DAY 1
Yes, the past few days I spend my time in Swiss with my partner in crime. The plan was to visit a few places related regarding Monteverdi to build up further knowhow and understanding. I arrived on Wendnesday morning at Basel airport where I got picked up by Jos. The first place we went to is the "Carrosserie" workshop where the Sierra was actually build. I was curious to visit the place and make a few pictures only. The place is located in the city which I didn't expected to be there. This is what the location looks like:
When I was wandering around I was approached by someone if he could help me. I told him the story that I was curious regarding the factory to build up some history regarding the Sierra. As such I was kindly directed to the owner who happend to be onsite in his private office. It was Mr. Ruedi Wenger himself. This was something I did not envisioned or had planned so that was very nice surprise. Mr. Wenger has personally been involved and build the first bodywork metal sheets for the Sierra.
In his office there was this beautiful High Speed stored:
Yes, our Sierra has got exactly the same dials, how cool is that:
Mr Wenger was so kind to free up some time for me and provided a little more history and insight with me. I have forgotten to ask more details about the production nrs and available VINs. He shared some copies of the Monteverdi club magazine with me which he had spare. Cool. And he also kindly posed with me for a selfie. What a nice encounter!
Moving on to the next place
The next place we visited was in fact non-Monteverdi related but on the last day this turned out to be related after all. The company we visited was the Ferrari dealer Niki Hasler AG in Basel. The reason for the visit was due to two Ferrari 412 offered for sale which had my interest. In case the 400 GT is of your interest, see my other blog
erwin400.blogspot.com And since it was very nearby we quickly went there.
Once inside we kindly got a quick tour by a sales guy. Clearly we were only interested in the classic cars rather then viewing the new stock in the showroom. Due to privacy reasons I could not make photo's of the cars in the classiche workshop, except for this one which was lined up in the waiting area.
In the regular garage there was one 400 which was technically completed renewed. Wow, love that!
The sales guy understood our interest and since the 412s were stored in a different location far away he took us to another area in the basement where quite a few and unique classic cars were stored. Again, no photo's are taken but I can reveal it was quite impressive. When we left we got his business card and he provided us two tickets for the Autosalon in Geneva. How cool is that!?
The next place to visit was the old Monteverdi museum location. We knew it was closed down but still had to visit it to be complete. On the corner there is still the "high speed" bar which unfortunately was closed.
The old entrance still had the sign. The Monteverdi logo sign outside had been replaced by a Lego sign.
Apparently the Monteverdi Museum has been replaced by a Lego Museum. So yes, we bought the tickets and went inside.
It still had one original car lift in use:
When leaving the building we walked to Schloss Binningen. Reason being is that some historical car photo's were taken there. And it's only a 2 minute walk. Then I noticed the larger Monteverdi sign is still on the wall:
A very nice line up of cars at Schloss Binningen:
but now on inspecting the Original photo I noticed immediately its taken at a different location. Doh! Need to find out were this was taken.
Update 11-3-2019: Jos found other photo's and spotted the photographer details:
Creator:Bernd Zellweger Fotograf
Copyright:
Bernd Zellweger Fotograf
Neumattstrasse 28
CH-4103 Bottmingen
When further checking I found out it's Schloss Bottmingen:
https://www.weiherschloss.ch/
Oh well. Next visit was Hotel Euler as this place was also used for a Sierra photo shoot. And clearly this is the correct place
And this is how it looks like today
And this was good timing as it was lunch time.
And we were in good company as famous stars resided here as well; Aristoteles Onasis, Maria Callas, Herbert von Karajan, etc.
Next place we visited was Thomas Automobile. This guy had quite a bit of history with Monteverdi as he worked as a mechanic in the shop and also provided technical support for the Monteverdi Formula racing team. Afterwards he took care of the technical maintenance of the cars residing in the museum. Unfortunately no Monteverdi's were currently at his shop. On his website (see sidebar of this blog) you can have a look yourself. In any case it was very nice to meet up with him personally and to get a small tour as well whereby he provided us with historical information and support.
The last visit for today was the Emil Frey Museum (
https://www.emilfreyclassics.ch/). Definately worth wile a visit.
And yes, it had a Monteverdi on display. Not a Sierra but a Range Rover
DAY 2
Today we had to travel quite a bit of distance. Due to some delays (douane check up! traffic jams and availability of a Sierra owner) we had to change the plan a little. So first we ended up at a large autosalon in Singen (
https://www.auto-salon-singen.de/de) . Quite a bit of exotics on stock there but no Monteverdi's.
In the afternoon we finally met up with the owner of a Sierra. And he did happen to own a car repair shop. And of course he had some interesting cars in the shop which he owned. But the goal was to meet up with him but also to have my first encounter with a real Sierra (currently offered for sale!). And what a very nice and clean example it was. A great opportunity to check details and make many photo's.
And no surprise; he was too very knowledgeable about the brand Monteverdi and had good contacts with the inner circle. This was an excellent meet up and am sure this will come in handy soon or later.
DAY 3
This was not Monteverdi related as we reserved this day to go to the Autosalon in Geneva. This was something on my radar for years but due to various reasons it never worked out untill now.
On the Ferrari stand we got in touch again with the sales guy who we met on day 1. We weren't aware he was around as well. But very nice to meet up again and his father was there as well. And when chatting a little about classic cars (what else) the Monteverdi was brought up. Turned out his father also provided support during the Monteverdi Formula periode. Hows that? The circle is round.
This was a very worthwhile roadtrip. All boxes ticked!
