Four unusual 1960s sports cars stand out for their engineering, racing links or place in a marque’s history: the ATS 2500 GT, Bizzarrini 5300 GT, Lamborghini 350 GT and Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale. They range from a short-lived independent maker’s mid-engined coupe to a road-going car rooted in a racing project. The available documentation supports these four profiles, not a complete ten-car list, so this article focuses on what can be established about each.
How to read this shortlist
“Unusual” is a more defensible description than “only collectors will recognize.” Familiarity varies, and the available records do not establish that these cars are universally obscure. The four examples below are notable for specific historical reasons, rather than for a claim about how many people know them.
The evidence is not uniform: official marque histories support the Bizzarrini and Lamborghini accounts, while secondary automotive profiles support the ATS and Tipo 33 Stradale details. That matters most when considering production totals and rarity.
ATS 2500 GT: an independent Italian mid-engined coupe
ATS introduced the 2500 GT at the 1963 Geneva Motor Show. The Italian coupe paired a mid-engine layout with a V8, and its development had connections to former Ferrari engineers. Its story is unusual in part because it came from an independent maker rather than an established mass-market marque.
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A secondary automotive profile reports 12 chassis produced and eight completed cars. Those figures describe different things and should not be collapsed into a single production total; they are also secondary-source figures, not a manufacturer-archive tally. See the ATS 2500 GT historical profile.
Bizzarrini 5300 GT: Iso lineage meets endurance racing
Bizzarrini’s official history describes the 5300 GT as the first car from the Livorno-based firm and as an evolution of the Iso A3/L. That lineage makes it more than a standalone rarity: it connects Bizzarrini’s early identity to a car developed from an existing Italian sports-car project.
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The company’s model history also records a class victory at the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans. Bizzarrini gives the winning crew’s average speed as 169 km/h. The figure belongs to that race account and is not a general performance specification for every 5300 GT. Bizzarrini’s 5300 GT history and Le Mans account.
Lamborghini 350 GT: the first production Lamborghini
Lamborghini’s official history identifies the 350 GT as its first production car, launched at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1964. Its V12 began with a competition-minded brief: Giotto Bizzarrini designed it for racing, then Lamborghini engineers adapted it for lower- and medium-speed road use.
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That shift is the model’s defining contrast. The 350 GT brought an engine conceived for competition into a production grand tourer, with its character adjusted for road driving. Lamborghini’s official 350 GT history.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale: a racing project for the road
The Tipo 33 Stradale was the road-going counterpart to Alfa Romeo’s Tipo 33 racing project. A secondary model history credits Franco Scaglione with its design and discusses an ambition to homologate the car. Its appeal lies in that boundary between racing development and road-car purpose.
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Production was extremely small, but the cited profile flags uncertainty around undocumented examples. Without a settled primary-record total, a precise number would overstate what is established. Read the secondary Tipo 33 Stradale model history.
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What makes these cars worth recognizing
- Independent-maker history: ATS shows that the decade’s unusual sports cars were not limited to established manufacturers.
- Marque lineage and competition: the Bizzarrini 5300 GT links the firm to the Iso A3/L and to a 1965 Le Mans class win.
- Road-car milestones: the Lamborghini 350 GT was Lamborghini’s first production car, while the Tipo 33 Stradale translated a racing-derived project into a road-car context.
- Rarity needs careful wording: the ATS figures distinguish chassis from completed cars, and the Tipo 33 Stradale’s exact total is not settled by the cited profile.
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