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Thursday, March 5, 2015

1919 Hispano Suiza "The Alfonso"

Here are some images of Minicraft's 1/16 scale 1919 Hispano Suiza's "The Alphonso".

From the instructions"
Made in France, they used the strange name which means "Spanish Swiss". This was derived from the fact that the company originated in Spain and the designer, Mark Birkit, was of Swiss origin.

1919 was a very significant year in the world of automobiles... presumably due to the termination of World War 1. In this year... Rolls Royce resumed production, But they did not have the prestige or performance of the Hispano Suiza with its 37.2 HP engine (SAE equal to approximately 200 BHP).

In the same year Bentley was introduced to the racing world, using a 3 litre engine... Napier announced its first automobile which did not get beyond the completed chassis stage until 1920. In the United States... Ford introduced electrical starting... Auburn, previously not too successful was taken over, recapitalized, and became a very significant entity in the United states automobile market.

The Hispano Suiza was still king of the automotive world. Its servo assisted brakes were years ahead of their time. The name later gained further reputation as a result of the introduction of V-12 engines... which were a development of the V-8's that were produced for use in aircraft during World War 1.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the look of the "wood" fenders.

Dave

-Warren Zoell said...

Thanks Dave!
It's Sapelli wood.