Monteverdi 375L: taking on the greats

By Richard Heseltine

| 22 Oct 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Monteverdi 375L: taking on the greats

A few minutes ago you had flung yourself into its spell. You were about to realise adolescent fantasies aboard a Monteverdi 375L, but that was then.

A sense of anxiety has since descended, one perhaps indistinguishable from panic.

You are having a crisis of courage, brought about by the narrowness of the hedge-lined roads in this corner of Hertfordshire.

The Monteverdi 375L’s elegantly tapered rear

That and adrenalin magnification: the kind that arrives when you are avoiding goobers who see no reason to slacken their pace or deviate from their chosen line.

We are dealing with dreams here, and dreams are immensely fragile.

This is a car that invites you to envisage being a member of the jet set. You are who you pretend to be, after all.

It conjures soft-focus images of beautiful people not beholden to pedestrian lifepaths, and of locales that are azure and shimmery.

The Monteverdi 375L’s badge alludes to the car’s grand-touring intent

The rarity of the Monteverdi ensures its allure is undimmed by familiarity.

Everything about it projects aloof Euro-glamour, the elegance of its outline an invitation to commit poetry.

It is a car that in so many ways mirrors the man who created it.

Peter Monteverdi was a self-starter who in later years became notorious for spittle-spewing rages; conversely, there are those who are quick to defend him, saying he wasn’t a wrecking ball in human form but gregarious and warm-hearted.

The Monteverdi’s quad headlights sit in the crisply styled front end

Whichever side of the debate you cleave to, it is hard to deny he was the definition of a bootstrap entrepreneur, with all that entails.

For a long time, he was the Swiss motor industry.

Born in Binningen, on the Franco-Swiss border, in June 1934, young Peter was inspired by his father Rosolino, who ran a small garage that specialised in repairing lorries.

Peter embarked on a four-year, after-school apprenticeship at the Saurer truck factory while in his teens, and constructed his first car – a skimpy, Fiat 1100-based roadster – when he was just 17.

‘The Monteverdi 375L is clearly out of its comfort zone on nadgery back-roads; it’s a different story once the landscape unspools’

He inherited the family business five years later, but mending commercial vehicles was a means to an end.

It soon gave way to fixing and modifying sports cars.

From his base on 14 Oberwilerstrasse, Basel, Monteverdi diversified into manufacturing cars under the MBM (Monteverdi Basel Motors) banner.

Perhaps the best-known (read: least obscure) of these was the Tourismo, which used a simple box-section chassis, a 997cc Ford four-cylinder engine and a British bodyshell by Heron Plastics.

This 375L’s rear chairs match the front seats for style

There were sports-racers, too, including one that employed parts taken from a Lotus 12 F2 car, plus assorted Formula Junior single-seaters that were marketed in the USA using the alias Machen.

Monteverdi also built what was perhaps the first-ever Swiss Formula One car, not that this Porsche RSK-powered machine ever started a points-paying Grand Prix.

A modestly talented driver, he destroyed the car and almost himself at Hockenheim in 1961.

The bulky transmission tunnel eats into the Monteverdi 375L’s airy cabin

While convalescing from his injuries, he decided to hang up his helmet and concentrate on his business interests, which at that point also included franchises for Lancia and BMW.

Not that he was done with building cars, but the MBM adventure never amounted to much.

The story behind how Monteverdi came to make big-money exotica is rooted in a myth of his own and others’ creation.

He had acquired his first Ferrari as far back as 1954 and made repeat trips to Italy to acquire parts.

This, in time, led to him becoming the official concessionaire for Switzerland.

The Monteverdi 375L has a strong mid-range and is fast even by today's standards

Legend has it, and may have it apocryphally, that their relationship soured after he received an ultimatum: if you want to retain the gig, you will need to buy 100 cars. Oh, and pay for them up front

He was enraged by this, so decided to ‘do a Lamborghini’ and become a rival player.

You could equally argue there was greater cachet in having your name applied to a sexy über-GT than merely selling them, but that doesn’t make for such a great story.

Besides, the timeline doesn’t fit.

The Monteverdi 375L gets its name from the 7206cc V8’s net output

Whatever the truth, the 7.2-litre Chrysler V8-engined Monteverdi 375S was unveiled at the 1967 Frankfurt motor show.

It was styled by Monteverdi himself, if you believe some news reports from the period (Pietro Frua may have felt aggrieved reading this, his carrozzeria having also been employed to fashion the bodyshells).

