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Dubonnet’s Xenia

This special one-off two seater 1938 Delage D8-120- carries coachwork by de Villars. First shown at that year’s Concours de l’Auto de Printemps where it was presented by Madam Richer-Delavau, wife of the owner of Bayard’s garage in Paris, where it won the Grand Prize.

Whilst in Paris during 1938 Otto Zipper, one of the first to import foreign cars into California, saw the Delage and fell in love with it but it was not for sale. In 1958, at the Paris Salon he spoke with Armand Veressi, a Paris based editor, and enquired after his old love.

Veressi, it turned out, had purchased his old love about 18 months earlier. To Zipper’s delight he agreed to sell him the Delage which by now had covered over 100,00kms.

Zipper shipped the car to California and restored it to running order before selling it in the early 1960s. In 1969 the Delage passed into the ownership of Frederick Berndt and then to Sam Mann in 1994.

In 1996 Mann entered the Delage in to the Pebble Beach Concours winning the European Classics section and best in show. Fritz Burkard, the current owner, purchased the Delage in 2019 and was delighted to be presented with best in show at Hampton Court.

Lalique mascot for the Delage.

A Delage D8; what is it like to own and drive one? See below.

Andre Dubonnet was an inventor, sportsman, WW1 fighter ace, motor racing fanatic, heir to the Dubonnet aperitif fortune, and creator of this extraordinary Hispano Suiza.

In 1927 together with engineer Antoine Marie Chedru he developed a four wheel independent hyperflex suspension system which he marketed as ‘having the suppleness of a cat.’

Needing a chassis as a rolling showcase for his ideas he purchased an extensively modified Hispano Suiza H6B chassis, designed by Jean Andreau, that he had seen at the Paris Motor show in 1932. The H6B had originally been planned to be powered by a V12 engine but as the eight litre six cylinder engine had proven to be powerful enough, the idea of a V12 engine was dropped.

In 1938 Dubonnet contracted Jacques Saoutchik to construct the coachwork you see today, Dubonnet’s fifth prototype attempt. Named Xenia after his late wife, Xenia was hidden during WW2 reappearing again on the 9th June 1946 at the opening of the Saint Cloud Tunnel just outside Paris.

By the 1960s Xenia was under the custodianship of Alain Balleret, the President of the French Hispano Suiza Club who had the car restored. In 1999 Charles Morse, an American, purchased Xenia, retaining her for a few years before selling her to current custodian Peter Mullin and the Mullin Automotive collection.

Xenia dash, rarely seen!

Xenia interior shot