Like Hannibal crossing the Alps, Peter Monteverdi once made use of an elephant in his quest to build the ultimate sports car. Except Monteverdi's elephant came in the form of a Chrysler 426-cu.in. Hemi V-8 powering the mid-engine Hai SS, one of just a couple non-Chrysler automotive applications of the famed engine.

By the end of the muscle car era in the United States, big and little American V-8s from all four companies still building them had made their way into European production cars or prototypes. Think of the Chevrolet-powered Iso Grifo and Bizzarrini, the Ford-powered AC Cobra and De Tomaso Mangusta, and even the AMC-powered AMX/3-cum-Diomante Sciabola. Does that Swiss roadster got an American Hemi? (Yes.)