Peter Monteverdi
Peter Monteverdi (born June 7, 1934 in Binningen , BL , Switzerland ; † July 4, 1998 there ) was a Swiss private racing driver , car manufacturer and founder of the companies MBM Automobile and Automobile Monteverdi .
Life
Peter Monteverdi's father, Rosolino Monteverdi, had been running an automobile workshop and truck repair shop in Binningen since 1926. Monteverdi completed an apprenticeship as a motor vehicle mechanic at the tractor manufacturer Vervey and the Swiss truck manufacturer Saurer . After the death of his father in 1954, Peter Monteverdi took over the Binningen company and expanded it into a luxury vehicle agency and racing car manufacturer; later Monteverdi produced its own street sports cars. From the mid-1990s, Monteverdi increasingly withdrew to Morocco. He died of cancer in Binningen in 1998. His partner Paul Berger is still the owner of Monteverdi Automobile AG.
Peter Monteverdi as a racing driver
Between 1955 and 1961, Peter Monteverdi took part in around 80 races in Switzerland, Germany and Italy. These were mainly hill climbs, but he also repeatedly competed in circuit races and long-distance races such as the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring . 1957 Peter Monteverdi denied twelve races on a private Ferrari , in 1959 he moved several times a Renault Gordini , a Lotus - Formula 2 and a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR . Monteverdi achieved numerous victories in these missions.
In January 1959, Monteverdi conducted a privately organized test drive in Modena with an older Maserati 250F . At first he considered taking over the car and putting it to the start in the Formula 1 World Championship, but ultimately refrained from doing so. In his company's history, this decision is attributed to the fact that Monteverdi recognized “that he was not yet ready to pilot a Formula 1 car”.
From 1960, Peter Monteverdi only used his own design, a racing car called MBM , which was initially designed for Formula Junior, but a single copy was also converted to a Formula 1 configuration. The MBM Formula 1 was the first Formula 1 car in Switzerland. The cars were regularly registered for Monteverdi by the Écurie HOBA . After a less than successful use of this vehicle at the 1961 Solitude Grand Prix and a serious accident at the Hockenheimring , Monteverdi gave up racing in 1961.
Peter Monteverdi as an entrepreneur
Since 1954 Monteverdi owned a truck workshop and car garage in Binningen. Mediated by his involvement in racing, he received the license to sell Ferrari in Switzerland in 1957 , making him the world's youngest Ferrari dealer. In the following years Monteverdi acquired agencies for many other international car brands, including Lancia , Bentley and Jensen . From 1967, Monteverdi built a number of its own road sports cars in Binningen (with the support of some Italian coachbuilders), which were initially to appear under the name MBM, but were ultimately sold as Monteverdi . The sports cars of the High Speed 375 series remained in the program until 1976, after which Monteverdi switched its range to luxury SUVs and exclusive limousines. Series production ended in 1984. The plant in Binningen was converted into an automobile museum, which was opened in 1985.
In the early 1990s, Peter Monteverdi tried again to gain a foothold in the automotive business with several projects. On the one hand, he had several copies of his Hai 450 GTS sports car made, on the other hand, he took over the British racing team Onyx in the 1990 Formula 1 season , which he ran for half a year without success. The remnants of this project were recycled in another street sports car called the Hai 650F1, which was reportedly sold in six copies from 1992 to 1994. The cars with Cosworth eight-cylinder engines were not street legal in Europe.
statistics
Individual results in the sports car world championship
| season | team | race car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Karl Foitek Escuderia Madunina Venezuela |
Alfa Romeo Giulietta SV Lotus Eleven |
 BUA
|
 SEB
|
 MIM
|
 ONLY
|
 LEM
|
 KRI
|
 CAR
|
| 35 | DNF | ||||||||
| 1959 | Peter Monteverdi | Mercedes-Benz 300 SL |
SEB
|
TAR
|
ONLY
|
LEM
|
 RTT
|
||
| 19th |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Roger Gloor, CL Wagner: Monteverdi. History of a Swiss car brand . Self-published by Monteverdi Automobile, Binningen 1980, p. 82.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Monteverdi, Peter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss private racing driver, car maker and founder of the Automobile Monteverdi brand |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 7, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Binningen , BL , Switzerland |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th July 1998 |
| Place of death | Binningen , BL , Switzerland |