Penthouse (pronounced pent-hous)
(1) An
apartment or dwelling on the roof of a building, usually set back from the
outer walls.
(2) Any
specially designed apartment on an upper floor, especially the top floor, of a
building.
(3) A
structure on a roof for housing elevator machinery, a water tank etc.
(4) Any
roof-like shelter or overhanging part.
(5) In
Real Tennis, a corridor having a slanted roof and projecting from three walls
of the court.
(6) As
mechanical penthouse, a floor, usually directly under a flat-roof, used to
house mechanical plant & equipment.
(7) A
special-interest magazine, aimed at a mostly male audience and published in
several editions by a variety of owners since 1965.
1520–1530:
Despite the appearance penthouse is not a portmanteau (pent + house) word. Penthouse is an alteration (by folk
etymology) of the Middle English pentis, pentiz
& pendize (and other spellings),
from the Old French apentiz & apentis (appendage, attached building), the
construct being apent (past
participle of apendre (to hang
against)) + -iz (the French -is )
from the unattested Vulgar Latin –ātīcium
(noun use of neuter of the unattested –ātīcius,
the construct being the Latin -āt(us) (past participle suffix) + -īcius (the adjectival suffix)). Old French picked up apentis from the Medieval Latin appendicium
(from the Classical Latin appendo (to
hang) & appendere (to hang from). A less common alternative variant to describe
a shed with a sloping roof projecting from a wall or the side of a building was
pentice. Penthouse is a noun; the noun plural is penthouses.
One of the most admired of the
trans-Atlantic hybrids of the post-war years (1945-1973) which combined elegant
coachwork, (hopefully) high standards of craftsmanship and the effortless, low-cost
power of large-capacity American V8 engines, the Iso Grifo was produced between
1965-1974 by the Italian manufacturer Iso Autoveicoli. Styled by Bertone’s Giorgetto Giugiaro (b
1938) with engineering handled by the gifted Giotto Bizzarrini (1926-2023), the
Grifo initially used a 327 cubic inch (5.3 litre) version of the small-block
Chevrolet V8, coupled with the equally ubiquitous Borg-Warner four & five speed
manual gearbox or robust General Motors (GM) automatics. Later, after some had been built with the
big-block Chevrolet V8, GM began to insist on being paid up-front for hardware
so Iso negotiated with the more accommodating Ford Motor Company and switched
to 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) versions of their 335 (Cleveland) engine.
Iso was already familiar with the mechanical configuration,
production of their Rivolta coupe, equipped also with the Chevrolet 327, having
begun in 1962. The Rivolta, let alone
the Grifo was quite a change of direction for Iso which until then had produced
a variety of appliances, scooters & moto-cycles, it’s most famous product
the Isetta, one of the generation of “bubble cars” which played such a part in
putting Europeans back on (three or four) wheels during the re-construction of
the post-war years. Surprisingly,
despite the prominence of the Isetta name and the Italian association, barely a
thousand were actually manufactured by Iso, the overwhelming majority produced
in many countries by BMW and others to which the a license was granted. Powered by tiny two and four-stroke engines,
their popularity waned as “real” cars such as the Fiat 500 (1955) and later the
Mini (1959) emerged; although costing little more than the bubble cars, they
offered more space, performance and practicality. By the early 1960s, the bubble cars were
driven almost extinct but, as a tiny specialized niche, they never completely
vanished and the Isetta is enjoying a twenty-first century revival as model
urban transportation, including the option of electric propulsion.
The Rivolta was thus quite a jump up-market and, while the engine wasn't the bespoke thoroughbred found in a Ferrari or Aston-Martin, the rest of the specification justified the high price. Unlike some of the British interpretations
using American V8s, Iso insisted on modernity, the platform probably the best
of the era, the body welded to a pressed-steel chassis, a combination
which proved both light and stiff. Just
as importantly, given the high rate of corporate failure among those attracted
to this potentially lucrative market, it was cost-effective to manufacture,
reliable and easy to service. Probably
the feature which let it rank with the most accomplished of the era was the
sophisticated de Dion rear suspension which, combined with four wheel disc
brakes, lent it a rare competence. The
de Dion design was not an independent arrangement but certainly behaved as if
it was and, despite what Mercedes-Benz claimed of their beloved swing-axles,
was superior to many of the independent setups on offer. A noted benefit of the de Dion system is it ensures the rear wheels remain always parallel, quite an important feature
in an axle which has to transmit to the road the high torque output of a big
V8, a lesson Swiss constructor Peter Monteverdi (1934–1998) applied later in
the decade when he went into production using even bigger engines. Iso, with a solid base in accounting and
production-line economics, ran an efficient and profitable operation not beset
by the recurrent financial crises which afflicted so many and the elegant
Rivolta was a success, remaining available until 1970. Some eight hundred were sold.
