Hispano-Suiza was an originally Catalonia-Swiss luxury automotive and engineering firm — actually, from 1923 on, two different companies — best known for their cars, engines (including world famous aviation engines) and weapons designs in the pre-World War II period. Today they are part of the French SAFRAN Group, while the Spanish company in 1946 sold all their automotive assets to Enasa, the maker of Pegaso trucks and sport cars.

Early years

In 1898, a Catalan artillery captain, Emili de la Cuadra, started with electric automobile production in Barcelona under the name of La Cuadra. In Paris, De la Cuadra met the talented Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt (lived 1878–1953) and hired him to work for the company in Catalonia. La Cuadra built their first gas powered engines from Birkigt designs. At some point in 1902, the ownership changed hands to J. Castro and became Fábrica Hispano-Suiza de Automóviles (Spanish-Swiss Car Factory) but this company also went bankrupt in December 1903.

Yet another reformation took place in 1904, creating La Hispano-Suiza Fábrica de Automóviles also under Castro' s direction. Four new engines were introduced in the next year and a half. A 3.8 liter and a 7.4 liter four cylinder engines were produced as well as a pair of big six cylinder powerplants. This version of the company managed to avoid bankruptcy and in Spain remained in operation, as a car, truck and aviation engine producer, with its main plant located in Barcelona, until 1946. They mass-produced cars, trucks and buses and a number of hand-built racing and luxury cars, some of which ended up being owned by King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

However, by this point in the early years of the century, France was proving to be a much larger market for their luxury cars than Spain. In 1911 a new factory, known as Hispano France, was set up in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret. In 1914, they moved to larger factories at Bois-Colombes and took the name Hispano-Suiza.

World War I

1918–1936

The H6 featured an inline 6 cylinder overhead camshaft engine based on the features of the V8 aluminium WW1 aero engine and a body by Hibbard & Darrin. Through the 1920s and into the 1930s, they built a series of luxury cars of increasing refinement. In fact, the 1930s V-12 car engine reverted to pushrod valve actuation to achieve even less engine noise.

In 1923, the French arm of Hispano-Suiza was incorporated as the Societé Française Hispano-Suiza, the Spanish parent company subscribing for 71% of the share capital. From then on, the French company gained increased degrees of financial independence, while the technical links were always kept strong. The mascot statuette atop the radiator used by this firm after WWI was the stork of the province of Alsace, taken from the squadron emblem painted on the side of the aircraft of the renowned WWI French ace (and Hispano-Suiza customer) Georges Guynemer, which was powered by a Hispano-Suiza engine. At the time, this was an emblem of revanchism.