5th place – Jack Shepherdson’s Top 10 Classic Grand Touring Cars
The Hispano-Suiza Dubonnet Xenia is the closest any car has come to blending aeronautical and automotive design. Penned in 1938 by Saoutchik under the eye of Andre Dubonnet, the art deco body clothed a Hispano-Suiza H6B chassis and stock 6.5 litre 6-cylinder engine. The one-off Xenia was a car astoundingly ahead of its time, being the first car to feature a removable Targa style roof panel, the first car to feature a curved windscreen and a revolutionary independent suspension system which unsprung weight during cornering, thus improving handling.

While France was under occupation, the Xenia was hidden, latter reappearing in 1946 leading many to assume it was a 46’ car, as it was relatively unknown before the war.

Image source:
autoomagazine.wordpress.com…