free in the fantasies of many car enthusiasts, but they remain just that—fantasies. The reality is that any Enzo-era Ferrari worth having costs at least as much as a pretty nice house, and plenty more are worth mansion money.
For the more budget-constricted and value-minded fantasy stable, alternatives abound. At the same time Ferrari was building many of its greatest hits—particularly the 1960s—there were other upstarts in Italy building handsome sports cars and gran turismos with mega power. They were, however, not powered by finicky V-12s covered in camshafts but by pushrod V-8s from Michigan. Some of these Italo-American hybrids—like the Iso Grifo and Bizzarrini—are expensive in their own right, but many remain obscure and are worth a fraction of the equivalent Ferrari… even though they are far from a fraction of the car.
Below are five such choices that offer Ferrari-ish looks and performance at a much lower cost.
1966-72 Intermeccanica Italia
The history of Intermeccanica is a bit convoluted, but it’s fascinating. The short version is that it was a truly international affair, founded by Frank Reisner (a Hungarian-born Canadian immigrant) and Paula Reisner (his Czech-born Canadian wife). They fell in love with the city of Turin and set up a company there, called Costruzione Automobili Intermecanica, in 1959. At first they sold tuning parts and performance kits for mostly French cars but soon started building cars for clients like Apollo (more on that in a second). Odd jobs included converting a 1965 Mustang into a station wagon for a U.S. advertising company, and constructing Corvair-based Fitch Phoenix for racer John Fitch.
But Intermeccanica also built its own cars, wearing a badge that looks oddly half Ferrari horse and half Lamborghini bull (it’s called the “prancing bull”). Eventually, the Reisners moved back across the Atlantic; the family-run company appears to still exist as of a few years ago, building high-quality Porsche 356 replicas in British Columbia.
The Intermeccanica Italia came about early in the company’s history. It contracted with Long Island dealer Jack Griffith to build a V-8-powered sports car in 1965, but the project was short-lived and the Reisners wound up with full rights to the car. They ran through a couple of different names on early examples, but settled on “Italia” once production was underway. The long hood, scooped headlights, and pert tail looked like something out of Modena, but under the hood there was the galloping heart of a Ford Mustang. Early ones used Ford’s 289cid/271hp V-8, but production soon switched to the 302 with 250 hp. A period ad for the Italia called it “The Best of Two Continents.” It was pricey at around eight grand, but it had a decent run with about 400 coupes and convertibles built up to 1972.
Although one Italia did sell for $232,500 last summer, Italias are generally much less expensive. The current condition #2 (“excellent”) value in the Hagerty Price Guide runs from $96K to $105K for the coupe, and $141K to $147K for the convertible. Not chump change, but any Ferrari spyder from this period is going to be a seven-figure car. If the Italia looks like any one Ferrari in particular, it’s the 275 built around the same time. The cheapest 275 GTB in our guide is $2M in #2 condition. The 275 NART Spyder is worth $21.5M.
1962-65 Apollo GT
In 1963, before the Italia, Intermeccanica worked with an Oakland, California outlet called Apollo. It was the brainchild of three friends who wanted to emulate the best large performance cars coming out of Italy and Britain, but with more reliable American underpinnings. One of them sketched out a European-influenced coupe body, and Italian designer Franco Scaglione further refined the shape. Apollo hired Intermeccanica to build the bodies, designed a steel ladder frame in-house, and fitted Buick suspension.
Power came from Buick, too, specifically its then-new aluminum 3.5-liter V-8. Intermeccanica shipped the bodies to Oakland, where final assembly took place. At $7000, the Apollo 3500 GT was more expensive than an E-Type Jag but still decent value for its looks and performance. Demand was strong enough that Apollo introduced a 5000 GT, which utilized Buick’s iron-block, aluminum-head 5.0-liter V-8. But, as is so often the case with small sports car companies, lack of capital and cash flow put Apollo in an early grave after it sold just 88 GT coupes and convertibles.
