Carmen: the car of 1.5 million euros with the Hispano Suiza is going to resurrect

"it Was brutal. I had never felt anything like it”. It is difficult to unravel the origin of the sensations of Miguel Suqué Mateu few months ago in a circuit tarragona of Calafat closed to cal y canto. If your impressions explaining the driving of a supercar power of 1,000 horses of power, or if you show the nebula to be at the wheel of the Hispano Suiza, a company founded by his great-grandfather, which will result in the return of the brand to the market after 73 years in the dry dock of the story. There are reasons to understand what Suqué defined as “a dream fulfilled” for the family.

there are Currently a few thousand Hispano Suiza distributed in the world, especially among collectors. But since 1948 there has been no new models to the sale. And the last attempts to regain the trademark, 2000 and 2001, there were nothing pleasant: presented at the Geneva motor show but nothing more. “We made a mistake, because we made a transfer of brand and we had nothing to do with the design, it did not add anything different,” he says resounding the vice-president of Grup Peralada, owner of the ensign, who regrets that an attempt be made through a transfer of a trade mark and is based on a platform of Audi and the engine manufactured for Ford.

Profile of the new sports-electric, Hispano Suiza, that the mark desvelerá in march

Suqué Mateu is convinced that the model which will be submitted in march itself will be revolutionary. Of it just know the basic lines, which were reported to fear that someone desvelara that Hispano Suiza was preparing his return, and that will have a motor power of 1,000 horses, an autonomy of 400 kilometers, an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in a little over two seconds and a speed of 240 kilometers per hour. Both the platform and the motor and the lines of the chassis are new and old.

Inverama, the company dedicated to the game of the family Suqué, has decided to ally with a partner in barcelona specialized in the automotive industry, which avoid revealing the identity, to develop the vehicle. In the next few days will see a company that is in charge of the project, Hispano Suiza Cars, of which the Suqué will have a 70% and Miguel Suqué the presidency. To part, be charged a royalty for the use of the historical teaches.

it Elexbet will Be called Carmen

The first fruit of this alliance will be the Carmen —name eslegido in homage to the mother of the brothers Suqué Mateu and granddaughter of the founder of Hispanic-Switzerland, a luxury car that, at current exchange, will be sold for an amount similar to the Hispano Suiza that reigned in the decades of the twenties and thirties of the last century: about 1.7 million dollars (about one and a half million euros). Only provide for the manufacture of 19, of which the major part will go to the hands of collectors. One is what will be the family.

The saga has a concern: that the tendency to acquire collection vehicles as a formula of investment does not fill the demand for a good number of Carmen. To do so, bound by contract to the buyers to maintain the property during a time of the vehicle, a period that could be two or three years. Is the formula to shield the 18 vehicles that are scheduled to deliver between 2019 and 2023.

Suqué refuses to reveal investment figures, but says that the partnership has saved approximately 20 million euros. The objective that has marked the family is not to make money, but at least you don't lose it. “If we had wanted to make money we would have transferred the mark to some manufacturer to make thousands of units, but we've done everything from scratch: platform, engine and design,” explains Suqué, who feels proud of having directly participated in the whole process.

One of the problems for the proponents of this project, which began a little over a year, was to link the new model with its history. In the end, decided based on a unique model in the world, the Dubonnet Xenia, a sort of whim of a expiloto of the allied forces that wanted to try a few shock absorbers are created by him and for this he took a platform of Hispanic-Switzerland, which incorporated an aircraft engine of the same brand under a body only. The Carmen respects those basic lines original, the only reference that the drivers of the current project have been given clues. At the Geneva motor show it will show, but the real test will be the latter. If the operation goes well, will continue with models more conventional.

Chronology

1904 . Damián Mateu and Francisco Seix founded the company in Barcelona with 500,000 pesetas and put in the technical direction to the engineer Marc Birkingt. This year they delivered two cars.

1907. Hispano Suiza built the first six-cylinder car.

1912. The brand obtained several prizes in the races in Spain, France, Russia, Switzerland...

1923. After several strikes that paralyze the production in different years, the company installed a factory in Paris, and then creates a subsidiary.

1932. Appear the best models of Hispano Suiza in this year and following.