it's 1967 protests erupt against the Vietnam War the Concord is shown for the very first time Elvis marries prisilla and this car the Monie 375 highspeed is launched this Swiss superc car looks at first glance very similar to the Aston Martin DBS but neither plagiarized the other because they were launched at the same time in 1967 also the DBS was designed by William towns whereas this version of the Monie was done by F in Italy Peter Monie founded the company in basil Switzerland before he built this car he was already a very successful distributor of high-end Italian cars in Switzerland including Ferraris like Enzo Peter was reputed to have a little bit of a temper so it was only a matter of time before the two fell out and indeed that's exactly what happened Enzo asked for a payment UPF front for 100 cars Peter told him to get stuffed and decided to build his own car as Richard the owner of this car just told me if Enzo had been a nicer guy we would be much poorer of a lot of interesting cars in the case of this one this is what's known as a hybrid so it has a European chassis with all the advantages that that brings and a great big stoning 7.2 L Chrysler V8 which brings power Simplicity and reliability there are many not mulle things about the Mont but we have to talk about the price because that is particularly interesting this was a new starter but that didn't stop Peter from pricing this more than a Lamborghini aspada a Ferrari Daytona a Jensen FF which was probably its more natural competitor was about half the price to give you an idea a Daytona was 6,700 a Lamborghini esparta was 7, 900 the Jensen was 5,365 the EOG Grio a similar kind of car 5,500 and this The Mont highspeed in 1968 was priced at 10,450 let's see if it was worth that money [Applause] I'm sure you agree with me that 375 highspeed is a pretty cool name for a car but there is a solid reasoning for it when Moni decided to take on Ferrari he already had a wealth of experience behind him on the kind of cars that his clients actually wanted and generally speaking they didn't want they wanted The Prestige of the Ferrari but they didn't want the unreliability the finicky nature the bad build quality at the time you have to realize that flights were still very much in their infancy so if you wanted to go in between European cities on business for example perhaps from Milan to Zurich or Milan to Paris generally speaking you wouldn't fly you would drive this was built as the perfect object to get you from A to B in highp speeed comfort and luxury now they were made between 1967 and 1976 initially by fua so that's another keria in Italy I think that fua only made 10 cars I mean production numbers are very much um accurate production numbers are very much difficult to get a hold of but in any case fua started off the original design that was let's call it a series one car does look quite different to this especially at the front end where it's got a more rounded profile the reason why he had to change the design is that surprise surprise the fiery Peter fell out with fruer when they couldn't Supply as many cars as he needed he wanted to go to another keria to that could provide more so he went to F but he tried to take the design with him and lost a court case against fuer and they had to modify the car to keep on producing it as you can see from the pricing this really was the Rolex of cars and they were very luxuriously appointed as well there is leather everywhere the interior is really rather nice pretty well built one would think but it's interesting to note that when auto car tested one of these in 1969 so it would have been a fur made car so perhaps that's why quality dipped but in any case when they tested it then it had all sorts of problems so the windows the electric windows broke the belts would jump off the engine on full lock there were fuel leaks all sorts of things which nowadays would be enough to sink a car but you've got to remember back in the ' 60s and '70s cars were nowhere near as perfect as they are today as part of the philosophy of what Mont Verdi wanted to do to make this usable obviously he used this stoning great Chrysler V8 375 horsepower sa which is a bit little bit lower in European measurements I think 20% lower actually but that's not what this car is about anyway it's about the torque so incredible drivability but as well as that one of the other criticisms his clients told him about Ferrari is he used to take the car over the Alps it would start to overheat so you know you'd have to stop put snow in the over the engine to cool it down so what they did is they used a huge radiator at the front to make sure that cooling was adequate and this this car could really be used and of course from America incredible air conditioning that was literally would freeze you within a few seconds there are a couple of downsides to the design though he put the engine really far back in the cabin to try and get the right handling he was after all a racing driver so he knew what he wanted from the car and also the massive air conditioning unit here both of those things give you a huge console there and a driving position quite unlike any other that I've