1934 car burnt to a husk sells for the price of a brand new Lamborghini

Hispano-Suiza might not be a brand that is familiar to most people.

In fact, it might even be possible that you’ve never heard of the brand at all.

Sadly, the pre-war marque recently lost one of its cars to a trailer fire.

And the charred remains sold for more than a Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

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Hispano-Suiza: The marque you’ve never heard of

Hispano-Suiza was a company with a very interesting history.

The Spanish luxury car maker was born in Barcelona, Spain on June 14th, 1904.

The company came about as the result of a collaboration with two men.

Emilio de la Cuadra Albiol was a Spanish artillery captain.

While in Paris, he met a Swiss engineer named Marc Birkigt.

Birkigt was hired to work for the company, and he would become a co-founder of the firm.

In spite of its Catalan origins, the company realized that there was a larger luxury market in France.

So the company shifted its focus and production to the French market instead.

Carrosserie Vanvooren enters the mix

From 1931 to 1938, Hispano-Suiza manufactured their most expensive car ever.

It was called the J12, and, interestingly, it was only available as a chassis.

This meant that buyers would have to find a coachbuilder to build the body.

In stepped Carrosserie Vanvooren.

The French coachbuilder was based in the north-western Parisian suburb of Courbevoie.

In fact, the two companies were separated by just a few hundred yards in Paris.

Carrosserie Vanvooren would go on to produce over a third of the bodies for Hispano-Suiza.

And that includes the car that’s the topic of today’s story.

Burned out J12 Vanvooren Cabriolet fetches pretty penny

Every year, Pebble Beach in Florida plays host to a very special car show.

The Concours d’Elegance sees some of the world’s finest classic cars put on display.

And the Hispano-Suiza J12 just so happened to be one of them.

The Cabriolet is thought to be the rarest, with only 20 ever originally made.

Sadly, while being transported home to California in a trailer, the car caught fire.

The original car was thought to be worth about $2 million in its mint condition.

Despite that, the owner recently sold the charred remains for a phenomenal $224,000.

That’s more than a brand new Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

And it really does go to show – if you happen to have a destroyed old car, it could be worth a lot of money.

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