One J12 was later armoured for General Franco and paraded through Madrid in the 1939 Victory Parade.
Lead trim: J12 9.4 L OHV V12 (220 hp) · up to 250 hp
Hispano-Suiza J12J12 · 1931–1938
- 0spots by members
- Unclaimednobody has spotted one yet
- 0sets it belongs to
Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Hispano-Suiza J12 yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactOne J12 was later armoured for General Franco and paraded through Madrid in the 1939 Victory Parade.
The Hispano-Suiza J12, made in France from 1931 to 1938, was the largest and most expensive car the company ever built and replaced the H6; it was sold only as a chassis, with buyers arranging their own coachbuilder, and Hispano-Suiza suspended car production in 1938 to focus on aircraft engines. Its 60-degree V12 had pushrod overhead valves and a seven-bearing crankshaft, each block machined from a single 700 lb billet; the original 9.4 L (100 mm bore and stroke, 5.0:1 compression) made 220 hp at 3,000 rpm, and two cars got a long-stroke 11.3 L version at 250 hp (several J12s were later upgraded to it); the registry's 10 L displacement ceiling rejects 11.3, so that trim's displacement is left blank. One car was driven Paris-Nice-Paris without needing oil or water to prove its engineering. A 1935 example, ordered by the Spanish government as a presidential car, was later armoured and used by General Franco in Madrid's 1939 Victory Parade; another was given to the young Mohammad Reza Shah of Iran by his father in 1931. Wheelbase 135 in (3,430 mm), 146 in (3,710 mm), 150 in (3,810 mm) or 158 in (4,010 mm) depending on coachwork.
Collectors Spotted in the Hispano-Suiza J12 Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Hispano-Suiza J12 yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
2 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J12 11.3 L OHV V12 (250 hp) | 1935–1938 | V12 | 250 hp | — | — | RWD | — | — |
| J12 9.4 L OHV V12 (220 hp) | 1931–1935 | 9.4 L V12 | 220 hp | — | — | RWD | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
Simca beat Fiat to market by three months with what was essentially Fiat's own Topolino design.
The Simca 1000 began at Fiat: Simca boss Henri Pigozzi picked one of six boxy clay models from Fiat's "Project 122".
The last Simca 1000 ever built, the 1978 Rallye 3, was also the rarest — just 1,000 were made in the model's final year, a quiet send-off for a car that had sold nearly two million.
To drum up buzz at launch, Simca briefly swapped 50 of its Paris taxi fleet's Ariane sedans for tiny new 1000s, making the little car a familiar sight on the capital's streets.
The PL 17's name is a sum: 5 fiscal horsepower, 6 seats, 6 litres per 100 km, kept a digit below the Citroën DS 19's.
The humble Tagora spawned a one-off concept, the Présidence, decked out with Connolly leather and electronics way ahead of 1981 — a built-in telephone, dictaphone, text-message receiver and a TV with VCR.
Talbot fed the Tagora's V6 old-fashioned triple carburettors instead of fuel injection — and the extra power briefly made it the most powerful French car on sale. Only 1,083 were ever built.
Switching the 96 from a two-stroke to a Ford V4 was such a closely guarded secret that Saab invented a fake company, Maskinverktyg AB, just to buy the new engine's parts without its own purchasing department finding out.