Matchbox 3d; Monteverdi Hai

The Monteverdi Hai 450 SS was a prototype and was planned follow on from the Monteverdi 375 High Speed. It was intended to be a direct competitor to the top of the range supercars of Lamborghini, Ferrari and Maserati.

The Matchbox Monteverdi Hai is number 3d and was made from 1973 to 1978. The most commonly found variant is in orange (as they all were) with a No.3 on the bonnet. If the base is painted silver (rather than unpainted or black), it is rarer and rarest of all has a racing number 16 on the bonnet. The No.6 version is not listed in Ramsay - but is on Christian Falkensteiner's website.

It's a bit of a dumpy thing, not what I'd call a supercar, although if you look it up on Google Images you will see that the original car is very elegant, the fault lies with the modeller at Lesney, although I think only two of the full size car were ever made.