By Robert Emslie
You guys (and ladies, I know there’s a couple out there) did so well with last week’s Mystery Dash that I thought we’d try to peel back even more of the vehicle and see if you could glean an identity from just the chassis. Of course you can, you all rock really big brains and mad Google skilz. As a hint, you can’t afford it, even if you could buy one, and. . .well, that’s all you get. I expect the answer, along with gobs of arcane info about this chassis’ wrapper, by 9:05.
And. . . ruminate!
Kamil Kaluski
The Hemi made me naturally think of Monteverdi, so a little Google work gives me my answer: The Monteverdi Hai 450 GTS.
Err.. it could also be called the Hai 450 SS….
Montiverdi Hai 450 SS?
Looks like Jim-Bob beat me. I had never heard of the Monteverdi before, but my Google-fu lead me there due to it being an Italian mid-engine car with a Mopar Hemi.
I believe it is Swiss, not Italian.
Montieverdi made many different vehicles over the years many of them are actually re-badged semi re-bodied and/or slightly tweaked vehicles. They did 2 versions of the IH Scout, the Safari which re-bodied from the wheel wells up and fitted a 440 Chrysler, and the Sahara sporting a new grille and taillights and the IH SV V8 or Chrysler-Nissan diesel used in normal Scouts.
Oh Hai! U Haz 450 SS?
I believe it is called the "Mid-engined Hemi V-8 Square-tubed Death Coupe"
Now available with optional ejection seat(not shown)!
Or the standard fit ejection hole-in-the-floor as seen pre-bodywork.
Sadly, I could not find a straight up NSX chassis photo, but I found this, and it is pretty damn awesome:
<img src="http://www.honda-nsxclub.nl/images/NSX_BareChassis.jpg" width=500>
Image from <a href="http://www.NSXPRIME.com” target=”_blank”>www.NSXPRIME.com
Since I didn't see this posting until after the car had been identified, here's the picture without the strategic blurring of the background buck and foreground sign:
<img src="http://www.madle.org/montehaichassis.jpg" width=500>
http://www.madle.org/emontemus2.htm
It's amazing how skinny supercar tires of the era look compared to those of today.
I guessed what it was thanks to the engine, but hadn't seen a Hai chassis before. It has cured me of my desire to own one.
I may not be able to afford one, but I bet I could build one. In fact, there's a guy down the street with a rack full of square tube.
The hardest thing would be sourcing a transaxle that is up to living behind an elephant. Everything else looks scary ordinary. I've seen more thought go into re-engineering a Beetle platform for life under a fiberglass Jaguar SS100 body.
I never would have heard of a Monteverdi Hai if it wasn't for Matchbox. Speaking of that, does anyone know how the Dodge Charger III was powered? That was the first thing that came to mind and was also a Matchbox car.
"As with the Charger II, the Charger III will accept any of the Dodge V8 engines including the 426 cu-in Hemi." (link)
I can't see any evidence that it even had an engine, but there's no reason to be so pessimistic either.
I realize my answer is incorrect, but there's nothing wrong with the Hemi Under Glass…
<img src="http://i53.tinypic.com/27zyc2.jpg" width="500"/>
Yes, I know there is an Elephant in the back, but I'm strangely most fascinated by the steering linkage.