MBM automobiles History

MBM was a Swiss automobile manufacturer, which produced in the early 1960s in small numbers racing cars and also road sports cars. 

History

The company, led by Peter Monteverdi , is the forerunner of the sports car manufacturer Automobile Monteverdi , which from 1967 built coupes, sedans and SUVs of the upper class for about one and a half decades.

Peter Monteverdi owned in Binningen in the Swiss canton of Basel-Landschaft, a company that developed in the 1960s from a repair shop for trucks to a thriving commercial operation with representations of various European sports car brands. Monteverdi was temporarily licensee for Ferrari , Lancia , Bentley , Jensen and BMW.

In the 1950s he participated as a racing driver in various events. At the same time he began to develop his own racing cars and to have them manufactured in his factory, which he marketed under the name MBM.  Initially, Monteverdi also considered marketing it under the name MBM; at the end of 1967. Shortly before the start of production, the brand name was then switched to Monteverdi . The production of automobiles ended in the early 1980s.

The focus of the company was on the production of racing sports cars. According to Monteverdi, MBM produced a total of 18 vehicles of different specifications from 1960 to 1962

The first race cars bearing the MBM name were vehicles for Formula Junior . In 1960 and 1961, following a prototype called "Bamosa", four different models, technically related and named types A, B, C and D, appeared.The prototype Bamosa contained an indication of the temporary contribution from the Swiss racecar constructors Sauter . After initial plans Kurt Sauters company was to supply the bodies for the designed by Peter Monteverdi racing car.

The car built at Monteverdi had a lattice frame and used various mass-produced components: The front suspension was about taken over by Volkswagen , the steering came from a Renault 4CV . Sauter formed a body made of aluminum with an Mantzel tuned three-cylinder engine DKW, which made 65 hp.t. 

During the year 1960, Peter Monteverdi designed a racing car in Formula 1 configuration. This was basically a slightly enlarged Formula Junior car, in which a four-cylinder boxer engine of the Porsche 718 (RSK) had been installed. Since Porsche had refused to supply an engine, Monteverdi bought a complete car from Porsche, took out the engine and installed it in his own vehicle.In a race at the Hockenheimring in October 1961, which took place in the run-up to the Grand Prix of Germany , Monteverdi crashed. The car was badly damaged.

MBM Turismo Sports car 

Before the founding of Automobile Monteverdi in 1967, Peter Monteverdi produced very few road sports cars. The first designed by him was a coupe based on the Ferrari 750 Monza , which had a fixed roof and gullwing doors . The car was just as unique as the 1960 MBM Sport. The MBM Sport was a Barchetta with a tubular frame and an engine from OSCA.Monteverdi had bigger ambitions with the 1962 presented MBM Turismo. It was a small closed 2 seat coupe with tubular frame and a plastic body. The drive was a Ford Anglia engine, which made 85 hp. The maximum speed is said to have been 118 mph, 190 km/h

PERFORMANCE: MBM Turismo

• Engine capacity: 60.95 cu in, 996.6 cu cm;
• Fuel consumption: 29.7 m/imp gal, 24.7 m/US gal, 9.5 1x 100 km
• Max speed: 118 mph, 190 km/h
• max power (SAE): 85 hp at 7000 rpm
• max numberof engine rpm: 7500
• specific power: 85.3 hp/l
• power-weight ratio: 13 1b/ hp.5.9 kg hp