Oh, and it cost almost five times as much as a Jaguar E-type.

Monteverdi followed through with the 2+2 High Speed 375L, which emerged in 1969, and the same line spawned both a convertible, with an AC 428-like nose (the 375C), and a four-door saloon variant (the 375/4).

The Monteverdi feels its weight through the helm

The numerical designation alluded to the SAE horsepower rating at 4600rpm (the net figure was closer to 300bhp), and the 440cu in Magnum V8 also produced 480lb ft of torque at 3200rpm.

The steel body here was allied to a beefy square-tube chassis, with the front end suspended by double wishbones and coil springs, plus an anti-roll bar; a de Dion set-up using trailing arms, a transverse Watt linkage and coil springs was employed at the rear.

Adjustable telescopic dampers featured all round.

Autocar reported a faulty fuel gauge in its Monteverdi 375L road test, but this restored car is impeccable

Autocar was both charmed and horrified by the 375L.

It reported: ‘The soft Italian hide was showing signs of wear… An earlier fault in the fuel-tank breather had drenched the boot with petrol, which smelt pungently all the time. The fuel gauge never read more than five-eighths full and the handbrake was inoperative.

‘Worse than this, the rear brake pads wore down to the backing plates in fewer than 3000 miles and scored the discs badly.

‘The throttle jammed fully open during acceleration tests and the accessory drive belts jumped off their pulleys during full-lock manoeuvring.’

The move from Frua to Fissore was blamed for the Monteverdi 375L’s early production issues

Monteverdi was at pains to point out that the test car was the first built following the change of subcontractor from Frua to Fissore (Monteverdi came to own a 50% stake in the Savigliano-based outfit). This, it insisted, accounted for these ‘teething problems’.

However, Swiss title Automobil Revue seconded the findings, revealing that many of the same issues had blighted its test car.

Nevertheless, despite lingering reservations, Autocar revelled in the ‘enchantment of driving’ such a ‘great performer’.

It recorded a class-leading top speed of 152mph, and covered the standing quarter-mile in 14.6 secs.

‘The Monteverdi 375L is a proper gran turismo, from a time when the term denoted a luxury wafter rather than a track weapon’

It also stated that no more than 12 cars would be exported to the UK in a given year, with prices starting at £10,450 in 1970.

Paul Michaels of Hexagon of Highgate acted as concessionaire for a spell.

He recalls: “Peter got in touch and we did a deal to sell his cars in the UK. He was always jovial and straightforward to deal with, although I suppose we never got to test the longevity of our relationship.

“We received a lot of press coverage, but we just couldn’t sell any cars. They were incredibly expensive, which didn’t help, but they were also not quite there: not as polished to drive as a lot of other cars.”

The Monteverdi 375L coupé was followed by convertible and four-door variants

The 375L wasn’t alone in that – the early 1970s was arguably the nadir for build quality in luxury GTs. It isn’t as though Monteverdi was done, either.

As is so often the way with penny-number exotica, no two 375Ls were strictly alike.

Also, a revised version of the two-seater 375S arrived in 1972 as the Berlinetta, complete with a more bluff nose that was also applied to the 375C (to become the Palm Beach).

Then there was the wild Hai supercar, which sadly didn’t enter series production.

The Monteverdi’s period in-car entertainment

By the mid-’70s, expediency took precedence over principle and Monteverdi eschewed making bespoke cars for reskinning mainstream fodder.

The marque was in effect dormant by 1982, though. There would be sporadic comebacks and even a return to Formula One, at least of a kind, after Peter Monteverdi and his backers ‘saved’ the ailing Onyx squad in 1990 and rebranded it.

(Insiders from the period on the British side don’t remember this episode with fondness.)

The Monteverdi 375L’s dashboard puts simple dials ahead of its driver

As for the vexed question of production figures, it depends on whose version of history you choose to believe.

Build sheets that list cars produced by serial number, destination country and first owner suggest that 66 375Ls were made.

Only nine were sold in right-hand-drive configuration, ‘ours’ also being the only example officially supplied to Australia.

It was registered in 1971 and displayed at the following year’s International Motor Show in Melbourne on a dedicated Monteverdi stand.

This Monteverdi 375L’s numberplate is almost too good to be true

It has recently received an epic restoration and was garlanded both Down Under and in the USA on the concours scene, before it arrived in the UK in 2024.

