The Hispano-Suiza J12 is a

luxury automobile A luxury car is a car that provides increased levels of comfort, equipment, amenities, quality, performance, and associated status compared to moderately priced cars. The term is subjective and reflects both the qualities of the car and the ...

that was made by

Hispano-Suiza Hispano-Suiza () is a Spanish automotive–engineering company. It was founded in 1904 by Marc Birkigt and Damian Mateu as an automobile manufacturer and eventually had several factories in Spain and France that produced luxury cars, aircraft en ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

from 1931 to 1938. It was the largest and most expensive car ever built by Hispano-Suiza. It replaced the

Hispano-Suiza H6 The Hispano-Suiza H6 is a luxury car that was produced by Hispano-Suiza, mostly in France. Introduced at the 1919 Paris Motor Show,Ultimatecarpage.com – Hispano Suiza H6C Monza the H6 was produced until 1933. Roughly 2,350 H6, H6B, and H6C cars ...

. The J12 was only available as a chassis, buyers having to arrange with an outside

coachbuilder A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...

to integrate a body. Hispano-Suiza suspended automobile production in 1938 to concentrate on the manufacture of aircraft engines.

Mechanical features

The J12 was powered by a 60°

V12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines. The fi ...

with pushrod-operated

overhead valves An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located bel ...

and a seven-bearing crankshaft. The engine initially displaced with bore and stroke both being and with a compression ratio of 5.0:1, delivered 220 hp at 3000 rpm. Two cars were fitted with long-stroke engines displacing and delivering 250 hp, and several J12s were later upgraded to the larger engine. Each engine block was machined from a single billet. To demonstrate the high quality engineering and reliability of the J12, one car was driven from Paris to Nice and back without needing oil or water.

The J12 of the Spanish Head of State

In 1935 the Spanish Government placed an order for a J12 as ceremonial car for the President of the Republic. The body was to be a four-door

convertible A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...

, built by

Carrosserie Vanvooren Carrosserie Vanvooren was a French Coachbuilder based in the north-western Paris suburb of Courbevoie. The company concentrated on producing car bodies for luxury cars, being closely associated, during the 1930s, with the products of Hispano-Su ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. When the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

broke out in 1936, the bodied car was still in the French Hispano-Suiza plant, and in 1938 Miguel Mateu y Pla, one of the owners of the company, decided to deliver it to the

Nationalists Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

side. The car was then sent to the Fichet plant in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

to receive its

armor plate Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fighting ...

and eventually delivered to the then new Spanish Government. It was first used by their Head of State,

General Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 193 ...

, in the

Victory parade A victory parade is a parade held to celebrate a victory. Numerous military and sport victory parades have been held. Military victory parades Among the most famous parades are the victory parades celebrating the end of the First World War a ...

held in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

in May 19th, 1939. In 1952 this J12 was replaced by a

Rolls-Royce Phantom IV The Rolls-Royce Phantom IV is a British automobile produced by Rolls-Royce. Only eighteen were made between 1950 and 1956. They were only built for buyers whom Rolls-Royce considered worthy of the distinction: the British royal family and heads ...

. This was the only convertible out of the three Mulliner-bodied Phantom IV purchased by the Spanish Government; all of them are still in use in present days at the service of the

Spanish royal family The Spanish royal family consists of King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, their children (Leonor, Princess of Asturias and Infanta Sofía of Spain), and Felipe's parents, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía. The royal family lives at Zarzuela Palace i ...

The J12 of the Shah Of Iran

Mohammad Reza Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ( fa, محمدرضا پهلوی, ; 26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980), also known as Mohammad Reza Shah (), was the last ''Shah'' (King) of the Imperial State of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow in the Irani ...

was given a J12 by his father in 1931 at the age of 12, right before taking part in

Institut Le Rosey Institut Le Rosey (), commonly referred to as Le Rosey or simply Rosey, is a private boarding school in Rolle, Switzerland. Founded in 1880 by Paul-Émile Carnal on the site of the 14th-century Château du Rosey in the town of Rolle in the canto ...

school in Switzerland. Body was made by Paris-based body maker Carrosserie J. Saoutchik and used Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt's V12 engine.

Notes

References

* * * * * * J12 Vintage vehicles 1930s cars Cars introduced in 1931 {{Classicprw-auto-stub