experienced in the car in one way the steering wheel is further left I think than I've ever seen But the seat bolster kind of is edging your body to the right while the pedals again are offset to the left so it's a little bit odd when you first sit in the car I think as I'm driving I'm getting more used to it as mentioned it's really more about the um the torque this engine and it is effortless it really is the Americans are right there's nothing like you big inches really is there so chassis wise this is also quite interesting because it's not particularly Advanced at the time it's got a Solsbury rear axle independent front end and the way it drives is it feels as if the suspension perhaps has a little bit less travel than most other cars of this era so initial Behavior over bumps that kind of stuff is good when you're throwing it around a little bit there's a bit of initial movement but then it's pretty well controlled it just doesn't have the range of movement of other similar cars I think Aston of this era even the Ferraris just have a little bit more range but for a car of this era with big sidewalls like this it's actually quite well controlled on the corners and also the steering is fascinating because Richard told me it's one of the things he really liked about this car it's got really nice hearing and I was surprised because it's basically got a ZF Steering box so again not particularly Advanced it's not particularly quick steering but I can see what he means this one I think is well set up because for a steering box there really isn't much play you know on the Straight Ahead which is what tends to dog them but also although it's not fast once you're in the corner it's just really happy to change direction I think that's a legacy of having the engine so far back that it makes it quite yiy quite maneuverable especially for something of this size now there are a couple of bits which aren't original about this car well not original in the traditional sense but one is this gearbox cover here the plate I think the original one was plastic I think he said that it melted in the Sun so he's changed it for that but this is a temp Arrangement but also the stickers on the side they they're not original they were from another Mont verie which came after this which I think was made in very limited numbers uh I think another sports car called The hiai the high but they have been on this car for 30 years so Richard decided that you know it's his version of keeping it original and I I think they look quite nice and they suit it and I love the fact that this is red because these bigger cars you tend to get them you know in the Silvers in the darker colors and it's really really nice to see it in this lovely cherry red in terms of handling it's more fun to drive than the equivalent DBS but it doesn't really suffer in terms of U its abilities as a GT car so I'm really quite impressed with it the one thing I would say is the brakes don't feel very strong but this is an older car now they did go with all disc brakes on this but perhaps this setup needs pepping up a bit or perhaps they just weren't that great I don't know it's one of the main elements that I think for me anyway ages it the steering is nice and light so again if you can beare it a DBS or a Daytona or one of those cars it's a completely different experience to drive uh but you know in terms of the performance elements of it it doesn't seem to suffer so I think the big question is this was an extremely expensive car I think only the Rolls-Royce Cornish cost more back in the day having driven it today do I think it's worth it I think the answer is yes now there are people who poo poo cars like this because they have the American V8s and they think that it devalues them in comparison to Ferraris and Lamborghinis which have their more highly strung more Thoroughbred Italian engines but I don't really subscribe to that I think that there is absolutely nothing wrong with these American engines as a matter of fact I really like them they have own their own distinctive characters they drive in their own distinctive way and even today as a classic although these are worth a lot of money I think you know they've from between 2 to 400,000 to get to get one that engine has the added benefit that you know if anything breaks or you need to sort of keep it updated it doesn't cost a fortune you know they're simp units they do what you need to do the design I think was really interesting it's it's striking from all angles it looks I think quite beautiful and quite brutal from some and it's certainly a very exclusive car as well thank you so much Richard for bringing this down this is the same chap who owns the Lamborghini silhouette um so I really appreciate you coming down and bringing this car to everybody else if you want me to do a review on one of your car you know I do love the sort of' 70s Exotica whether they're Maseratis or lesser known cars or Ferraris or whatever uh do get in touch with me and we'll see if we can arrange something um thank you all so much for watching if you haven't already subscribed to the Channel please do and I really look forward to seeing you for the next video
