A rare 12 quart magnesium oil pan for the SBC. These were designed and used by Giotto Bizzarrini in his 1964 LeMans cars along with a custom cross ram manifold for over 400 hp.
Bizzarrini's A3C cars were high speed long distance racers and through severe testing Bizzarrini found flaws with GM's oil pans. Hence the 12 quart boxed design. He also designed a pan for the Iso Rivolta GT Strada (street) cars. Bizzarrini w Renzo Rivolta approached GM with the oiling problems they had discovered and offered to build pans for GM, but were turned down. GM explained that people shouldn't be driving that fast (over 70MPH) for long periods.
The LeMans P 538 The car was running well at LeMans until a crew member jacked up the car using the frame and cracked it. To save weight Bizzarrini ran the oil and water cooling lines inside the tubular frame of the car, so it was a DNF.
Pfssssh, Who doesn't HAVE a sbc mag oil pan in their shop? Kidding, that is one NON belly button part for sure.
A Bizzarini 5300 GT Strada alloy coupe just sold at auction in Paris for $462k in condition 3. That oil pan is so good looking I'd use it for an air filter! ;-)
Those pans are very rare. As with any magnesium part, corrosion is the enemy. The pans have some thin sections, so it doesn't take much corrosion for a hole to form. The intake pic you posed is of a fabricated manifold. There was a cast magnesium manifold too. It was also for side draft Webers. It looks similar to a Moon in some ways, but there are actually quite a few differences. One big difference is that the carb linkage was a pair of shafts that run on ball bearings that are mounted on bosses cast into the manifold. The two shafts are geared together. I have a pic of showing one of those manifolds. If anyone is interested I can post it. based on something I'm not remembering, I believe the magnesium pan, magnesium, intake, and the magnesium rear brake calipers used on the Bizzarrini cars, were all cast in Italy.
Correct The brakes were Campagnolo Early intakes were hand made, later were cast using the mechanical mechanism you describe. Most people don't know it, but after Bizzarrini left Ferrari he designed and built the Lamborghini V12 engine for Mr Lamborghini. His knowledge of engines was good and he was able to pump 400 HP out of the 327 with no factory help.
Maybe , but if it was non of these hard core US hot rodders would know that there were other guys outside the USA modifying American iron.
That is one rare piece of equipment there. Giotto Bizzarrini himself is quite the automotive engineer and designer. The list of vehicles he had a hand in designing or engineering is pretty impressive. He is supposed to be still at it today teaching and working on projects in Rome.
The Jalopy Journal
