Hispano-Suiza H6 History

Unveiled at the 1919 Paris Motor Show, the H6 was Marc Birkigt's masterwork. Its all-aluminium 6,597 cc inline-six drew directly on his design of the famous Hispano-Suiza 8 aircraft engine — an overhead camshaft, light-alloy construction, and extraordinary refinement. But the H6's most revolutionary feature was its braking system: light-alloy servo-assisted four-wheel drum brakes, the first in the industry, driven by a shaft off the gearbox. Rolls-Royce quickly licensed the system; it became the world standard.

The H6B (from 1921) refined the formula, and the 1924 H6C stretched the engine to nearly 8 litres and 160 hp, capable of 177 km/h — numbers that embarrassed most contemporary racing cars. Bodies were commissioned from the finest coachbuilders of the era — Saoutchik, Kellner, Vanvooren — making each H6 a bespoke sculpture. Roughly 2,350 H6, H6B, and H6C cars were built across French and Spanish factories, with 100 more assembled under licence by Škoda. The companion T49, built by the Spanish division in Barcelona from 1924 to 1944, was effectively the H6B in domestic form.

The H6 was the car that proved Spain — and Hispano-Suiza — could out-engineer and out-refine the British and French establishments. Its combination of performance, silence, and mechanical sophistication earned it the informal title 'the best car in the world' from period road-testers.