PETER Monteverdi was certainly cooking on gas when he produced his Lamborghini rival, the Hai in 1970.
The Hai was supposed to be a credible Swiss rival for the Lamborghini Miura and made its debut at the at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show powered by a 6,974cc V8 from Chrysler positioned behind the two front seats.
It certainly looked fantastic with bodywork designed by Trevor Fiore, of Carozzeria Fissore.
A second car was made with a longer wheelbase and minor detail changes like door handles and red bodywork. This was named the Hai 450 GTS.
There were ambitious plans for 49 cars but the massive projected price for the time of $27,000 made the whole project a bit of a tall order.
In the 1990s, two additional replicas from spare parts were made and they now reside in the official Monteverdi Museum display in Basel-Binningen.
The Hai was one of the first mid-engine designs which had its huge power unit wedged in-between the passengers. This radical specification helped it to live up to its Hai name which stands for shark in German.
Many have pondered on the styling heritage of the Hai but it was more than likely influenced by the uncompleted successor to the French Alpine on which Fiore had been working.
But the Hai remains one of Fiore's greatest designs and it is believed that only the two originals were built, the first car having had several rich owners, each time changing hands for massive sums.
Its performance stats are staggering for the time with 180mph being attainable, but the fact remains that the Hai was hardly overflowing with finesse.
The tubular chassis was crude and the engine sticking up between the driver and passenger did not attract fans.
It was also well specified with air-conditioning but on the road its handling was said to frightening.
The Hai remains for me one of those mad 1970s might-have-beens – scary and wickedly good looking car that was probably far better on the track than on the road.