1912 Hispano Suiza 15/45HP Alfonso XIII Sport Roadster

'Spanish-Swiss' is the literal translation for Hispano-Suiza; and this particular model was named for the King of Spain, Alfonso XIII. Chief engineer Mark Birkigt was the Swiss connection. That his nationality was honored in naming the Barcelona company in 1904 was an act of supreme prescience. Not only would the then 26-year-old Birkigt be responsible for every Hispano-Suiza design for the next three decades, but he would ever after be regarded as among the most talented automobile engineers in history.

Alfonso XIII was Birkigt's patron. Spain's last monarch - whose exile in 1931 heralded in a 44-year-long republican interregnum punctuated by a bitter civil war - began acquiring Hispanos for the Royal garage in 1907, although the 'carriage trade' cars the firm was producing were a bit tame for his taste. Luckily, Birkigt was thinking similarly, and in 1909 designed a long-stroke T-head four-cylinder engine for use in voiturette racing, dominated at that time by French one and two-cylinder cars. In 1910, Hispano won the prestigious Coupe de l'Auto race in Boulogne at a speed of 8 miles per hour faster than the previous year. The victory spelled the end to singles and twins in voiturette competition henceforth and suggested the wisdom of marketing a production version of the winner.