Dodge 3700 Boulevard by Pedro Serra

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The latest issue of Rare & Unique Vehicles features an overview of the life and activities of Pedro Serra, a prolific Spanish designer. He supplied bodies to Pegaso, had a lot of success stories with various Seat rebodies etc. Between 1972-1973 he also produced a handful of attractive sportscars, based on the Spanish-built Dodge 3700, called the Boulevard.

Pedro Serra exhibited a one-off, Dodge-based coupé at the Barcelona Motor Show in 1968. In1970 Pedro Serra discovered, by surprise, the LMX coupé at the Barcelona Motor Show, a sports car conceived by the Italo-Argentinian engineer Michel Liprandi and with a fiberglass body designed by Franco Scaglione. This model, powered by a 2.3-liter Ford V-6 engine, had already been shown at the Turin and Geneva motor shows in 1968, in the hope that a manufacturer or manufacturers would buy the production license to produce it.

At the Barcelona event, Pedro Serra reached an agreement whereby Michel Liprandi would adapt the chassis to fit the engine and other components of the Dodge 3700 GT, while Pedro Serra would manufacture the bodies and take charge of the assembly of the future sports car.

The prototype was unveiled at the 1972 Barcelona Motor Show, under the name Dodge 3700 Coupé 2+2 Serra Boulevard. It was equipped with a black vinyl roof divided into two halves, two fuel tanks with their corresponding filler caps, and rear light units that consisted of 10red, sequentially lit lights, which were undoubtedly very spectacular.

After its presentation to the public, the production of a first, short series began in September, consisting of 10units with conventional rear optical clusters, with orange indicators and white reversing lights to comply with the then current European regulations. Subsequently seven other units were built, including a special one called the MM30with maximum power increased by 30 bhp to reach 195 bhp SAE, based on a higher compression ratio, modified settings in the carburettor, and anew exhaust manifold.

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Industry hindered the sale of these vehicles by making it difficult to homologate them. The only accepted solution was selling the Dodge Boulevard as if it were a Dodge 3700 GT saloon. Confronted with such bureaucratic obstacles, Pedro Serra, in 1973, abandoned the construction of these Dodge coupés, demoralized by administrative difficulties.

Credits: V Christian Manz, Pere Nubiola, Miguel Tres, Cari Sanchez, Gonzalo Latorre.

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