The Hispano-Suiza is the same year and manufacture as the Mercer and several other of my cars, but it is far and away a more advanced automobile. Its gearbox shifts like any sports car of the 1950s, very smooth and direct; the brakes are what you would expect from a car well into the 1950s, very efficient in operation as were all Hispano brakes through the marque’s history. – S.M.

While the famed Classic Era Hispano-Suizas emerged from the firm’s French factory, the original Barcelona plant also produced some extraordinary vehicles earlier in its history.

In fact, it was the Spanish factory that built the model that established the marque’s performance bona fides, more or less at the behest of its most prominent patron, King Alfonso XIII, the youthful monarch and avid automobilist. Quite a break from the more conservatively designed earlier Hispanos, it was designed by the brilliant Marc Birkigt with a long-stroke T-head four-cylinder engine of diminutive size—3,620 cubic centimeters—but impressive power, about 75 in proper tune. On a lightweight and small chassis for its time, this created what was, essentially, the European equivalent to the famed American Mercer, a well-balanced, nimble, and utterly thrilling true roadgoing sports car. Unsurprisingly, what was officially the T15 became well-regarded as the Alfonso XIII, a name still used by many enthusiasts to this day, and examples stand in some of the world’s most prominent collections and museums, including the Schlumpf Collection and the Revs Institute.

The Mann Collection’s T15 Alfonso XIII is a long-chassis model, number 1558. Built, like many of its ilk after 1911, at the French facility, it was bodied as an exceptionally attractive torpedo by the small carrosserie Jaquot of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges. Jaquot’s coachwork is remarkably fluid of line for the period, without the straight-through beltlines typical of the time; rather, the metal seems to curve and flow around the passengers of both the front and rear seats, with the openings outlined in rich wood, and is drawn to nearly a point at the tail between the dramatic open and flared rear fenders.

While records do not exist to indicate the Hispano-Suiza’s original owner, per historian Emilio Polo it was later acquired by Don Francisco de Rocha, a onetime shareholder in the Hispano-Suiza company and Galician concessionaire, as well as an early enthusiast of its products. He eventually acquired some 40 Hispano-Suiza automobiles. Following his passing in the 1990s, many were acquired by his fellow Hispanophile Patricio Chadwick, who rebuilt the engine of the Alfonso XIII and began restoring its bodywork.

When Sam Mann acquired the car from Mr. Chadwick in 2007, it remained a largely intact and solid automobile with its original interior and vee’d radiator shell, as employed on the Hispano-Suizas run at the 1912 Grand Prix de France, still present; photographs in the file clearly show the car as it was acquired. It subsequently became one of the final automobiles to be restored by the Manns’ in-house restoration facility. As part of the mechanical restoration, the car was fitted with an exact duplicate of the original carburetor, with an increased flow rate to better handle the power of the engine, as well as with a period starter for ease of operation. The body was beautifully trimmed in brass, as-original, with the panels finished in black over a deep red chassis frame and undercarriage.

As had become tradition for the Manns, the completed Hispano-Suiza debuted at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it was judged Second in Class among the very competitive Antique entrants. Not only an exceptionally attractive automobile in its cosmetic presentation, it has been maintained as a swift and sure runner, which Sam Mann notes he has enjoyed on two of John Mozart’s tours in California, as well as in several regional events on the East Coast.

It is an exceptional piece of engineering, with every component carefully thought out and masterfully executed, with the result being one of the very finest road cars of its generation. The result is a wholly worthy companion to the Mercer and Silver Ghost, just as it has been in the Manns’ collection for the past two decades.

It is simply an exquisite piece, built like a Swiss watch by precision craftsmen. – S.M.