The 1929 Hispano-Suiza Model: CAT Hair & Styling: Ellie S. Wayman Makeup & Styling: Marie Penuel

Wardrobe courtesy of  the talented and great folks at GreatLookz Car and location courtesy of the Tupelo Auto Museum

Hispano-Suiza – The Most Elegant of Forgotten Marques Flying Too High to Come Down Story and Photos by AdPix.Biz Model: Catherine Tucker Hair & Styling: Danielle S. Wayman Makeup & Styling: Marie Penuel The story of elegant Hispano-Suiza starts, appropriately, with its hood-ornament, the stork. This was the squadron mascot of Capitaine Georges Marie Ludovic Jules Guynemer, France's iconic war hero of The Great War. In his Morane-Saulnier Type L (known by its revolutionary single wing that the pilot “warped” with control wires), and SPAD VII biplane, Guynemer shot down 53 enemy planes, (the unofficial total is around 100) in 600 missions, surviving seven crashes himself. He was quite shy and sickly (he'd been refused for military service five  times) but his notoriety was such that, when neither his plane nor remains were found from his last mission in 1917, it was rumored that he had flown so high he could not come back down. France rallied around his epitaph  "Until one has given all, one has given nothing." One Guynemer story is perfect for the spirit this car evokes. In a dogfight with German Ace Udet, Udet's machine guns jammed. As Guynemer bore down on Udet to finish him off, he saw Udet's clinched fists pounding on the guns. He instead gave Udet a respectful salute, and flew off. A Gentleman Warrior. Guynemer flew in the elite Groupe de Combat 12 (lesCigognes..the Storks) and his Commander pronounced him “My most brilliant Stork.” One of Guynemer's last planes used the advanced 200hp Hispano Suiza V-8. So it was natural for Hispano-Suiza, trumpeting the national pride of France, to use the Stork. (Just wait until we reveal the history of Ferrari's emblem)

Hispano-Suiza is responsible for “cast block” motors, propeller reduction, the hollow propeller-shaft that allowed machines guns to be shot through the middle, the 20 mm autocannon (used by the RAF), and a host of other inventions, easily making them into the French equivalent of Rolls-Royce after the war, especially with their H6, which essentially used a scaled-down fighter-plane motor. The company began in1898, making electric cars in Spain. They relied on Swiss engineering, hence the Spanish-Swiss moniker. It grew in reputation – King Alfonso XIII owned 30 of them – until moving to Paris in 1911 since that's where the luxury car market was thriving. And although ceasing car production in 1936, they still exist today, as the aerospace propulsion company Safran, and the Fiat subsidiary Iveco. In 2002, an Hispano-Suiza HS21 GTS was announced to challenge LeMans. It looked like a Lotus Exige that had been through Saleen's “Slit-Adding Machine.” In the mid-20's, Hispano was wary of its chief competitors, Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce, and decided to leap over them, banking on its experience with 12-cylinder aircraft motors, of which they had already delivered more than 50,000 world-wide. By 1929, the Hispano-Suiza 60-degree V-12 with overhead gear-driven camshafts, displacing 27,708 cc, produced 720hp! The V-12s were available, but most Hispano cars in that era used an extremely reliable and powerful 6,597cc in-line six-cylinder, which was simply one bank of their famous V-12. It was legendary, with VIPs world-wide, including original “Bentley Boy” Woolf Barnato, bragging how fast and how far they could race one. They boasted top speeds of 110 mph, and servo-assisted four-wheel brakes, an innovation licensed by arch competitor Rolls-Royce. Hispano-Suiza is one of the most admired and storied car companies, and not only for its aircraft and weaponry innovations. It was considered for many years the most luxurious car available anywhere. And it had a grand racing heritage. Its first win was in 1910. It also finished the first 1911 Indianapolis “500” in 4th place after leading laps 5-9, averaging 73 mph. In 1923, the famous Hispano-Suiza #37, sporting a V-8 aircraft motor, raced in Pennsylvania, and an H6 won a race at Boulogne in 1921, and more races later in an 8-litre Hispano. It won at Monza and other venues, now defunct. Hispano was soon legendary for endurance racing world-wide.

By the 1930's, a properly-appointed Hispano-Suiza (one generally had the coach “commissioned” separate from the frame and running gear) cost about four times the prices of a mere luxury car, which itself was many times the price of a “regular” car. When a Ford cost $550, an Hispano-Suiza cost over $10,000. It was the equivalent of today's Maybach, if somehow combined with the new Bugatti Veyron. The most glamorous and expensive car in the world, it was commissioned by royalty world-wide, by Shah's, and by one Pablo Picasso. Hispanos were also like Bugatti in that they were designed to be performance cars for rich enthusiasts, not just chauffeur-driven limousine's. They were the stuff of rich braggadocio. Time Magazine's April 30, 1928, issue tells the story of a private grunge-match race between two rich industrialists to settle an angry bet, one driving a Stutz and the other an Hispano-Suizo, for the princely wager of $25,000. The Hispano won. This particular Hispano-Suiza was commissioned by and for the Grande Dame Mrs. Palmer of the famous Palmer-House Hotel in Chicago, which is fitting considering that hotel's reputation for over-the-top luxury. Its Grand Lobby is 2 ½ floors high and its barbershop was tiled in silver dollar coins. At the time Mrs. Palmer pocketed the keys to her shiny new Hispano-Suiza, with its silver Stork, hers was the largest hotel in the world. Still today, it has more hotel rooms (1,639) than any other single building in Chicago. But despite the rich history of Hispano-Suiza, the most famous one of all you may not have ever realized seeing – it was Hugo Drax's (probably the J12 Décapotable) in the James Bond movie “Moonraker.” Remember his elaborate goatee and his "Look after Mr Bond, see that some harm comes to him.”? Don't feel bad, it was forgettable. “Moonraker” appeared long after Hispano had quit car production, so we can't blame Roger Moore. The stock market crash and two world wars were far more culpable in killing the car. Or, since Hispano's prices had essentially created their own bubble of “irrational exuberance,”one could say they just flew too high to come down, like the Most Brilliant Stork of all, Capitaine Georges Marie Ludovic Jules Guynemer. Much thanks to the not-for-profit Tupelo Auto Museum(www.tupeloautomuseum.com) with an amazing collection of 150+ carefully-selected cars, one or two from every year all the way back to 1886, in their 120,000 square foot museum. The feature was shot at the nearby fish hatchery where Elvis was fond of fishing as a young boy.