Revue Swiss Classics - Peter Monteverdi

A very good article in German from a Swiss magazine. Only a minimal reference to the Sierra but overall a very good and complete picture about Monteverdi. Now available in the download folder.

Monteverdi Sierra for sale in Czech

These photo's I spotted already a while ago and are listed on the following website:

https://galerie.autorevue.cz/showphoto.php?photo=58144&cat=&ids=

Based on the website and comments I guess these photo's have been taken somewhere in Czech in 2011. Judging on the rustholes in the rear panel it has been likely outside for a long time.

And last week I caught the following advert on autoscout:

https://www.autoscout24.de/angebote/oldtimer-monteverdi-sierra-benzin-blau-3ea4af72-67f7-3910-e053-e350040a05d3

A blue restored body with beige interior is offered for sale in Czech, so it's very likely the same car. According to this the car is from 8-1977. I have reached out to them and requested more photo's and the VIN.

Turns out this one has VIN 9155, so a very early one, potentially the 3rd one produced. And by the looks of it this one has been verified with the Monteverdi Museum already (judging on the letter headings).

And some additional photo's:

Also this one has this specific square box in the trunk:

The interior is available as well and restored. It does come with the engine and gearbox but apparently the drivetrain chassis is lost???

Curious to see where it will go.

Monteverdi Sierra article

In the Monteverdi FB group the following post was placed:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/MonteverdiAutomobiles/permalink/10156502243898326/

Seems like a copy and paste from this quality article:

https://www.allpar.com/cars/adopted/misc/monteverdi-sierra.html

Which also states a number of 20 had been build (including the two convertibles).

Monteverdi transportation

A very cool photo with one Sierra on top:

Monteverdi Production numbers

The Monteverdi book does have a page with a good overview of the production numbers:

According to this ca 35 Sierra's has been produced, 5 Sierra Convertibles and 1 Station Wagon.

As for the Sierra convertibles I'm only aware of 2 - The red and the silver one.

Also the number of 35 Sierra's seems to be optimistic in my opinion. They do mention "ca" for good reasons as the exact number is not known.

The German Wikipedia is more accurate in my  opinion. They do mention ca 20 Sierra's has been produced. Accordingly they do state that apparently another small batch has been produced by Fissore. To my knowledge they have been only produced by Wenger (the bodywork). Furthermore they also clearly state that exact number of Sierra's is not known. Another source claims it's somewhere between 20 and 50. Perhaps this is where the averge number of 35 comes from in the book?


GERMAN WIKIPEDIA Excerpt (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monteverdi_Sierra):

Die Produktion

Die Sierra-Modelle wurden, wie bei Monteverdi üblich, nicht im Hause produziert, sondern von externen Karosseriebetrieben in Auftragsarbeit in Handarbeit hergestellt. Etwa 20 Exemplare wurden von dem Basler Karosseriebauunternehmen Wenger Carrosserie/Fahrzeugbau hergestellt.^[13] Daneben dürften eine Reihe weiterer Fahrzeuge bei Fissore aufgebaut worden sein.^[14]

Wie viele Sierra-Limousinen zwischen 1977 und 1982 hergestellt wurden, ist unbekannt. Die Markenchronik von Gloor und Wagner behauptet, dass dem Sierra „voller kommerzieller Erfolg beschieden“ war und der Umsatz nach Vorstellung des Sierra „gewaltig anstieg“.^[15] Genaue Zahlen nennt das Werk allerdings nicht. Die Schätzungen zum Produktionsumfang gehen weit auseinander. Sie liegen zwischen 20 und 50 Exemplaren. In mehreren Veröffentlichungen wird darauf hingewiesen, dass vor allem die mangelhafte Verarbeitungsqualität des Sierra einen größeren Erfolg des Fahrzeugs verhindert habe.^[16]

