AutoCult Intermeccanica Murena 429 GT (1969) (Italy)

About the Original:

Decadence on Four Wheels

Two Americans, Joseph “Joe” Vos and Charles Scwendler, were dreaming of a passenger car in the second half of the 1960´s, which should have high luxury, beautiful lines, and should also offer a lot of horsepower. They found the ideal partner in the Italian company Intermeccanica, which would produce them this vehicle.

The plans were worked out in the company in Turin, which were showing a very long stretched, however optically compact passenger car, whose rear was executed as a shooting-break. The front was shaped by an extraordinary long bonnet. This was also necessary, as for the drive a 7 liter V8 ohv-engine of Ford was chosen, which had a breathtaking performance of 360 hp. The estate car was reaching driving performances, which can only be reached by a real sports car, but not by a 5 meters long and luxuriously equipped car at that time. The reached acceleration of 7.4 seconds for the sprint to 96 km/h from a standing position was a very impressive value at that time. The 360 hp had to do with a weight of 1,708 kg, which was a lot, but in comparison with conventional and less luxuriously equipped passenger cars, the technicians of Intermeccanica were able to reduce the weight by more than several hundred kilograms. The constructive performance was shedding in the right light as the potential customer saw how pompous the interior of the car was. Premium leather seats for all four passengers, installed stereo system, air-condition, electrically operated windows, high quality carpets in the floor area, this were attributes which were not standard in a car at that time. The car was christened on the type designation Murena 429 and could be marveled for the first time on the important New York Auto Show in 1969 at the booth of the Murena Motor Corporation. The car was belonging to the expensive cars in the branch with over 14.000 US$, but especially the well-heeled clients were reluctant to place orders.

As between 1969 and 1970 just ten cars were sold, and Joe Vos and Charles Scwendler realized that their car was a flop.