The Monteverdi Safari Is The Swiss Range Rover You Never Knew Existed

The original Range Rover and Jeep Wagoneer were the go-to, go-anywhere luxury cars in the 1970s before the world went SUV crazy.

But they weren’t the only options. Buyers looking for something a little more bespoke but with the same off-load ability might have found themselves making fast friends with Swiss entrepreneur Peter Monteverdi.

Moneteverdi made a stack of money selling Ferraris, BMWs and Lancias in his native Switzerland before a falling out with Enzo led him to have a go at making his own high-powered GTs and supercars, stuffing handcrafted Italian bodies with Chrysler V8s.

But living in one of Europe’s most mountainous regions, Monteverdi was perfectly placed to see the appeal of a vehicle that had all the handcrafted luxury of something like a Maserati, but mated with all-wheel drive ability.

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His first attempt was the Monteverdi Sahara, which was basically just a very mildly restyled International Harvester Scout fitted with a new grille and more luxurious interior. The Safari that followed was also based on the Scout, but this time it featured bespoke coachwork from Turin-based Fissore, who had previously provided bodies for Monteverdi’s 1960s does-what-says-on-the-tin High Speed grand tourer.

The Safari cost a little more than a Range Rover, but as Classic Driver explains in this article about the five-door Safari prototype, the Swiss car had several key advantages over the Brit, including a larger V8, an automatic transmission, and the ability to disengage all-wheel drive.

Not that Monteverdi couldn’t see merit in the Land Rover SUV, or understand why some buyers might still want one. But he knew it could be made better, and created a tidy business out of adding back doors to Range Rovers until Land Rover finally got around to building them itself in the early 1980s.

The Safari isn’t the most beautiful European coachbuilt classic, but even with the knowledge that there’s a humble Scout underneath, there’s something undeniably cool about Monterverdi’s mountain truck. And just check out the TV in the back of the five-door.

It looks like that five-door one-off might have already sold, but Swiss classic car dealer Andy Wüest still has a silver three-door on offer for CHF 79,900 ($85,800/£64,500).

H/T to Classic Driver