For all the kings and queens who are content to take the back seat of a chauffeur-driven limousine, and from there wave gracefully at their adoring subjects, there have been a few who insisted on occupying the driver’s seat, putting their foot to the floor, and generally creating a more impressive spectacle for anyone who might be watching. One of the great motoring monarchs was Alfonso XIII of Spain. An automotive Francophile from the beginning, the story goes that he was motoring along in one of his puissant machines when something even more rapid chased him down, passed him and left him for dead. He later caught up with the car, which had parked, and so discovered the Hispano-Suiza marque. Naturally delighted to learn that one of the fastest cars on the roads was a product of his own nation, he soon took delivery of his own Hispano-Suiza and entered into regular correspondence with the factory. It was apparently he who prompted Hispano-Suiza to enter international races after it had completed some light racing voiturettes, the 30CR series, in 1909. They proved highly successful, and when the firm wanted to put into production a rakish road car powered by a 64bhp development of one of its long-stroke racing engines, Alfonso was only too pleased for it to bear his name. Francisco Carrión Cárdenas tells the full story of the Hispano-Suiza Alfonso XIII and inspects an exquisite example in the March issue of The Automobile, on sale now. Words by Zack Stiling, photographs by Fernando Villar
