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Car of the Month - July 2006

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Monteverdi_High_Speed_375_L_Fissore_1971

Monteverdi High Speed 375 L - coupe body by Fissore - manufactured in 1971

Switzerland is an Alpine country in the middle of Europe which is best known for its watches and its banks. Less well known is its engineering heritage, yet it has a tradition of bringing forth precise and meticulous engineers which favour durable designs. The most noted example of that in the automobile sector was probably Marc Birkigt of Hispano-Suiza fame, a famous Spanish prestige marque which honored its Swiss engineer by including his nationality in the brand name. Completely Swiss built cars hardly ever came to international attention, in contrast to Swiss built trucks and particularly buses like those of Saurer or Berna.
Never the less Switzerland does have a car building history. Before World War 2 there were makes like Martini and Picard-Pictet ("Pic-Pic") which made luxury cars that were liked in the Alpine countries, but ultimately proved to be too expensive to be successful. After the war there was at least one Swiss manufacturer who attracted the attention of car enthusiasts: Peter Monteverdi from Binningen near Basel.
Monteverdi was a car dealer and ex-race car driver who dreamed about making his own sportscars. In the 1950s he started to construct specials and racing cars under the MBM name ("Monteverdi Binningen Motors") which even lead to a Formula 1 car in the early 1960s. After a few years of reorganization Monteverdi presented his first self-named car: the Monteverdi High Speed 400 SS. It was officially introduced at the 1967 Frankfurt Motorshow as a luxury sports car. It was fitted with a striking coupe body made by Frua after sketches by Peter Monteverdi which looked a bit like a cross between a Maserati Mistral and an Aston Martin DBS. Underneath the elegant body there was a simple but rigid steel frame and a big 7-litre Chrysler V8 producing about 400 hp, which explains the model name. The 400 SS remained a prototype and was replaced by the 375 S as a production model; the only distinction being one instead of two four-barrel carburettors on the engine.
In 1968 a companion model was introduced: the High Speed 375 L. This was a longer 2+2 version of the 375 S model and proved to be the most popular. That same year Monteverdi got into an argument with Frua who couldn't supply the desired number of bodies but demanded a license fee for each body produced elsewhere. Being a frugal Swiss, Monteverdi refused to pay the fee and instead decided to redesign the body with the help of another Italian coachbuilder, Fissore, who could supply the needed amount of hand made bodies. This way the second series of High Speed models was introduced in 1969.

The revised High Speed models slightly resembled the Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 in appearance and were considered a tad more plain than the preceding Frua designs, but still they were elegant and appealing cars. The High Speed 375 L model like is shown here had 380 hp under the bonnet which was good for a maximum speed of about 250 kph. Placement of the heavy Chrysler big-block engine was as close to the passenger compartment as possible to make the weight distribution almost equal between front and rear wheels, which ensured a good road holding. Downside was that there was little to block the engine noise from the compartment, making it a very noisy car to drive.
In 1972 the front and rear of the High Speed models was changed, making the cars look more aggressive with a narrow grill and squared off headlights. Also a new Chrysler Hemi engine was fitted, giving the cars about 10 kph more speed. The best looking High Speed derivative appeared in 1975 as the Palm Beach: a 3-seater convertible with a detuned engine which looked very sleek.
By then the production of the High Speed coupes had already ended. Though exact production figures are undisclosed it is assumed that the last High Speed coupe left the factory in 1973. Total production is rated differently from one source to the next, but a good guess is about fifty 375 L models and around twenty 375 S models. Today values compare to those of similar sized Ferraris, but Monteverdis are very hard to find and don't change hands often. These cars are really only for those interested in the exotic and unique.

The end of the High Speed models wasn't the end of Monteverdi however. The company went on producing luxury sedans and 4x4 cars in the Range Rover idiom, and more or less ended with a bang with a Monteverdi Formula 1 car which was entered in the 1990/1991 seasons and based on the old Onyx chassis.
You can find out more about the Monteverdi cars at the "Monteverdi Swiss Dream Cars" site.

© André Ritzinger, Amsterdam, Holland

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