30 Jahre nach Produktionsende ist die Existenz von etwa einem halben Dutzend Sierra-Limousinen belegt. In einem Verkaufsprospekt von 1977 werden drei dunkle Sierras nebeneinander vor dem Basler Hotel Euler abgebildet. Eines dieser Autos - ein dunkelblaues Auto mit cremefarbenem Interieur - diente Peter Monteverdi eine Zeitlang als persönliches Fahrzeug, das unter anderem an Monteverdis Feriensitz in Florida stand. Das Auto war einige Jahre im Besitz eines amerikanischen Sammlers, der es 2006 in den Orient verkaufte. Ein weiteres Fahrzeug mit grüner Lackierung und bordeaux-farbenem Interieur befand sich in den ersten Jahren des 21. Jahrhunderts ohne Zulassung in Wien.^[17] Ein silbernes Auto stand 2006 im süddeutschen Raum zum Verkauf. Der Sierra mit der Fahrgestell-Nummer 9159 in blau-metallic mit cremefarbigem Leder (eine von wenigen Sierra-Limousinen mit Kurbelfenstern) war 2009 im Kreis Wolfenbüttel (Niedersachsen/Deutschland) zugelassen.

Reference point 14:

↑ Nach Darstellung Wengers beschäftigte sich sein Unternehmen in erster Linie mit Karosseriereparaturen. Als die Produktionskapazitäten bei Fissore wegen der hohen Nachfrage nach Safari-Modellen ausgelastet waren, stellte Wenger nach eigener Darstellung auch einzelne Komplettfahrzeuge her. Zum Ganzen vgl. Swiss Car Classics Nr. 20, S. 40. 


In any case, we believe our Sierra is one of the first produced and was the showcase example. It has VIN 9153. I did find out an old Sierra advert from 2002 on Autoscout:

https://web.archive.org/web/20020613121028/http:/www.autoscout24.ch:80/search/detail.asp?id=197213&language=ger&mediacode=&sc=CHF

And as you can see it's first registration date is March 1980 and it has VIN 9173

I suspect this might be one of the very last produced. If so the number 20 is pretty much accurate but does include the Convertibles and Station Wagon as well. I don't anticipate much more have been build after 1980. In fact the Dodge Aspen has only been produced from 1976-1980.

Monteverdi garage archive photo

Just an old archive photo with partly one Siera on the left …

By surprise I caught this photo, taken on the Geneva autosalon 2017 where they had a special for Monteverdi

Safari vs Sierra Chairs & Bumpers

According to the German Wikipedia the Monteverdi Safari reused the chairs from the BMW as well. And apparently also parts of the bumpers have been reused from the BMW. Both the chairs and bumpers looks almost identical as used on the Monteverdi Sierra. Perhaps they are the same. I reached out to the FB forum hoping someone was able to clarify the BMW type and to confirm these are the same. So far no response …

Remember this blog:

http://monteverdisierra.blogspot.com/2018/08/monteverdi-sierra-quircks.html

I spotted a MV Sierra with the Original Dodge Aspen chairs. On this Original brochure photo you can see the correct chairs but apparently they were in a hurry as it still has the Original Dodge Aspen steering wheel. How's that.

Hotel Euler + 3 Monteverdi Sierra's

Not sure where I obtained this picture from. But it's slightly different then the one used in the official brochure but from the same photo shoot:

Brochure: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SkS1OtfG0hmeq2LiBlMARRVpWNCWr5Cc

It remains a cool photo though.

The brochure is printed on 10 September 1977. Meaning at least 3 black Monteverdi Sierra's where produced by then. Typical that all three of them have very different wheels/rims. So much for consistency. I also suspect one of these has the 5.9 Engine, likely used by Peter Monteverdi himself.

The Euler hotel still exists today. So definately a place I will pay a visit when I'm nearby.

Monteverdi Sierra quircks

I'm still doing a little research regarding the front seats used in the Monteverdi. It's still unclear if they are BMW E3 or E12 seats. At least they are not recognized on the E3 FB forum. Typical.

In any case, I noticed something remarkable. When going through the photo's on the forementioned website I spotted this Sierra which still had the Original Dodge Aspen seats, the long low headrests are clearly visible and no headrests in the back either.

