If you had two choices in Salamanca, what would you prefer to do:

1. Go to a car museum, or
2. Go shoe shopping. 

Norman went to the car museum and I went shoe shopping. I bought 3 pairs of shoes. It is difficult to write a blog about shoe shopping so this is a blog about Norman’s visit to the car museum. Thank you to Norman for writing a blog and taking excellent pictures!

The Salamanca Automobile History Museum

The Salamanca Automobile History Museum is nestled between the banks of the Tormes River and the back of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco Museum, the Casa Lis. The permanent collection consists of over 140 vehicles, mostly cars, race cars and motorcycles.

I was fortunate to catch a special exhibit, called Rojo (red), which featured desirable red sports cars from the 1920’s to the 1990’s. Rose Ann posted a picture of one car from the special exhibition in her blog last week, a red 1955 Pegaso Z-102 SSP Spider Serra. I didn’t influence Rose Ann’s choice, but think that it was an inspired one! I’ll tell you why after I tell you more about the main exhibit and what I thought of the museum.

I found the permanent exhibit somewhat disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, I highly recommend the museum, and it is a great value with an entrance fee of only 4 Euros, but I found the presentation and curation to be odd. The permanent collection is a bit of a hodgepodge of vehicles without a consistent theme. I was hoping for a great collection of Spanish vehicles, and was only somewhat sated in that regard.

When gearheads think of great Spanish car manufacturers, two come to mind: Hispano-Suiza and Pegaso. While there have been other Spanish auto manufacturers, most derived from Hispano-Suiza or built vehicles of other manufacturers’ designs under licence for the Spanish market. The best known of these is SEAT (Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo), which used to produce clones of FIAT models for the Spanish market until it was purchased by VW Group in 1986, and now produces vehicles built on VW platforms, with unique SEAT styling to differentiate its models from those of other VW brands.

The MHAS had 2 beautiful, classic Hispano-Suizas in its collection. A Type 30 from 1922 (pictured above), and an even more grand Type 49 from 1925 (pictured below).

For those who watch the Australian crime thriller, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries on PBS or Netflix, Phryne Fisher’s ride is a 1923 Hispano Suiza Type 46: http://thefabulousmissfisher.blogspot.com/2013/03/phrynes-carthe-hispano-suiza.html

In addition to the beautiful 1955 Pegaso Z-102 Spider from that Rojo special exhibit that Rose Ann featured in last week’s blog, the permanent collection includes a black 1955 Z-102 coupe, pictured below

Hispano-Suiza was the first great Spanish marque, and, as its name indicates, it had strong Swiss connections, and later French ones as well. Like most Spanish manufacturing, Hispano-Suiza was located in Barcelona. Hispano-Suiza was founded in 1898 by a former Spanish Army artillery captain, who collaborated with a Swiss engineer, Marc Birkigt. Like many automotive start-ups of that era, the fledgling company went through some early turmoil. In 1904, it was renamed La Hispano-Suiza Fábrica de Automóviles to reflect Birkigt’s significant contribution. Birkigt designed 2 large four cylinder and 2 six cylinder engines to power the pre WWI vehicles. The vehicles proved so successful that Hispano-Suiza opened a factory near Paris to meet the growing demands of the French market.

As with other car manufacturers, WWI, caused a major disruption, and Hispano-Suiza switched during the war years to manufacturing aero engines. Birkigt, a brilliant engineer, made a number of novel innovations, the chief of which was to use lighter, cast aluminum engine blocks, and fit steel cylinder sleeves into them, so that the engine would have the lower mass necessary for aircraft, but retain the strength and longevity that steel provided for the engine cylinders. The HS-8 aircraft engines produced by Hispano-Suiza were V-8, water-cooled single overhead cam engines, which were such an advanced design, that it is still used today by auto manufacturers. These engines were installed in French SPAD and British Sopwith aircraft. The engine was so successful that nearly 50,000 were built in Spain, and under licence in France, Britain, Italy, and the US in 21 factories. This powerful and reliable engine created enormous prestige for Hispano-Suiza and placed its post WWI cars in the highest echelons of the automotive world.

The first vehicle to really benefit was the H-6, which was introduced in 1919, to huge acclaim at the Paris Motor Show. This was powered by an in-line six cylinder engine, built with many of the same advanced features found on the HS-8 aircraft engine. The H-6 was a huge hit and many auto manufacturers, including Rolls-Royce, licensed mechanical innovations that had been patented by H-S, including the first power brakes.

Unfortunately, Hispano-Suiza ceased production in 1946, when its assets were sold to ENASA, which built trucks, buses and tractors as well as sports cars under the Pegaso brand. Pegaso is Spanish for Pegasus, an appropriate name for sports cars, but less so for the trucks, buses and tractors.

HS-21 concept car

Showing the enduring power of the Hispano-Suiza brand, the permanent collection includes 3 concept cars depicting how a modern Hispano-Suiza might look, if the company was still operating. These 3 beautiful concept cars were designed, by Mazel Engineers, based, of course, in Barcelona.

This is the HS-21 GTS concept car

HS K-8 concept car

While these are lovely examples of what a revived Hispano-Suiza could look today, in many ways the Pegaso sports car, shown below and featured in last week’s blog, was a worthy successor for Hispano-Suiza in the post WWII era.

1955 Pegaso Z-102 SSP Spider Serra featured in last week’s blog on Salamanca

In Southern Europe, the immediate post WWII era was not prosperous. As an example, in Italy, Alfa Romeo, which produced some of the most magnificent pre-war cars, produced much more modest and affordable vehicles post WWII. In this context, the Pegaso Z-102 was a tour de force. When it was introduced in 1951, it was the fastest production road vehicle, with some versions hitting 151 MPH (243 km/h). It had a small (2.5 litre) but powerful DOHC aluminum V-8 and a very sophisticated 5 speed rear transaxel, which gave it an excellent weight distribution. Base models could hit 120 MPH (nearly 200 km/h) and supercharged versions could achieve the aforementioned 151 MPH.

Given their sophistication and expense, fewer than 100 Pegaso sport cars were built. To find two Pegaso Z-102’s in one museum, is certainly a treat.

The truck, bus and tractor operations of ENASA were sold to IVECO, part of the FIAT Group (now FCA) in 1990.

1985 Ferrari 308 GTB

In addition to the spectacular red Pegaso Z-102 spider, the Rojo collection had a number of other noteworthy vehicles, including this 1985 Ferrari 308 GTB, an earlier version of Magnum PI’s ride.

1990 Ferrari Testarossa

This1990 Ferrari Testarossa is similar to the white one that Sonny Crockett of Miami Vice drove in the show’s third season. (Allegedly producer Michael Mann had it painted white so that it would show better in night scene shoots)

This is a 1991 Lamborghini Diablo

This is a 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider

This1991 Alfa Romeo Spider is a later version of the car that Dustin Hoffman drove in The Graduate:

Lest I disappoint those gearheads who are more interested in 2 wheels than 4, there were also some motorcycles on display at MHAS. Most were small displacement Spanish motorcycles such as OSSA, Montesa and Bultaco.

I was hoping that there would be a Bultaco Metralla, which was one of the fastest, and best handling small motorcycles of the 1960’s, but at least found a similar road-racing version.

The museum has a collection of older Spanish trail and trial bikes

Honda 2004 Dream 50 Racer

This is Honda’s 2004 homage to its legendary Dream 50 Racer

All in all, I had a lovely afternoon at the Car Museum. For me, this was a much better afternoon than shoe shopping!

Next week I will write a guest blog on one of my favourite car museums: The Revs Institute in Naples, Florida, started by the prominent Collier family.