If I were to ask you to list the most important car producers by country would you include Spain? Probably not, and yet it has produced some magnificent automotive engineers – Wilfredo Ricart among them – plus classics like the Hispano-Suiza and the illustrious Pegaso. Following WW2 Fiat established a Spanish company making cars under license, badged as Seats. Countless tourists rented Seat 750's and 850's (including yours truly with family) for vacation driving; today Seat is now a VW subsidiary producing world-class compacts. Pegaso sports cars are rare but one brave owner recently had the courage (and resources) to drive his car in the 2007 Mille Miglia. Pegasos were beautiful, their V-8 powered super cars deserve to be listed with the all-time greats. For the rest of us, a drive through Spain in a rental Seat will suffice.
[Photo Credit: Classic Cars]
I remember reading about Pegaso when it was new, but I don’t remeber seeing one in the four great months I spent in Madrid in the summer of ’63. Did see a lot of SEATs though. I was driving a Mark II Sprite at the time. My very first NEW car.
June 17, 2007 @ 7:22 pm