The Rivolta’s platform proved adaptable. In 1965, Iso released the Grifo coupé, more overtly oriented to outright performance and strictly a two-seater. With lovely lines and a modified version of the Rivolta’s fine chassis, the Grifo was another product of the fertile imaginations of Giugiaro & Bizzarrini but, in something not untypical in Italian industry of the time, the relationship between the latter and Iso’s founder Renzo Rivolta (1908–1966) soon became strained and was sundered. Bizzarrini would go on to do remarkable things and Iso’s engineers assumed complete control of the Grifo after the first few dozen had been completed. Bizzarrini had pursued a twin-stream development, a competition version called the A3/C with a lower, lightweight aluminum body as well as the road-going A3/L and when he decamped, he took with him the A3/C, to be released also under his name while Iso devoted its attentions to the A3/L, again using engine-transmission combinations borrowed from the Corvette.
The Grifo weighed a
relatively svelte 1430 kg (3153 lbs) in what must have been a reasonably slippery
shape because the reports at the time confirmed some 240 km/h (150 mph) was easily attained, an increase on that managed by the Corvette and, when configured with the taller gearing the factory offered, the factory claimed 260 km/h (162 mph), was
possible. A test in the UK in 1966 almost matched that with a verified 161 mph (259 km/h) recorded and two year later, the US publication Car & Driver 1968 tested a 327 Grifo but didn't to a top-speed run, instead estimating 157 mph (253 km/h) should be possible given enough road. There were surprisingly few
variations, fewer than two-dozen made with a targa-style removable roof panel
and a single, achingly lovely roadster was displayed on Bertone's stand at the 1964 Geneva Motor
Show; it remained a one-off although a couple of coupés privately have been
converted.
The bodywork was
revised in 1970, subsequent cars listed as series two models. The revisions included detail changes to the
interior, improvements to the increasingly popular air-conditioning system and
some alterations to the body structure, the hydraulics and the electrical
system, most necessitated by new regulatory requirements by some European
countries but required mostly in an attempt to remain compliant with the more
onerous US legislation. The most obvious
change was to the nose, the headlamps now partially concealed by flaps which
raised automatically when the lights were activated. Presumably the smoother nose delivered
improved aerodynamics but the factory made no specific claims, either about
performance or the drag co-efficient (CD) number.
In 1972, an
unexpected change in the power-train was announced. After almost a decade exclusively using Chevrolet engines, Iso issued a press release confirming that henceforth, the
series two Grifo would be powered by Ford’s 351 cubic inch (5.8
litre) 335 series (Cleveland) V8. In the
state of tune chosen by the factory (essentially the same as fellow Italian
specialist De Tomaso were using in their mid-engined Pantera), the Ford engine
was similar in size, weight to the small-block Chevrolet and delivered similar
power and torque characteristics so the driving experience differed
little although there were 22 high-performance Leles using a tuned 351, all with a ZF five-speed manual gearbox. The other improvement in performance was presumably Iso’s balance sheet. The switch had been
made because internal policy changes at GM meant they were now insisting on
being paid up-front for their product whereas Ford was still prepared to offer
an invoice with a payment term. The
change extended to the other models in the range, the Lele coupé and Fidia
saloon and while the Chevrolet/Ford split in the Lele was 125/157, the circumstances of the time meant that of the 192 Fidias made, only 35 were fitted with the 351.
One of the trends which
made machines of the 1960s so memorable was a tendency never to do in
moderation what could be done in excess.
In 1968, Iso announced the Grifo 7 Litre, built following the example of
the US manufacturers who had with little more than a pencil and the back of an
envelope worked out the economics of simple seven litre engines were more
compelling than adding expensive components like overhead camshafts and
fuel-injection to five litre engines.
Petrol was, of course, cheap and limitless. Petrol actually wasn’t as cheap in Italy or
the rest of Europe but Iso’s target market for the Grifo was those who either
could afford the running costs or (increasingly) paid their bills with other
people’s money (OPM) so fuel consumption wasn’t something often
considered. The new version used a 427
cubic inch (7.0 litre) version of the big-block Chevrolet V8, bigger and heavier
than the 327 so the driving characteristics of the nose-heavy machine were
changed but contemporary reports praised the competence of the chassis, the de
Dion rear-end notably superior in behavior compared with the Corvette’s independent
rear suspension although some did note it took skill and often a sense of
restraint, effectively to use the prodigious power. Tellingly, the most receptive market for the Grifos, small and big-block, was the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, the old West Germany) with its network of highways without the tiresome speed limits elsewhere imposed and (even in Italy), often enforced. The autobahn really was the Grifo's native environment.
