When Monica missed the bus

Sep 12 2008 Ian Johnson

When Monica missed the bus

WHEN driving along one of those long straight tree-lined French roads some years ago I could not help but gaze at a vision that was rapidly magnifying in my rear view mirror.

The low-slung nose with pop-up headlights looked a little like a Lotus Elan +2S but this car was much larger. As it flashed past me as though my Ford Mondeo was walking I noticed that it had four doors and a rear styling that would do justice to a Ferrari.

I was totally stumped as to what it was. After a lot of unsuccessful reference reading I was beginning to think I had been overtaken by the men in black in an alien-mobile or had had a strange view of a Studebaker Avanti. But a few weeks later, when thumbing through a book on French cars I saw it ? a car called Monica.

This very rare model was named after the wife of its patron Jean Tastevin.

It is rare not only because it was very expensive, but because it was a victim of a very lengthy development period and very poor timing over its launch.

Powerful tycoon Tastevin made his money as a manufacturer of railway goods wagons but he had a dream of building a luxury car.

In the 1960s France was mourning the loss of its own luxury sports saloon, the Facel Vega which was a sort of French Lagonda. Tastevin saw an opening and recruited the famed British engineer Chris Lawrence to design and develop the project, which began in the mid '60s and was originally to have used a race-bred 3.0-litre V8. But concerns about reliability and compatibility with automatic transmission led to the adoption of the trusted 5.6-litre Chrysler V8 instead.

On paper Monica had the lot.The chassis was of an advanced semi-spaceframe design with de Dion rear axle with self-levelling and inboard disc brakes.

Inside it was luxury all the way with leather seats, electric windows and power steering. There were even plans for a twin-speed transaxle.

Although there were several attempts at styling, the final version became one of the most beautiful four-door saloons of its day.

But although the car had the power, as far as the launch was concerned the brakes were definitely on.

Astonishingly the wraps were not thrown off until the 1973 Geneva Show which was one of the worst examples of automotive bad timing ever.

The launch co-incided with the 70s fuel crisis and the 150mph, £14,000, 13mpg Monica had most definitely missed the bus as demand for gas-guzzlers of the day bombed.

Production finished after just 35 cars ? 25 of which were prototypes.

The Monica 560 weighed nearly two tons and was magnificent. Had it been launched earlier, there would have been many more on the road.