McGrath Maserati was then entrusted with making it a ‘driver’ rather than a trailer queen: the new owner, Albert Hitchcock, is steeped in GTs of the period and likes to use his cars.

The 375L is shrouded in some mystique, then, but perhaps that is setting it up for a fall.

Yes, it is achingly gorgeous – there isn’t a line wrong here – but can its aesthetic possibly match up to expectations?

‘It isn’t the best at what it does. You can it forgive anything, though, because it looks so cool, so seductive’

Style’s triumph is often substance’s loss, and you could argue that the interior is less accomplished than the exterior.

The cabin is dominated by the monstrous transmission tunnel, the 7206cc bent-eight being sited far back in the frame.

As such, it feels a mite pinched around the pedal area.

But it is otherwise airy, and the dashboard on the earlier Monteverdi 375Ls is much nicer than those of the later models, which were rather box-like in their form.

The Monteverdi has neat louvres in its rear pillars

Fire it up and you expect all hell to break loose… But no, there is only the faintest whiff of brimstone.

Move the diddy auto selector lever to engage drive (you push it forward to engage the lower gears), ease off the line and the 7.2-litre big-block V8 sounds distant.

The Monteverdi is easy to tickle along, but it is clearly operating out of its comfort zone on nadgery back-roads; you would be amazed were it otherwise.

It’s a different story once the landscape unspools and the roads become longer, wider and less congested.

The Monteverdi 375L’s well-proportioned lines have a stylish authority

It has a lolloping gait when cruising, such is the engine’s flexibility and the seamless changes afforded by the TorqueFlite transmission.

If the period stats are to be believed, the 375L is geared for 30mph per 1000rpm, but that isn’t the half of it.

Mindful that the car has covered only single-digit miles since it was fettled, cinematic wheelspin and lurid tail-out histrionics aren’t on the cards.

The 375L’s twin tailpipes emit a burble from the Chrysler V8 engine

That said, the Monteverdi impresses under kickdown. It squats on its haunches as the limited-slip diff deals with the colossal torque loads, and it sounds strident.

Unlike a lot of GTs of old, this one feels fast in the here and now. Mid-range punch is mighty; ease off and it’s subdued again, the engine note becoming unobtrusive.

The Monteverdi tipped the scales in period at 1662kg, which isn’t particularly heavy by modern standards.

However, you are aware of its heft, not least because the power-assisted ZF worm-and-roller steering set-up feels imprecise until you learn to trust it, but it isn’t alone in that.

The Monteverdi 375L has a door mirror on the driver’s side only

Monteverdi claimed the car had perfect 50:50 weight distribution, but you could never accuse the 375L of being agile.

You don’t expect it to be, but nor does it feel nose-heavy.

Body roll probably appears more pronounced from the outside, but there is poise.

Turn-in is keen – at least when compared to, say, a Jensen Interceptor or Aston Martin DBS – and it isn’t prone to understeer.

Vents draw hot air from the Monteverdi 375L’s engine bay

Sadly, our sortie is of the briefest kind, but the sense of romantic fascination is intact.

The 375L was designed to cross continents in a single bound, as per a proper gran turismo from a time when the term denoted a luxury wafter rather than a track weapon.

It is that and more, even if it isn’t necessarily the best at what it does, or did.

You can it forgive almost anything, though, because it looks so cool, so seductive, so irresistible.

Reality doesn’t come into it, but it doesn’t have to. For reasons as simple and convoluted as love, the Monteverdi remains up there on its pedestal.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: Albert Hitchcock and Andy Heywood at McGrath Maserati

Factfile

Monteverdi 375L

Sold/number built 1969-’76/66
Construction steel chassis, steel body
Engine all-iron, ohv 7206cc 90° V8, single four-barrel Carter carburettor
Max power 375bhp @ 4600rpm
Max torque 481lb ft @ 3200rpm
Transmission three-speed automatic, RWD
Suspension: front independent, by double wishbones, anti-roll bar rear de Dion axle, Watt linkage, trailing arms; coil springs, telescopic dampers f/r
Steering power-assisted ZF worm and roller
Brakes discs, with servo
Length 15ft 4in (4673mm)
Width 5ft 11in (1803mm)
Height 4ft 2in (1270mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 9in (2667mm)
Weight 3665lb (1662kg)
0-60mph c6 secs
Top speed 152mph
Mpg 11
Price new £10,450
Price now £450,000*