Peter Monteverdi, a descendant of composer Claudio Monteverdi, first made his name as a racecar driver and he also built, sold, and raced a number of "specials" called MBM.

Monteverdi was a Swiss brand of luxury cars created in 1967 by Peter Monteverdi (1934–1998) and based in Binningen on the southern edge of Basel, Switzerland.  Monteverdi produced a series of exclusive high-performance luxury sports and touring cars. In 1992, Monteverdi tried to re-enter the car scene with the Monteverdi Hai 650 F1 with no success. Two prototypes have been built, all residing in the Monteverdi Museum in Basel.

 

Headquarters Binningen, Switzerland

high speed 375l  1967-1976

The Monteverdi High Speed is a series of sports cars with different bodies produced from 1967-1976 by Swiss automaker Monteverdi. The High Speed series included several coupe models, a convertible and a sedan. In addition, the Coupé Berlinetta and the Cabriolet Palm Beach also belong to the model family.

Generally, the Monteverdi High Speed series models are described as uncomplicated technically. They were based on a box frame of square steel tubes. The design of the frame was Monteverdi's own; The chassis was manufactured by Stahlbau AG in Muttenz in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, which according to some information at least momentarily belonged to Monteverdi.

Between 1967 and 1976 Monteverdi presented a variety of variants of the High Speed series of models. All of these models have been uniformly designated by the factory as High Speed 375 (denominating the engine's power in SAE gross); they carried suffixes identifying coupés on standard wheelbase, short coupés, convertibles, and sedans.

In general, two series can be distinguished. The first series, produced from 1967 to 1968, included a handful of coupés designed and built by Pietro Frua in Turin. The second, much more numerous series debuted in the summer of 1968 and ended in 1976. These are vehicles that were largely (but not exclusively) built at the Carrozzeria Fissore in Savigliano. The first vehicles bodied by Carrozzeria Fissore still used Frua's design; from 1969 there was a new, Fissore-designed body, from which various derivatives were developed.

The first model, the High Speed 375 S, was a two-seater coupé with a body designed by Pietro Frua in Turin. Some of the Monteverdi's details continued features of Frua's earlier work, with notable similarities to the Maserati Mistral and the British AC 428.

Alongside the regular two-seater coupé, Frua developed an extended version designed as a 2+2-seater on behalf of Monteverdi. 

The German magazine Auto Motor und Sport tested a high-speed 375 L with a 7.2-liter engine in spring, 1972 and measured a top speed of  229 km/h and 0–100 km/h  8.2 seconds.

The Monteverdi was about at the level of the British Jensen Interceptor, but did not match the performance of cars such as the Aston Martin V8 or the Maserati Indy.

HAI

 

set of hai 450 red and brown   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGXQlmWaUtI

hai 450ss  1970-1973

The Monteverdi Hai 450 SS was a mid-engined prototype, an attempt to create a full sports car complementing the company's High Speed line. It was intended to be a direct competitor to the top of the list super sports cars of Lamborghini, Ferrari and Maserati.

A magenta Hai 450 SS prototype debuted at the 1970 Geneva Auto Show. It had a 6.974-cc  V8 from Chrysler positioned behind the two front seats. It took its name from the output of the engine, and the German word for shark.  The body was presumably designed by Trevor Fiore, of Carrozzeria Fissore, although some sources credit Pietro Frua.  A second car was made with a longer wheelbase and minor detail changes like door handles and red bodywork. This car was named the Hai 450 GTS to mark the changes.

Monteverdi initially planned to produce 49 copies, but the production was halted after the two prototypes. Only one car was actually sold, although in a 1974 interview Peter Monteverdi claimed to have delivered eleven of the cars. In the 1990s, two additional replicas from spare parts were made by Monteverdi, those now reside in the Swiss National Transport Museum in Luzern.

high speed 375/4  1971-1976

The culmination of the High Speed series was a large four-door sedan called the 375/4 which first appeared in 1971. The wheelbase of the vehicle was extended to 3.15 meters, while the key technical data - particularly the driveline - remained unchanged.

The 375 L front end was retained until the A-pillar, followed by four wide-opening doors (with door handles from the Fiat 128). The interior was fully upholstered in leather and equipped with air conditioning, power windows, and on request a Sony TV and a bar. The car could be used as a chauffeured limousine, with several copies delivered with a partition between the driver and passenger compartments. External details were repeatedly modified, sometimes to meet the ever changing regulatory landscape of the 1970s and sometimes in response to customer requests. One late model, for example, was delivered with single rectangular headlamps borrowed from the Ford Granada, a matte black radiator grille, and rubber-covered bumpers.

The tail lights were originally from the Alfa Romeo Giulia, as on the 375 L 2+2, but later these were replaced by Triumph TR6 units. Those lights had first been used by Monteverdi for the 1972 Berlinetta, and gave the sedan a more modern appearance.

safari 1976-1982

The Monteverdi Safari is a Swiss luxury SUV first presented by Peter Monteverdi in 1976. It entered into production in 1977. Production came to an end in 1982, after production of the International Harvester Scout (upon which the Safari was based, and with which the Safari shared many parts) came to an end. There was also a lower-priced version called the Sahara, which retained the Scout's original bodywork with some modifications.

Despite the manufacturer’s tradition as a supercar manufacturer, the 1977 domestic market price of CHF 39,000 was only CHF 5,000 higher than that of the less well-appointed Range Rover. There were relatively few luxury SUVs offered in Europe at this time, and while the Safari’s sales volumes were dwarfed by those of the Range Rover, they were high compared to the company’s other models targeted at the higher end of the Maserati/Ferrari class. The body was built by Fissore, with whom Monteverdi had a long standing relationship.

Standard equipment was originally a Chrysler 5.2 litre V-8 engine delivering a claimed 152 PS. The torque and added displacement gave it a significant performance advantage over the 3.5 litre-engined Range Rover of the time. A 5.7 litre 165 PS International Harvester V8 engine was also offered, and the manufacturers maintained that the drive train components were also engineered to be able to accommodate Chrysler’s 7.2 litre 305 PS unit. In its 5.2 litre form, the vehicle achieved a maximum speed of 165 km/h and took 13.1 seconds to reach 100 km/h from a standing start.

1967-now