The Hispano-Suiza J12 is a luxury automobile that was made by Hispano-Suiza in France from 1931 to 1938. It was the largest and most expensive car ever built by Hispano-Suiza. It replaced the Hispano-Suiza H6. The J12 was only available as a chassis, buyers having to arrange with an outside coachbuilder to add a body.
Hispano-Suiza suspended automobile production in 1938 to concentrate on the manufacture of aircraft engines.
Mechanical features
The J12 was powered by a 60° V12 engine with pushrod-operated overhead valves and a seven-bearing crankshaft. The engine initially displaced 9.4 L with bore and stroke both being 100 mm and with a compression ratio of 5.0:1, delivered 220 hp at 3000 rpm. Two cars were fitted with long-stroke engines displacing 11.3 L and delivering 250 hp, and several J12s were later upgraded to the larger engine.[3] Each engine block was machined from a single 700 lb billet.
To demonstrate the high quality engineering and reliability of the J12, one car was driven from Paris to Nice and back without needing oil or water.[3]