The beautiful 1938 Dubonnet Hispano-Suiza H6B Xenia

Here’s a tiny data about the lovely 1938 Dubonnet Hispano-Suiza H6B Xenia which was on display screen at the 2022 Concours of Elegance. Just look at it. Wow. Stunning. A person of our favourite automobiles of all time. You can see extra Concours of Class information, critiques, video clips and galleries here.

André Dubonnet was heir to the Dubonnet apéritif fortune and the man dependable for this extraordinary vehicle.  He served in the Stork squadron of the French Air Power during Environment War A person and is credited with 5 aerial victories. He was an achieved sportsman as well and was passionate about motor racing.

Dubonnet was also an inventor and doing the job with engineer Antoine-Marie Chedru, patented a 4-wheel unbiased ‘hyperflex’ suspension system in 1927 that he promoted as obtaining the ‘suppleness of a cat’.  It would be utilized in different types by Basic Motors, Fiat, Delahaye and Alfa Romeo.

Dubonnet essential a rolling showcase for his strategies and acquired an thoroughly modified Hispano-Suiza chassis he’d noticed at the 1932 Paris Salon. The car or truck was made by Jean Andreau, who’d manufactured his identify developing avant-garde streamlined aircraft and vehicles.

This Hispano-Suiza H6B was supposed to have a V12 engine, some thing the organization had encounter of owning designed 50,000 fighter planes that were so-equipped.  On the other hand, the new motor was so potent with only 6 cylinders that Hispano-Suiza proceeded without the need of the other bank of cylinders. The motor block and cylinder head were created entirely from aluminium, with the valves-which stood vertically in the block – pushed by a solitary overhead camshaft. Irrespective of the opportunity for horrendous injury from this novel setup, Hispano-Suiza persisted mainly because not one particular of its V12 aero engines had dropped a valve. The brakes, meanwhile, have been energy-assisted and utilized a patented servo process that applied the car’s momentum to reduce pace, with braking support using energy from the gearbox which drove a shaft at 1/64th of the engine’s velocity.

In 1938 Dubonnet employed renowned coachbuilder Jacques Saoutchik to build the groundbreaking entire body you see below-Dubonnet’s fifth prototype attempt-that he named Xenia soon after his late wife.  Xenia was hidden all through Planet War Two and did not reappear till June 9,1946 at the opening of the Saint Cloud tunnel exterior Paris.  Alain Balleret, president of the French Hispano-Suiza Club, procured Xenia in the 1960s and had it restored.

In 1999 an American, Charles Morse, bought the auto at auction, and would maintain it for just a couple of decades prior to Peter Mullin ordered the Xenia in 2003. Nowadays, this motor vehicle is element of the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California.