Given their rarity, Apollos don’t pop up for sale often, but the current condition #2 value for a 3500 GT coupe is $131K, and for a convertible it’s $188K. For the 5000 GT, it’s $160K for a coupe and $197K for a convertible. In terms of looks, era, and performance, the closest Ferrari is probably the 250 GT Lusso, which is a $1.45M car these days.
1963-70 Iso Rivolta
By the 1960s, Renzo Rivolta’s firm had built scooters, motorcycles, and even the original Isetta microcar, but he also sensed a growing demand for expensive GT cars that weren’t as temperamental as the ones available at the time.
Inspired by the British-built, Italian-styled, American-powered Gordon-Keeble, he hired ace engineer Giotto Bizzarrini to build him something similar, but better. Bizzarrini designed a pressed steel platform chassis from scratch, welded to a 2+2 coupe body penned by a young Giorgetto Giugiaro at Bertone and powered by a 327-cubic-inch V-8 lifted from the Corvette.
This new Iso Rivolta was “the car we have all been looking for,” said Road & Track. Initial models came with a 300-hp version of the Chevy small-block, and a 340-hp version joined the lineup in 1964. Iso Rivoltas came with either a four-speed manual, five-speed manual, or three-speed automatic. About 800 were built in total.
Today, a Rivolta IR 300 (the 300-hp version) is worth $120K in #2 condition, while the IR 340 (the 340-hp version) is worth $133K. As a four-seater, it compares with some of the less valuable Enzo-era Ferraris (2+2 equals less valuable in Maranello math), but it’s still a lot more affordable. Relatively speaking, anyway: A Ferrari 250 GTE from the same era is nearly $400K at current #2 values, while a 330 GT 2+2 ranges from $255K-$280K and a 365 GT from $225K-$250K.
1966-67 Ghia 450SS
One of the lesser-known American-powered Italians is the Ghia 450SS, conceived by film/TV producer Burt Sugarman. He contracted with Ghia and Chrysler, who already had a history of working together, on a svelte two-seater that made heavy use of Plymouth parts, including the 273-cu-in (4.5-liter) Commando V-8. Chrysler sent Barracuda Formula S drivetrains across the Atlantic to Ghia, which mated them to a hand-built steel chassis and welded the body to the frame. The whole package had a shorter wheelbase than the Barracuda and was both shorter and lower overall, but was still no lightweight at over 3000 pounds.
The cars then went to California, where Sugarman sold the cars at his Beverly Hills dealership. Even in that celebrity enclave, though, the Ghia 450SS was a tough sell. Asking price was about twice as much as a Corvette, or roughly as much as a Ferrari. Just 57 are thought to have been built.
The 450SS doesn’t bear much of a resemblance to any contemporary Ferrari, but the Italian personality is clear both inside and out despite all the Chrysler/Plymouth hardware. It is currently worth $162,000 in #2 condition in our price guide, and the last one to sell brought $137,200 two years ago. Any comparable Ferrari from the mid-to-late-1960s is going to be worth several times as much.
1970-92 De Tomaso Pantera
While the Ghia above is one of the obscure American-powered Italian cars, the Pantera is probably the best-known one. It was actively marketed and sold in this country, at Lincoln-Mercury dealers no less.
Argentine Alejandro de Tomaso moved to Italy in the 1950s and started his namesake firm in Modena in 1959. The company’s first road car was the Ford four-cylinder-powered Vallelunga in 1963, followed shortly by the Ford V-8-powered Mangusta in 1966. While the Mangusta looked spectacular and had plenty of power, its backbone chassis was problematic and led to unpredictable handling. Its monocoque Pantera replacement was already underway when DeTomaso inked a deal with Ford Motor Company to market and sell it in the States.
The Pantera’s wedge styling was the work of Tom Tjaarda at Ghia, and behind the driver sat Ford’s 351 Cleveland V-8. Between the seats was a Ferrari-style open-gate shifter for the ZF five-speed.
