Hispano Suiza: When a Century-Old Wooden Torpedo Shapes Today’s Hypercar Design
At Pebble Beach this summer, the jury crowned a century-old Hispano Suiza as Best of Show—an accolade the brand eagerly folds into its narrative of unbroken luxury and heritage.
The car in question, the 1924 Hispano Suiza H6C Nieuport-Astra Torpedo, better known as the Tulipwood Torpedo, stole the spotlight at America’s most prestigious concours. Commissioned by French aviator and racing driver André Dubonnet, its fuselage-style body was built from 3 mm mahogany strips fastened with aluminium rivets. The result was a body weighing just 70 kilograms, at once feather-light and strikingly elegant.
This machine has survived war, multiple owners, and record-setting auctions, cementing the special bond between Hispano Suiza and the United States. It is, in fact, the marque’s third Pebble Beach Best of Show. For current custodians Penny and Lee Anderson of Florida, the win represents “the highest possible recognition in car collecting.”
Hispano Suiza has seized on the moment. In its official statement, the company draws a direct line from the wooden-bodied Torpedo to its present-day electric hypercars—the Carmen, Carmen Boulogne, and the 1,114-horsepower Carmen Sagrera revealed for the brand’s 120th anniversary in 2024. The message is crafted with seamless continuity: engineering innovation, artisanal craft, and timeless elegance flowing “from yesterday into today.”
The reality, of course, is simpler. Hispano Suiza now produces its hypercars in vanishingly small numbers, relying more on myth than market. Pebble Beach victories serve less as proof of industrial power than as reinforcements of a century-old legend. The Tulipwood Torpedo may be 100 years old, but it remains the brand’s most powerful marketing tool.
