Monica 560

Even the most level-headed of car companies can be brought down by forces outside its control. 

By all accounts, the Monica 560 is a luxurious French sedan, with quality near Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Maserati, and Mercedes-Benz — but more sporting, like rivals that included the Iso Fidia, Maserati Quattroporte, and Aston Martin Lagonda. 

Depending on who you ask, thirty Monicas were made — or was that 35? I’ll get back to this later.

With hindsight and zero money to spend, I can't think of reason to not covet this car. Let’s get into it.

According to ranwhenparked.net, French industrialist Jean Tastevin’s firm, Compagnie Française de Produits Métallurgiques (CFPM), built and rented train cars across Europe — as many as 25% of the cars in use, on rails, at that time. 

With a stable business and some money in his pocket, what better idea than to resurrect the French luxury GT car? 

With Facel Vega and Bugatti both long gone by the ’70s, Tastevin’s vision for the car was largely similar to its rivals: V8 engine, comfortable, sporting chassis, and unparalleled long-legged performance. Tastevin needed a visionary young engineer to build the car, and he turned to Chris Lawrence (d.2011). 

In borrowing liberally from The Guardian's obituary for Lawrence, cited here for to help preserve the story, it’s stated:

“There was a brief foray into Formula 1 in the new three-litre formula in 1966 with a Ferrari-engined Cooper and a twin Mini-engined Deep Sanderson, but it was the Monica project, an exotic luxury saloon car built for a French industrialist, Jean Tastevin, that would come to define the second half of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s for Chris.

“Chris designed the entire car, which was named after the patron's wife, Monique. The convoluted development process generated 25 prototypes as the Monica's luxury ambitions and weight increased. Chris, creating the car with his team in a large railway arch in Chiswick, made frequent trips to France, squabbling with Tastevin's French engineers as tensions grew about the Monica being “too English”.

“The finished Monica of 1974 was a graceful, refined and sophisticated 150 mph vehicle and a remarkable effort for a man who had very little experience of luxury road cars. Its only true shortcoming was mistiming; in the wake of the oil crisis, the market for thirsty, expensive cars had collapsed; in the end, only 10 true Monica production cars were built in France. Bernie Ecclestone, then a car dealer, bought the last three at less than half-price.”

The Monica was initially priced far above many of its contemporaries and on par with the very best — the only luxury car more expensive for 1974 was a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, at 165,000 francs. The Monica 560 was priced at a bargain…164,000 francs. 

By comparison, a Mercedes-Benz 450SEL cost a paltry 104,000 francs.

Anyway, I’m wondering if Ecclestone still has one of those three cars.