1935 Hispano Suiza J12 Cabriolet deVille

The Hispano-Suiza Company had Swiss and Spanish origins and a parallel manufacturing facility in France. Marc Birkigt, a Swiss engineer, had designed the Barcelona-built Castro, which would become the basis for the first Hispano-Suiza of 1904. During his career, Birkigt would develop T-head fours, overhead-cam engines, a water-cooled V8, and the H6. As the multi-cylinder wars continued to grow, Birkigt became determined to build a large engine of his own. In 1929, he began work on what would become the J12, Type 68.

Birkigt's V-12 engine had a new design with pushrod overhead valves, twin alloy cylinder blocks mounted on a common crankcase, and a seven-main-bearing crankshaft with side-by-side connecting rods. It displaced nearly 9.5 liters and offered 220 horsepower. The engine had convex pistons and rubber engine mounts.

In the summer of 1931, a prototype chassis was put through testing. The Type 68 was shown at the Paris salon that autumn.

This particular Hispano-Suiza J12 rested on a large 4009-millimeter wheelbase and was shipped to Smith & Co., Hispano's agent in London. It was apparently delivered to its first owner, a Mr. Batcock of 1 Melville Road, Sidcup, Kent, by Motor Distributors of Leeds, which was also located in Sidcup.

Until recently, the coachwork had been believed to have been built by Saoutchik. However, it was actually constructed by the Rippon Brothers of Huddersfield.

John Ellis presumably owned the car throughout the 1950s and 1960s. After he sold off his collection, the car was lost from sight. Years later, it was in the car of John Upton of London.

Around the mid-1980s, it was imported to the United States and resided for a short time in the collection of Richard and Linda Kughn. It was part of the Imperial Palace Collection from 1989 through 1999, and then it spent time with the Atwell Family Collection in Texas. John O'Quinn acquired the car in 2006.

By Daniel Vaughan | Feb 2014