Monica

Classic Monica.

Monica was a brand of luxury cars created in France in the 1970s by Jean Tastevin, a French industrialist whose wife's name was Monica.

Monica was the last attempt (after Facel Vega) to create a luxury brand in France. Its only French competitor was the Citroën SM Opéra, the sedan which was built by Chapron.

Although intended to be built in France, design, development and prototype building was entrusted to Chris Lawrence at C.J. Lawrence Consultants of Hammersmith, London, England. The 4-door, 4-seat saloon featured a De Dion rear suspension. Final styling and trimming was by David Coward, -ex James Young (coachbuilders) and Motor magazine.

The earliest prototype Monicas were powered by a Ted Martin designed 3.4l V8 engine but later prototypes and the production model were equipped with a Chrysler 5.6 l (340 in³) V8 engine. Advertised transmission options were the Chrysler Torqueflite system or a ZF 5-speed manual gear box.

The styling and prototype body mouldings were produced by Bob Curl in Hastings.Several show cars were repainted after the Motor Show by John Drew, from the Bristol area, after the owner had seen his work for Bristol Cars at the show. John was then invited over to the factory to advise on production of the Monica, and recalls that, as many different nationalities were represented on the workforce, any production problem would result in heated multilingual discussions.

The Monica 560 was presented at the Salon de Paris 1972 and production began in 1973 at a facility located in Balbigny, Loire. Only 8 production cars (as well as 22 prototypes) were completed before the factory closed in 1974, a victim of the 1973 oil crisis.

A plan by Panther Westwinds to resume production in England was announced in March 1975 but never implemented.