When I work out how to make those billions, I am going to buy a big country pile and build a private racetrack in the garden.

 The outbuildings will make handy storage for the legions of cars I want to own, and I can spend my days racing around in pre-war Bentleys, Delages, Bugattis, and Hispano-Suizas.

Regular readers of this column will know that I can't resist machines built in the days when form was as important as function. Modern supercars are all good and well, but it's going to be a long time before I can get the cash together to pick up a Zonda or an Aeromax. As soon as time travel is worked out, however, I'd only need about a grand to pick up a classic beauty and bring  it back to the 21st century. Easy, right?

Hispano-Suiza is a name you should know. In the first half of the 20th century the Spanish (then Spanish-French) company built a name for itself in engineering, becoming a leader in automotive design, engines for both cars and planes, and weapons design.

The origins of Hispano-Suiza are fairly complex – the first company to take that name was founded in 1902, but went bankrupt a year later. In 1904, the name was relaunched, and the Spain-based outfit released four engines in their first year of operation. The Spanish operation remained in Barcelona until 1946, building engines and luxury cars under the name La Hispano-Suiza Fábrica de Automóviles.

By 1911, it was clear that France was a better market for luxury cars than Spain, and to meet the rising demand the Hispano France factory opened. By 1914, larger premises were needed. The Bois-Colombes operation used the Hispano-Suiza name, and the First World War saw the company develop aircraft engines. One of the famous Hispano-Suiza 27-litre V12 aero engines can be seen in the clip below, where it has been placed in a 1926 Delage. On track, the car sounds more like a Spitfire than anything you'd expect to find on the ground.

The Hispano-Suiza brand was a player in 1920s motorsport. The H6 automobile was launched in 1919, and was the most expensive car available in Europe at the time, A heavy beast, its 6.5-litre aero-influenced engine was nevertheless powerful enough that the car was a race contender. In 1921, Andre Dubonnet drove his H6 to victory in a Boulogne sports car race. In 1926, future Grand Prix legend William Grover-Williams won the Mont des Mules hillclimb behind the wheel of his H6.

The two clips below come from the legendary Pebble Beach auctions, and show different models of the H6. The first shows a 1922 H6B, which is notable for its more powerful 8-litre engine. In celebration of Dubbonet's Boulogne race victory, a special edition of five H6B Boulogne racing cars, featuring shorter wheelbases, was built. The Boulogne held eight international driving  records in its day, including a 1924 record for an average speed at Brooklands of 92mph over 300 miles.

The second clip shows a 1930 H6C. I've not been able to work out if the car shown is one of the famous Monzas, but the C-models were also known for their shorter wheelbases. The 6.5l 1924 H6C was capable of a top speed of 110mph, compared with the 8l 1919 H6B's top speed of 85mps.

You'll have spotted from the auction clips just how expensive these cars are to buy. Now you know why I talked billions, not millions, in my opening paragraph... Kate Walker for Girlracer Magazine http://www.girlracer.co.uk

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