The Pantera went on sale for American buyers in late 1971. It went through minor changes and added both an L (luxury) and GTS to the lineup before Ford ceased imports in 1975, after about 5500 units sold. De Tomaso kept building and improving the Pantera up until the 1990s, and a few of these later European-market Panteras made it here via the gray market.
Today, Pantera values vary by year and spec, but most are worth about $100,000, and the GTS is worth $125K in #2 condition. A few, like the end-of-the-line Pantera 90 Si from the ’90s or the racy Pantera GT5-S from the ’80s, have sold for over $200K or even $300K. But most of these cars sell for well under $200K.
In the Ferrari world, the Pantera’s most direct competitor was the Berlinetta Boxer (BB) series that included the 365 GT4 BB and the 512 BB/BBi. The 365 is worth nearly half a million dollars in #2 condition today, while the 512 ranges from $280K to $310K. If we look at the world of Lamborghini wedges of this period, no version of the Countach is worth half a million, either.
None are what I call affordable.
I do recall a buddy with two Panteras telling me I should buy one now. They were $16k for a good one. That was years ago and he still reminds me lol!
I reluctantly have to concur, h’v6.
50 years ago, when I was approaching my late teens, I simply had to pass on a surprisingly-neglected, non-running, awfully-repainted black Dino coupe (probably an older 206 GT, judging by how poorly the amateur finish had aged), that I spied among the common offerings at a humble used-car lot.
Even though the Dino wasn’t regarded as a ‘true’ Ferrari at that time, as I recall, they were still asking $12k, which more than the base MSRP of a brand-new ‘Vette (and was probably equivalent to my dad’s annual salary). Needless to state: immediate rational thoughts of anything the least bit amiss in the drivetrain discouraged any of my further inquiries!
The terms “budget”, and “value” don’t exactly leap to the forefront of my casual conversations regarding the discretionary expenditure for any 6-figure-plus vehicle, but then, this article is an expression of a relative comparison to the most-elite, highly-revered automotive icons.
I had a similar experience in 1979, and a bought the orphan “non-Ferrari” 246 Coupe nobody wanted. I went to an Italian meet and was told to park with the Fiats. Today, I am INVITED to park with the Ferraris, but I prefer to park with the Fiats.
But you can comfortably park with the 296s.
It’s so easy to forget about the time value of money when we look back at how “cheap” these car were back in the day.
50 years ago, you could have bought that roached 206GT for $12k, and with an exhaustive (and likely multiple hundreds of thousands of $’s) Rennovations at some point in time, you could have sold it for $1M, like the two I see have sold on Bring a Trailer. Oh, the missed opportunity!!!
Or you could have put that $12k into the S&P 500 and you’d be sitting on a stock investment worth about $3.8M today.
Even the highest returning cars don’t bring a great investment return. If you want to be rich, put all your money in the market and wait for it to grow.
If you want to have fun, spend your money on the cars you can afford to buy, drive, and keep running.
Rob, you nailed it on the S&P 500. I checked your numbers with dividends reinvested. Thanks for that perspective.
True words and great rational but you would have missed 50 years of watching it in your garage, starting it up, great drives, spend 400k and sell it for a million, towing it home, getting thumbs up from 12 years old.
Looks from nice men and women, towing it home again, open the garage door and smell it,…, all kind of emotions your money on the bank would not have given you. And still earn 500 K on the way…
If we all would be in it for the money this website would not exist .
No, I get all that driving my 63 Rambler station wagon (the flame paint job helps!). And while I have more in it than it would ever be worth to anyone (else), I actually built it (not with a checkbook, with my own hands!) and enjoy driving it. I’ve had old cars since 1979, and driven them all, mostly as daily drivers (not currently though). I’ve had accidents with them, one was totaled by a careless driver. It’s going to happen eventually if you actually drive the car much! So I don’t want a $2M car that I’m afraid to drive in traffic. I hate it when people skip a car show because it might rain! Really? And I don’t believe in trailering a perfectly driveable car. They were made to drive and enjoy!
