Hispano Suiza Carmen
gordon murray t.50
a supercar renaissance
Hispano's wildly stylish EV for the 21st Century
Every year, often in August during the Monterey Car Week that features the Pebble Beach Concours, a few wonderfully wild supercars make an appearance. Some are styling concepts, a few are looking for buyers to allow production and one or two actually make production. Hispano Suiza, the legendary automaker founded in 1907 whose last production car, hand-built in 1938, was the remarkable H6B. The one-of stylish coupe was created for French pilot and race driver André Dubonnet and its recent appearance at Pebble Beach stunned the crowd.
The Hispano Suiza Carmen borrows just the right styling cues from the H6B and adds 1019 horsepower to drive the rear wheels in proper fashion, complete with torque vectoring. The price is $1,700,000 plus bespoke options like the special fuchsia paint on our example commissioned by collector Michael Fux. Only 18 other well-heeled enthusiasts will own a Carmen so Mr. Fux is unlikely to encounter another in his travels.
1938 Hispano Suiza H6B
2020 Hispano Suiza Carmen
Murray starts with a clean sheet
In 2005, Bugatti had poured a considerable amount of VW Group's treasure into creating the world's fastest production car. The Veyron EB64 set a speed record of 253 MPH in 2005 and its successor the Chiron can eclipse 300MPH. But before Bugatti was reborn, the McLaren F1 had held the world's production car speed record at 240 MPH. Gordon Murray, a renowned racecar designer, developed the supercar for McLaren in 1992 and one of its unique features was a center driver's seat with passengers tucked on either side. Over its six year production run, 108 McLaren F1s were commissioned for an average price of $800,000. Recently, a nice example sold for $19-million
Today, Gordon Murray unveiled his new T.50, a ultra exotic, lightweight supercar with a custom 3.9-liter V12 from Cosworth producing 663 HP with a six-speed manual gearbox and a center seat for the driver. Just 100 will be produced starting at $3.7-million each. Will the investment be as amazing as the F1?
1993 McLaren F1
2020 Murray T.50
