{"id":33356,"date":"2019-02-18T10:00:45","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T09:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.madrid-experience.com\/?p=23738"},"modified":"2026-05-06T16:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:14:08","slug":"experiences-luxury-cars-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/experiences-luxury-cars-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Experiences with Luxury Cars in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Many of our clients like to book experiences related to the automotive world, and Madrid Experience knows a thing or two about luxury vehicles in Spain.<\/p>\n

Although not as famous as France, Italy, the UK or Germany, Spain\u2019s love affair with luxury vehicles goes as far back as it does in those countries. Until the start WWII, one Spanish marque was by many considered to be the epitome of luxury and sportiness: Hispano-Suiza.<\/p>\n

It was founded in Barcelona in 1904, and quickly became the luxury car of royalty and the world\u00b4s richest people.<\/p>\n

Starting with King Alfonso XIII of Spain, the marque had clients such as the Vanderbilts, members of Europe\u00b4s aristocracy, Picasso, the king of Sweden, the Shah of Persia, the prince of Monaco, Indian maharajas, and an army of Hollywood stars. Another famous Hispano-Suiza owner was Anthony Gustav de Rothschild-who bought a matching set, one for formal occasions, and the other to drive around town, for the equivalent of over $400,000 today<\/p>\n

Hispano-Suiza aimed \u00a0to produce cars which distinguished themselves from their peers through their dependability, speed, silence and elegance. And speed was a big part of it. In 1910 Hispano-Suiza created the first sports car: the Alfonso XIII model, named after the monarch who was such a keen enthusiast of the marque.<\/p>\n

The marque all but disappeared after 1946, but nevertheless its spirit lived on with Spain\u00b4s next beautiful contribution to motoring: Pegaso.<\/p>\n

Franco\u00b4s government nationalised Hispano-Suiza\u00b4s factories in Barcelona and then created a company named Enasa which was to create heavy industrial vehicles using the same premises.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s dictatorship was looking to change and improve its image abroad, and Enasa marvelled the world at the 1951 International Automobile Show in Paris with the launch of a luxury sports car: Pegaso.<\/p>\n

Here was a car which aimed to rub shoulders with Ferrari, and it certainly aimed as high as the Italian firm.<\/p>\n

Pegaso\u00b4s designer, Wilfredo Ricart, had trained at Alfa Romeo and was instrumental in the car\u00b4s creation, image and philosophy.<\/p>\n

When referring to the name -Pegaso is Spanish for Pegasus- Ricart used to say \u201cwho would want a rampant horse (Ferrari\u00b4s symbol), when they could have one that flies?\u201d<\/p>\n

During its short life, 1951-1957, Pegaso entered several prestigious international races, such as Monaco\u2019s 1952 Grand Prix, Le Mans, and 1954\u00b4s Carrera Panamericana. In 1953 it beat the world\u00b4s land speed record when Pegaso reached 243 km per hour for at least one kilometre. Alas, one month later a Jaguar would beat Pegaso\u00b4s record when it reached 263 km per hour.<\/p>\n

When Ricart retired in 1957, Spain\u00b4s dictatorship felt it was time to put an end to the project, and its luxurious sports car was shelved.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the Spanish marque was a continuation, and a testament, to Spain\u2019s love affair with luxury automobiles.<\/p>\n

If you wish to see Madrid driving behind the wheel of a luxury sports car, or being driven around on your next VIP tour in style, Madrid Experience has many options which can be tailored to your requests.<\/p>\n

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If you wish to see Madrid driving behind the wheel of a luxury sports car, or being driven around on your next VIP tour in style, Madrid Experience has many options which can be tailored to your requests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33356"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34445,"href":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33356\/revisions\/34445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madrid-experience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}