My “collector cars” started out as my daily drivers, bought both new and used. We aged together and now besides going to shows and cruise ins, they’re still daily drivers. Way too much fun to be garage queens.
Similar story – In the mid-’70s a neighbor in my hi-rise ran a side hustle selling exotic cars. His business card said he was employed by the Secret Service, which I thought was ironic. If it was “secret” why put that on business cards?
Anyway, he offered a Dino 206 or 246 GT for something like $12K. I was tempted but thought it would be even less practical as an only car than my ’65 356 C. Another woulda, coulda, shoulda cases. :^(
None of the above float my boat!
None of the above float my boat!
Relative to their Ferrari counterparts. 🙂 Affordable for the average Joe? Not so much. 😁
They are “(relatively)” affordable, and I think only one isn’t gorgeous.
Technically there were no 1970 model year Panteras sold. The first cars sold were all 1971 models. The last ones imported to the USA by Ford were 1974 models, although some were still on lots in 1975. “L” model was creative marketing by Ford to look like an option package but in reality had no more luxury features than previous versions. Once the “L” was in production (Sep 1972) no “pre-L” versions were produced anymore for the US market.
In the late 70’s l stumbled across a 73 Pantera in a wealthy customer’s barn. The paint was good, but covered with a quarter inch of dust. It was driven into the barn with 15,000 miles on the clock, but in the interim the mice had lunched on the wiring and created a pretty impressive condo in the interior. Having driven a 71 a few years earlier l just had to ask if he would sell it. The answer was yes and the price was $5000.00. Shoulda, woulda, coulda……
I owned a Griffith 600 coupe back in 1970 it had the Chrysler 273 mated with torque flite automatic.I have pictures and the Car and Driver article about the problems he had at the Syosset NY location. I understand he only built about 18 vehicles .
Unable to find a buyer at that time I traded it for Triump TR6.😞
I grew up in Syosset and a friend had a Griffith 200 another still has a TVR Tuscan V8 one of 11 LHD. I had 69 Vixen. We would ride our bicycles to Halesite where Jerry Sagerman was putting TVRs together. There were a hell of alot more Griffiths made than what you state.
When it comes to the number of Griffith 600 coupe produced, John Bannigan overestimated the number of cars produced! I asked Grok.AI to look into it and Grok replied: “The exact number of Griffith 600 coupes produced is debated, with sources citing between 6 and 10 vehicles. Bonhams Cars and Paula Reisner of Intermeccanica state that only 6 bodies were sent to Griffith Motorcars, making 6 the most likely number. However, some sources, like Conceptcarz.com, suggest up to 10 may have been produced. The limited production was due to financial difficulties and a dock strike disrupting supply chains.
I looked into one of the sources Grok used and believe 6 is the right number with all but 2 fitted with the 4 speed and 2 were automatics: https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/28009/lot/167/1967-griffith-series-600-coupe-chassis-no-6006009/
The Trump TR6 is a far better car, you won in that deal.
Why do they have to look like Ferraris to be desirable? Personally, I appreciate the variety of looks. Also, wouldn’t a basic list of what I call affordable “Hybrids” (Euro cars with US powertrains) include Jenson Interceptors? Then there is the relatively unknown (to most journalists) Bitter CD, with the Corvette V8, offered in Europe from 1974-1979. Yes, they are rare, but with over 400 made, I would be willing to bet they are easier to find than a Ghia 450SS (with under 60 made).
Hmmm. Ferrari wannabes… They are all in the 6 figure range for a really nice one, very expensive otherwise, and all near half a century old.
Why not just buy something newer (heck ,NEW!) that is faster, better handling, maybe with a warranty that will have an upside in the future? C8 Corvette? Alfa 4C, even some Porsches, or perhaps a new Supra. We can all talk about the cars that we missed out on, but now you can have among the best ever, for less cost than an expensive to maintain classic. Best to buy one fresh(er) and maintain it yourself, keeping it in top shape, rather than a garage queen that has had only 100 miles a year for the last 20 years…
These are all very nice cars on this list, but none are easy to own. The cars are made up of more than their engines (which may need rebuilding, anyway). They are leather interiors, electrical systems, bushings, tires… The engines are the cheap part, but the rest of the car?
