The Monteverdi Safari is an International Harvester Clone You've Never Heard Of
A Swiss SUV based on an American car with a different American manufacturer's engine!
Monteverdi in the 70s was an interesting car manufacturer. Hailing from Sweden, at the time, Monteverdi was known for their sporty coupes and sleek design. What they were certainly not known for was a big ol' luxury SUV with multiple big ol' American V8 options. But, that's precisely how the story goes.
A sales brochure image!
In 1976, Monteverdi started selling the Safari as a sort of Range Rover competitor. The SUV was based on the International Harvester Scout, but was coach built by the Italian Fissore to have a more European style. Honestly, it works in my opinion.
Under the hood, there were three different engines available. The smallest was a 5.2L Chrysler V8 making just about 150 horsepower, which was the standard engine option. The next offering was a 5.6L V8 coming from the International Harvester Scout, although I could not find the power figures for this engine in this car. The top of the line engine option was a gargantuan 7.2L V8 from Chrysler making around 300 horsepower (It's worth noting that a for sale listing of a Safari with this engine states that just 7 Safaris were optioned with this engine, although that is hard to verify). As you can probably imagine, the fuel consumption on this heavy luxury SUV with only V8 offerings was pretty atrocious, with about 9.4MPG for the 5.2L, and half of that for the 7.2L. All engine options were paired with a 3 speed automatic transmission.
Apologies for the watermark - images of this car are hard to find!
Though the fuel economy was God-awful, the Safari had lots of luxury for the time period. The interior is full of leather and carpets, and included were power windows, power locks, air conditioning, and engageable 4x4 for offroading. Although it's hard to justify what equates to about $85,000 today without some nice luxury.
The Safari is one of the first times we see a luxury manufacturer turning from sports cars to SUVs, a trend that is visible in virtually every sports car brand on the market today. They didn't sell too many Safaris, but Monteverdi was the first to do something that every mainstream car manufacturer does today, and that's worth something.
Today, Monteverdi Safaris are pretty rare vehicles. They don't pop up for sale often, and when they do, they bring some big cash. Right now, I was able to find a few for sale in the ballpark of $70,000-$90,000.
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