Faster it certainly was although the factory’s claim of a top speed of 186 mph (a convenient 300 km/h) did seem optimistic to anyone with a slide-rule and there appears not to be any record of anyone verifying the number although one published test did claim to have seen well over 255 km/h (150 mph) with the Grifo still "strongly accelerating" before “running out of road”. It had by then become a genuine problem. Gone were the happy times when testers still did their work on public roads; increased traffic volumes by the late 1960s meant the often deserted stretches of highway (in 1956 an English journalist had taken a Mercedes-Benz 300SLR Coupé to 183 mph (294 km/h) on the autobahn) were now rare but whatever the terminal velocity, nobody seemed to suggest the 7 litre Grifo lacked power. In 1970, after Iso’s stock of the by-then out-of-production 427 were exhausted, the big-block car was re-named Can-Am and equipped instead with a 454 cubic inch (7.5 litre) version, the name an allusion to the unlimited displacement Group 7 sports car racing series run in North America in which the big-block Chevrolets were long the dominant engine. Despite the increased displacement, power actually dropped a little because the 454 was detuned a little to meet the then still modest anti-emission regulations.
Unlike the 427 which breathed through three two barrel carburetors, the 454 was equipped with less intricate induction, a single four barrel and, officially, output dropped from 435 horsepower to 390 but, these were gross (SAE) numbers and Detroit’s high-performance engines in this era were rated at something around what a manufacturer thought would be acceptable (all things considered), rather than an absolutely accurate number but the 454 certainly was just a little less potent than the 427 although it's probable few owners often went fast enough to tell the difference. What didn’t change between the 7 Litre and the Can Am was its most distinctive feature, the modification to the hood (bonnet) made to ensure the additional height of the 427's induction system could be accommodated. The raised central section, the factory dubbed "the penthouse".
Not everyone admired the stark simplicity, supposing, not unreasonably, that Giugiaro might have done something more in sympathy with its surroundings. Critics more stern would have preferred a curvaceous scoop or bulge and thought the penthouse amateurish, an angular discordance bolted unhappily atop Giugiaro’s flowing lines but for those brought up in the tradition of brutalist functionalism, it seemed an admirable tribute to what lay beneath. The days of the big-block Grifo were however numbered. In 1972, with Chevrolet no longer willing to extent credit, and Ford’s big-block (429 & 460) engines re-tuned as low-emission (for the time) units suitable for pickup trucks and luxury cars, the Can-Am was retired. So the small-block 351 Grifo became the sole model in the range but it too fell victim to changing times, production lasting not long beyond the first oil shock in October 1973 which made petrol suddenly not only much more expensive but sometimes also scarce and the whole ecosystem of the trans-Atlantic machines became threatened and in little more than a year, Iso was one of the many dinosaurs driven extinct. Decades later, the survivors of the 412 sold are highly desirable; fine examples of the small-block Grifos attract over US$500,000, the few dozen penthouse cars can sell for up to a million and the rare early A3/Cs for well over.
Not
fans of brutalist functionalism were the Lancia-loving types at Road &
Track (R&T) magazine in the US. Late
in 1974, R&T published their 1975 buyer’s guide for imported and
domestically-built smaller cars (R&T neither approving of nor
understanding why anyone would wish to buy a big American car) and surprisingly, there were
reviews of the Grifo, Lele and Fidia although the last of these sold in the US
some two years earlier had been titled as 1973 models, the company having never
sought to certification to continue sales although, given nothing had been done
to modify them to meet the new safety regulations, that would likely have
been pointless unless the strategy was to seek a "low volume"
exemption, something improbable by 1975.
The distributors had however indicated to the press all three would
return to the US market in 1975, supplying publicity photographs which included
a Series II "penthouse" Grifo although the big-block cars hadn't been
built in Italy since 1972. A further
complication was that during 1974, Ford had discontinued production of the
high-performance 351 (the "Cleveland" 335 series) V8 so it wasn't
clear what power-train would have been used.
Others had the same problem, De Tomaso (which withdrew from the US
market in 1974) switching to use tuned versions of the Australian-built
Cleveland 351s but for Iso, the whole issue became irrelevant as the factory
was closed late in 1974. R&T's last
thoughts on the penthouse appeared in the buyer's guide:
"However, the clean lines of the original Grifo have been spoiled by that terrible looking outgrowth on the hood used for air cleaner clearance. For US$28,500 (around US$150,000 in 2024 $ although direct translation of such a value is difficult to calculate because of the influence of exchange rates), a better solution to this problem should have been found."
View from the penthouse in which Lindsay Lohan lived in 2014, W Residences, Manhattan, New York City.