I am doing a restoration of a car that I have always wanted, and always progresses more slowly than I would like, especially considering my advanced age. At the time I bought the car, I could have bought something new, that was also on my “favorite dream car” list. I don’t have any regrets, but I do know that I could be driving one of my dream cars NOW…
This list? Well, the Iso is nice, but I have actually driven one… Didn’t have power steering… Panteras and the earlier Mangusta, very nice but need lots of little changes to keep the things working. Most are not driven much because of the little problems with fried plug wires, cooling system maintenance, suspension… Never ending. Worth the trouble, maybe, but unless you want to pay nearly $200/hr for labor, and are perhaps way over 60… There is another way. Drive some new stuff. Some of it is fantastic.
“Sports Bastards” is the way one author put it in an article on Euro-bodied, American-engined cars, the likes of Railton, Brough Superior, Allard, etc., as well as the Ferarri-esque marques you note above. Wish l could lay my hands on the book that contains it (it’s in my “collection” somewhere).
I have a bone to pick with the media regarding how they depict the Detomaso Pantera in photos. Almost all internet or published articles showing a Pantera use photos of not-stock bodied and painted cars. They do not do justice to the car’s design.
In the story here, the other cars are shown in all their glory with stock bodied photos in vibrant original colors. As is so often the case, however, the Pantera in the photo here has a not-stock paint job, pin striping, aftermarket wheels, and add-on fender flares and front air dam. (Although I was glad to see the story’s lead photo use a stock looking Pantera on a racetrack, couldn’t they have used one where the headlights were properly and appropriately closed?)
The paint job, in particular, is especially egregious. A stock painted Pantera had matte black rocker panels, front air dam and the lower rear back panel. Tom Tjaarda, the car’s designer, always talked proudly about how the matte black sections reduced the bulk and lowered the look of the car, evoking the power, speed and grace of a panther at full speed.
The Pantera was a 70’s-era wedge design that has aged pretty well in my opinion. It really doesn’t need to be modified to look its best.
unfortunately, it is rare to find a non-modified Pantera.
That may be true for engines and drivetrains but not so much anymore for exteriors. With so many Panteras getting restored, more and more are going for a stock exterior. And that is reflected in the rising values for Panteras.
Panteras are drivers. Properly maintained cars are quite reliable. One of the reasons for this is the active Pantera community and vendors. Engine, mechanical, electric, tire, and driver upgrades keep getting stronger and they make the cars better in all respects.
Pantera for me but I would not say no to any of these.
Any modification to a Pantera other than a Coyote swap is sacrilege!!!
Herbie the Love Bug features the Apollo GT as the “Thorndike Special”. I always thought it was a beautiful car.
I remember in the mid 90’s, Apollo GT’s being valued at around $12k. Then a guy had an ad in the paper trying to sell one for $25k. I was thinking: “good luck”. Things sure have changed.
I still think the Pantera is one of the most beautiful cars ever made.
I went to the New York Auto Show. 1970 or 1971? The Pantera was on display. Wow! I never forgot that car. With enough overtime, I thought I could actually buy one!
But then I got married lol
Coincidentally, a Honda “Civic maybe” was on display. Something new. I sat in it. Barely. Squeezed the door between my fingers and it popped like a beer can. Then my two buddies picked the rear end of the floor.
Ok back to the Pantera for the eleventh time.
What about the Machiavelli built on a WS6 TransAm?
They never made it into production, but I would take an AMX/3 over anything. I got to see a brand new red one at the AMC tent at the Watkins Glen Trans Am race. Stunning.
I’ve seen a couple of Italias and they are truly beautiful cars. Robert Cumberford is responsible for the exterior design and he did an amazing job.