---
title: Monteverdi · HICONIUM
description: "Switzerland’s only grand-touring house — Peter Monteverdi’s Basel-built GTs, Fissore tailoring over Chrysler’s 440 Magnum."
canonical_url: https://hiconium.com/manufacturers/monteverdi
image: https://hiconium.com/og/marque/monteverdi.png
---

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# Monteverdi

Binningen, Switzerland · est. 1967

Switzerland's only grand-touring house.

Peter Monteverdi sold Ferraris in Basel until Enzo demanded prepayment for a hundred cars. The dealer's answer was his own marque: Swiss-built chassis, Italian coachwork, Chrysler's 440 Magnum — grand tourers assembled in Binningen for a decade.

Models 0

Top value —

Period 1967–

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## Every Monteverdi on file

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The house

## Switzerland's only grand-touring house.

Founded 1967 Automobile Monteverdi, Binningen bei Basel — Peter Monteverdi, racing driver and importer, shows the High Speed 375 S at Frankfurt that September. The Ferrari break 1963 Enzo Ferrari's demand that his Swiss dealer prepay one hundred cars ends the relationship — and seeds the ambition to build without Modena. The formula Swiss · Italian · American Square-tube frames from Stahlbau Muttenz, bodies by Frua and then Fissore, Chrysler's 7.2-litre 440 Magnum — about 375 SAE horsepower, hence the name. 375 L 66 documented The Fissore long-wheelbase 2+2 of 1969–1976; serial-number research counts 66, though 'about 100' persists in the books. Auto Motor und Sport clocked 229 km/h in 1972. Production ends 1982 After the oil shock the house pivots to the Safari off-roaders and coachbuilt conversions; the museum cars now stand in the Swiss Museum of Transport, Lucerne.

Selected milestones

### A bloodline, not a list.

1. 1963

  The break with Maranello

  Peter Monteverdi refuses Enzo Ferrari's hundred-car prepayment; the Basel dealership loses Ferrari and gains a purpose.
2. 1967

  Frankfurt debut

  The High Speed 375 S appears with Frua coachwork and Chrysler power — Switzerland has a grand-touring marque of its own.
3. 1969

  Fissore and the 375 L

  After a royalty dispute ends the Frua contract, Fissore draws the squarer 2+2 that becomes the house's defining car.
4. 1972

  229 km/h, measured

  Auto Motor und Sport verifies the 375 L at Jensen-beating pace — 0 to 100 in 8.2 seconds from 7.2 unstressed litres.
5. 1976

  The High Speed bows out

  Emissions-strangled engines and the oil shock end the GT line; the Safari carries the badge into the off-road decade.
6. 1982

  Binningen falls silent

  Car production ends; Peter Monteverdi turns his works into a museum, whose collection later moves to Lucerne's Verkehrshaus.

What defines Monteverdi

### Sovereign sourcing

Chassis from Muttenz, bodies from Turin, engines from Detroit — a small country's marque built from the best of three.

### Effortless over exotic

The 440 Magnum asked nothing of its owner — grand touring measured in unstressed litres, not valve adjustments.

### One man's marque

Every Monteverdi decision — design, engineering, even the museum — passed through Peter Monteverdi's hands alone.