Dodge Aspen seats:

And another thing that was remarked on the FB forum was on the following photo (this is the one that was for sale by Aaldering, the Gallery in the Netherlands). Someone spotted the manual windowslider.

According to this auction advert there has been 2 or 3 Sierra cars delivered without power windows:

https://www.dorotheum.com/en/auctions/current-auctions/kataloge/list-lots-detail/auktion/10057-vintage-motor-vehicles-and-automobilia/lotID/420/lot/1515994-1977-monteverdi-sierra.html

And another remarkable find in the same gararge is this car. Potential the only Sierra delivered with a 5.9 Engine. As far as I'm aware only the Stationwagon and the two cabrio's were equipped with the 5,9 engine.

Thomas Automobile CH

As mentioned in the previous blog, someone posted more recent photo's about the Sierra Stationwagon. When I checked his profile I noticed by surprise he runs a garage wearing his own name. Not only that, it turns out he's very specialized and has a great history with the Monteverdi brand. At the time he was the mechanic for the Monteverdi Formula racecars and also performed maintenance on the cars in the museum. So that explains why he's currently maintaining the Sierra Stationwagon. I have added his website at the sidebar under miscellaneous:

http://www.thomasautomobile.ch/

His website has some very nice photo galleries with many interesting cars and clearly a lot of Monteverdi's. How cool is that?

More Monteverdi Sierra Kombi

Someone in the FB group posted the Sierra Stationwagon again, as shown in this blog:

https://monteverdisierra.blogspot.com/2018/04/monteverdi-sierra-stationwagon-kombi.html

This resulted in additional responses and new photo's. Apparently the car is at a garage to make it roadworthy/driveable again since it had been standing still for a long time in the museum.

Dodge Aspen color codes

I was informed the Monteverdi Sierra's used simply the same color scheme as originally provided by Dodge. But I'm pretty sure if the customer wanted a different color that would have been possible. We suspect the color of our Sierra is "Carmel Tan Poly" (2856). As we have removed the interior we can see the same color is used throughout which more or less confirms it's a Dodge color. The supporting archive picture of our car below is not exactly good reference material due to light distortion. The picture below is more accurate and a true representation of the used color on our car.

Another reference link:

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?type=paint&paint=17881&dtcode=DT6486&smodel=Dodge&syear=1976&smanuf=Chrysler&sname=Carmel%20Tan

http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/cgi-bin/pub9990262549620.cgi?categoryid=9970474822090&action=viewad&itemid=9990513004078

Monteverdi Sierra intererior seats

One of the things we have not solved is the mystery of the used chairs in the Sierra.

According to the German Wikipedia they are coming from a BMW:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monteverdi_Sierra

"Im Innenraum installierte Monteverdi Sitze von BMW, die ebenso wie die Seitenverkleidungen mit Leder bezogen waren"

It was unclear exactly which BMW model was used. So I posted the question on the Monteverdi Facebookgroup. The first response was a 7 Series E23. This was potential a good guess, the E23 was launched in 1977 around spring. So actually to new to be used for the Sierra which got launched around the same time. Also some other details were slightly different. The next post mentioned the BMW 5 Series E12. Another good guess and a car that started production in 1972. But again some minor details were different. Then someone mentioned the BMW E3 with the electric adjustment used from the Aspen. The E3 makes more sense production wise but also the details looks correct. And he was right about the reused adjustments from the Aspen:

Note the power controlled seats (and windows) were optional and only for the driver seat

Find all Dodge brochures here: http://www.lov2xlr8.no/dodge.html

And for comparisson the Aspen chairs and the used E3 chair. In fact they had quite a variety of chairs in the Aspen, pending the model used and how luxurious you wanted it to be:

BMW E3 seats:

I'm unsure about the rear bench used though in the MV Sierra, I suspect it's Original whereby they added headrests and an armrest to it. Likely the headrests and armrest are coming from the E3 as well.