Peter Monteverdi

Peter Monteverdi ( born June 7, 1934 in Binningen, BL, Switzerland, † July 4, 1998 ) was a Swiss private racer, car builder and founder of the brand Auto Automobile Monte Verdi.

Life

Peter Monteverdi's father, Rosolino Monteverdi, operating since 1926 in Binningen an automobile repair shop and a truck repair shop. Monteverdi trained as a motor mechanic in tractor manufacturer Vervey and Swiss truck manufacturer Saurer. After his father's death in 1954, Peter Monteverdi took over the Binningerstrasse operation and built it from a representation for luxury vehicles and racing cars manufacturers; later, Monteverdi own road sports car manufactures. From the mid -1990s, Monteverdi moved progressively back to Morocco. He died in 1998 in Binningen cancer. His life companion Paul Berger is still owner of Monteverdi Automobile AG.

Peter Monteverdi as a racer

Between 1956 and 1961 Peter Monteverdi participated in about 80 races in Switzerland, Germany and Italy. These were predominantly mountain races, but repeated he appeared in circuit racing and long distance races such as the 1000-kilometer race at the Nürburgring. 1957 denied Peter Monteverdi twelve races on a private Ferrari, 1959, he moved several times a Renault Gordini, a Lotus Formula 2 and a Mercedes -Benz 300 SLR. For these interventions, Monteverdi get numerous victories.

In January 1959, Monteverdi resulted in Modena by a privately organized test drive with an older Maserati 250F. First, he considered, to take the car and bring it in the Formula 1 World Championship at the start, but took them ultimately distance. In the factory chronicle of his company, this decision is attributed to the fact that Monteverdi had recognized "that he was not ready for piloting a Formula 1 car ."

Starting in 1960, sat Peter Monteverdi only his own design one, a race car with the name MBM, which was initially designed for Formula Junior, was converted in a single copy but also to Formula 1 configuration. The MBM Formula 1 was the first Formula 1 car of Switzerland. The cars were regularly reported by the Écurie HOBA for Monteverdi. After a few successful use of the vehicle at the Grand Prix of Solitude in 1961 and a serious accident at the Hockenheimring Monteverdi was in 1961 on the racing.

Peter Monteverdi as an entrepreneur

Since 1954, Monteverdi was owner of a truck repair shop and car garage in Binningen. Conveyed through its involvement in racing, he received in 1957 the concession to sell Ferrari in Switzerland, becoming the world's youngest Ferrari dealer. In the following years Monteverdi acquired representations for many other international car brands, including Lancia, Bentley and Jensen. In 1967 Monteverdi built in Binningen ( with the support of some Italian coachbuilders ) a number of proprietary street sports car, which should first appear under the name of MBM, but were eventually sold as Monteverdi. The sports cars of the high-speed 375 to 1976 remained in the program after this, Monteverdi his offer luxury SUVs and sedans to exclusive. 1984 ended the series production. The plant in Binningen was converted into a car museum, this was opened in 1985.

Beginning of the 1990s Peter Monteverdi tried again, with several projects in the automotive business to gain a foothold. On the one hand he had several copies of his sports car Hai 450 GTS manufacture, on the other hand he took over in the 1990 Formula 1 season the British team Onyx, he ran a half a year without success. The remains of this project were recycled in another road-going sports car called Hai 650F1, which was sold from 1992 to 1994 in supposedly six copies. The car with Cosworth eight-cylinder engine had not street legal in Europe.