The Monica 560 The Forgotten French Luxury Car That Time Forgot

The background 

This article is about a French automobile company started by a rich French industrialist Jean Tastevin. Jean Tastevin was a graduate engineer of the École centrale de Paris and he succeeded his father in his business which used to manufacture mining and railway equipment. Jean was always a huge automobile enthusiast and personally owned cars from brands such as Aston Martin, Facel Vega and Jaguar. Having owned such cars he always wanted to own a French built car of that quality and class. After becoming the chairman, he renamed the company Compagnie française de produits métallurgiques (CFPM) where he used to sell and rent train cars across Europe. His other company called Compagnie Française de Matériels Ferroviaires

(CFMF) used to manufacture and store the rolling stock. This was his day to day bread winning job, however there was a fire burning inside of him to build a car of his desire to compete with the likes of Iso Fidia, Jaguars and Aston’s.

Jean Tastevin

His journey to create his own car to compete with the likes of Jaguar and Aston Martin’s and also to diversify his company began in 1966. He made his long time assistant Henri Szykowksi the project manager, and set aside a part of his factory at Balbigny for the design and production of the Monica. Where did the name ‘Monica’ come from? The car was named in honour of Tastevin’s wife Monique Tastevin. Initially Tastevin insisted on having a car that was completely built within the French territories, but this proved to be quite a challenge. He ended up relying on Chris Lawrence of LawrenceTune. Chris Lawrence was known for his tuning and racing of Morgan Plus 4 in the late 50’s and 60’s and later even had commercial establishments along with Morgan. After a fatal road accident Lawrence had to be hospitalized for more than 9 months during which his business started to go under. Eventually he became involved in the development of the Monica 530 and 560. 

Jean Tastevin's wife Monica Tastevin

What about the car?

La Monica

The initial talks between Lawrence and Tastevin lead to Lawrence having to develop the engines for the Monica. This agreement eventually went beyond engines and even to the chassis. Lawrence began developing the chassis in March 1967 at his workshop Gatwick, in the suburbs of London. The chassis was completed by the following August and delivered to Tastevin. The first car’s chassis consisted of a Lawrence built steel-tube and sheet metal chassis. Lawrence even penned the body design and it was built by Coventry Victor, but was discarded for being not original enough, indeed the car resembled the Panhard especially in the front. As for the suspension, at the front vertically mounted coil-over damper units were operated by swing arms with wishbone lower arms whilst at the rear a De Dion system with coil springs and a Panhard rod were used.

the second prototype

The first prototype even failed to impress Tastevin himself; it was presented at the 1968 24 hours of Le Mans. It was used as the towing car and went largely unnoticed. The second prototype was quickly sent into development in 1969. This was closer to what the production car would look like eventually, but still did not possess the elegance that Tastevin was after. The front end of the 2nd prototype was now more streamlined and sporting. It was Tudor Rascanu, a sales manager from Vignale who joined Tastevin helped the further development and the styling. With his guidance they finalized a company out in Luton, Bedfordshire called Airflow Streamline who specialized in aluminium body manufacturing especially for trucks. The sudden death of Tudor Rascanu in 1970 halted the entire project until a replacement was appointed. Illustrator for Autocar magazine David Coward was identified as the person to take forward Rasacanu’s project. He managed to lower the window line giving it a more sweeping effect and also tinkered with the front to make it look more elegant. Henri Chapron was the man responsible for creating the templates at the factory which was then sent to Vignale in Turin to be refined and turned into the shell for the third prototype which was completed in 1970

Vignale sketch

The engine troubles

Despite having disc brakes all round, ventilated at the front, and solid inboard items at the rear, the steering was an unassisted rack-and-pinion. The engine in the first prototypes were woefully slow, this was partially due to the change in the overall functionality of the car. It went from a 2 seat luxury car to a four door tourer. While the Facel Vega had a Chrysler derived V8 the Monica initially went with a fuel-injected 182bhp 2.6-litre version of Triumph’s TR4 power plant, developed by Chris Lawrence, who was initially given the task of producing 250 of these engines. The whole reason they chose this engine was due to the French tax laws, but seeing that it lacked the desired requirement they scrapped this plan. The car meanwhile saw a growing list of suppliers, prototypes, coach builders eventually with the costs also going up as well.

For the prototype unveiled in 1971 they went for an engine developed by Ted Martin who built engines for race cars, it was an 3,460cc 8 cylinder engine placed in a V configuration putting out 240hp. This car was presented at the Paris Salon as the Monica 350. By this time the 5th prototype shell had also arrived and was the closest to the final production car. The name of the car would be changed from 350 to 560 as it got the final engine developed for the car. The car now would not feature any old in-house engine that lacked refinement and reliability. Instead it would get an American derived V8. Ford and General motor engines were not at the same level as his rivals from Maranello or Sant 'Agata. Tastevin and Lawrence made the decision to source the 5.6-litre Chrysler V8 instead, rated at 285 bhp and 333 lb ft of torque, hence the 560 badge. 

The first presentation of the Monica 560 would take place at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1973 with a claimed top speed of 240 kmh. The Monica 560 was the fastest 4 door production car for its time. 

What about the interior? 

Tastevin did not spare an inch and the whole interior was as luxurious as it could get. The seats were clothed in Connolly leather available in 3 colours. The floor was covered in Shetland wool carpeting covering even the transmission tunnel like in a Aston or Bentley of its era. The instruments were all from Jaeger Instruments with the Monica name embossed. These gauges were surrounded by burl elm wood and suede. The car also had air-conditioning and a high end tape sound system with integrated tape recorder and player as standard equipment. Fitting your own suitcases was not an option as it came with fitted luggage bags. 

What went wrong? 

The car went through several prototypes and as with any other company this was a hindrance on the budget. The renaissance of the French prestige car came at a very bad time, the war that had just begun in the Middle-east saw OPEC reducing the delivery of oil. This resulted in the downfall of demand in sports and luxury cars both in Europe and the US. One could also consider the fact that European countries were growing more averse to automobiles with heavy restrictions on speed and taxations on engines, also affecting its sales. The initial planned sales by Jean Tastevin was 400 cars per year with the car that was shown at the Geneva Motor Show touring around Europe going to all the shows. The initial customers who placed their orders at the debut were left waiting for their cars, various sources claim that in total 35 cars were produced out of which 17 were customer cars and the first car was delivered in July 1974. The Tastevins kept three Monica's for their own use.

The scale model that sparked my curiosity 

By 1975 Jean Tastevin decided to throw in the towel. There were many unfinished cars that were eventually bought by Formula One team owner Guy Ligier, in hopes of resuming production. However, this never happened, leaving more than 10 cars to become one with nature. 

I was lucky to see a scale model of the Monica 560 which sparked this curiosity as it was truly stunning to look at and made me dig deeper into the history of the Monica 560.