Ever heard about the brand called Monteverdi, I didnt up untill yesterday, when i was surfing through the internet and came across a reddit post that showcased Jay Leno’s garage and in the amidst of his other intresting collection my eyes glanced over a very pecular looking coupe, which shared its resemblance with 70s italian sports cars, but the badge eluded me, I couldnt recogonaize the brand, but luckily in an age of AI a small google search with a picture, led me to all the answers i was looking for: It was a Monteverdi High Speed 375S. A bit of research disclosed some pretty interesting aspects about this Swiss-originated, Italian-designed, and American-powered car: one that once dared to stand toe to toe with “El Commendatore” himself, the true godfather of all sports cars. Naturally, the peculiar story of this manufacturer and its founder has piqued my interest. And now, I would like to share this amazing story with the readers of “The Cornea Impressions” as well.
The Man Behind The Name
In short, the story of Peter Monteverdi starts with a local automotive mechanic in Switzerland and ends as a Luxury car maker, but the interesting bits lie in between these two limits of his life. Peter Monteverdi was born on 7 June 1934 in Binningen, Switzerland, where his father ran an automotive garage, which played a big part in shaping Monteverdi’s future in the car business.
In 1956, Monteverdi took over his late father’s business and turned it into his base operations for his automobile exploits and shenanigans, which mainly consisted of him designing and building his own cars and taking part in various forms of motorsports. Monteverdi showcased his engineering prowess as early as his teen years, when he built his first-ever car, for which he sourced the parts by ravaging a scrapped FIAT 1100.
Partnership with Enzo Ferrari
In his twenties, Monteverdi’s passion for speed and competition eventually led him to Maranello: The homeland of Ferrari. While in Italy, Monteverdi formed a privateer race team through which he acquired several Ferrari cars to prep them for racing. He took part in various forms of motorsports, from weekly hill climb competitions to coveted endurance races across Europe, the Nurburgring 1000km being one of the most notable ones, achieving a fair amount of success and notoriety among the racing fans and the big hitters of the sport, one of them was none other than Enzo Ferrari.
While Peter Monteverdi was making a name for himself in the racing circuits in Italy, he still kept his roots firm in Switzerland, more specifically, his father’s automotive garage which he operated and used it to build his own racing specials under the MBM moniker to raced them, eventually he turned his garage into a full fledge dealership representing brands like BMW and Lancia, and this is where Monteverdis story gets intresting.In 1957, due to his close association with Enzo Ferrari, Monteverdi managed to acquire the distribution rights for the Ferrari brand, making him the youngest ever official Ferrari dealer in the world at a meagre age of 23. As time went on, Monteverdi expanded his business, acquiring licenses for renowned luxury marques such as Rolls-Royce and Bentley, along with designing his own racecars and competing in them.
The Journey into Formula One
In the early 1960s, as his fortune grew, Monteverdi took a foray into building junior formula race cars, selling them to privateer teams in the junior category, under the MBM moniker, This success and Monteverdi’s ever growing hunger for more led to MBM designing a Fomula One car and debuting it in a non championship round in 1961’s solitude Grand Prix marking a debut for first ever Swiss formula one race car.
Peter Monteverdi, as ambitious as he was, couldn’t resist the opportunity to compete in a Formula One race in Hockenheim, Germany, where he subsequently crashed, writing off the car and putting an end to his Formula One career as a driver. Monteverdi still kept his hopes for returning to the Formula One circus one day as a manufacturer, which he almost made happen for the 1990 season, but it led to nothing and became a final nail in Monteverdi’s Formula One dreams once and for all.
Monteverdi, The Car Manufacturer
After recovering from his career-ending crash at Hockenheim, things back at Beningen were taking a hit, the dealership empire Monteverdi built was going through a slight dull patch, and to make matters worse, Old Man Ferrari, demanded Monteverdi buy a inventory of 100 ferrari GT cars and pay the lump sum upfront, which infuriated Monteverdi, a few verbal back and forth the partnership between Ferrari and Monteverdi came to an end.
After losing his right to import Ferraris in Switzerland, Monteverdi was hell bent to one-up Enzo Ferrari, and similarly to Ferruccio Lamborghini and Giotto Bizzarrini, Monteverdi decided that the best way to put Enzo Ferrari in his place was to build a rival manufacturer and shut his company down.
With the passion for revenge driving his motivations, Monteverdi took to the drawing board to plan his next big thing, which would take on Ferrari in his own game. In 1967, the fruits of his labour took fruition in the form of the first-ever Monteverdi production model: The Monteverdi High Speed 375S took the stage at the Frankfurt Auto show, debuting with a positive response.
The Monteverdi High Speed 375S
First in line among the few interesting models that Monteverdi managed to produce is the Monteverdi High Speed 375S, released in 1967 with a warm reception. The High Speed 375S was a GT designed and hand-built by Carrozzeria Frua, an Italian coach builder, and the engine was sourced from Chrysler. It was a 440 cubic-inch V8, which was capable of producing 375hp at the time, making it the most powerful option among its compatriots. It’s claimed top speed at the time was 152MPH, matching the Ferrari 275 GTB/4
.As impressive as the Monteverdi High Speed 375S was, Enzo Ferrari barely budged his eyebrows in Monteverdi’s direction since his cars were not only cheaper compared to the High Speed 375S, besides he also had too much faith in his European V12 engines compared to Monteverdi’s borrowed V8 from the States.
Nonetheless, the Monteverdi brand soldiered on, selling enough High Speed 375S with occasional fresh upgrades and different iterations, keeping the High Speed 375S relevant in its category, but early quality issues plagued the Monteverdi brand, and the sales were drying up for the High Speed 375S. Peter Monteverdi, as was his nature, didn’t stop at that; he went ahead and commissioned a uniquely looking Monteverdi Hai, in the hope of attracting some attention back to his ailing brand. The Monteverdi Hai came equipped with a more exciting Chrysler engine, which claimed to have a top speed of 187 Mph. However, unique styling, exciting engine, and mouth-watering top speed didn’t help the cause with just two Monteverdi Hai ever produced.
A failed attempt at the Monteverdi Hai didn’t lower Peter Monteverdi’s spirits. In the year 1976, he took a leap of faith in a category that, unbeknownst to everyone, was about to become all the rage in the 21st century, the SUV market. Peter Monteverdi dabbled in producing a luxury SUV: The Monteverdi Safari, based on the International Harvester Scout, rivalling the likes of the Range Rover. Monteverdi found a much-needed success in the Safari SUV as it outsold the Range Rover models in Europe despite commanding a huge premium compared to the Range Rover.
And as luck would have it, Peter Monetverdi’s coachbuilding business was among the first in Europe to convert the regular Range Rover to four doors, even before Range Rover did it themselves. Along with the four-door conversion, Monteverdi offered a premium interior as well, and the converted Range Rovers were sold through select Land Rover dealers with factory backed warranty, for which Monteverdi was paid handsomely. But unfortunately, this lucrative payday day wasnt enough to keep the failing car manufacturer afloat, and in 1982, Monteverdi Automotive closed shop. As I have mentioned above, in 1990, Peter Monteverdi tried to stage an ultimate comeback with a Formula One Team named Onyx F1, which didn’t result in anything substantial, officially marking an end to Peter Monteverdi’s automotive adventures.
Sadly, in 1998, Peter Monteverdi passed away, leaving a legacy of competing at the highest form of motorsports, taking on the sports car mogul Enzo Ferrari in his own turf and every other shenanigans he could think of with cars, he did it.
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