Spanish Beauty

There's so much I love about Spain, especially its food and its people, but I have never really had Spain featuring strongly on my car-loving radar. (In fact I'm more fond of Spanish motorcycles such as the Bultaco Metrallas in particular, plus also all the various other Bultacos, Ossas, Montesas and Derbis produced over the years.) However, there is one Spanish car of which I have been very fond indeed, and it's this one, the Pegaso.

Did you know that Penelope Cruz's grandmother was a dead ringer for her
famous film star grand-daughter? And that Javier Bardem's grandpa drove a
Pegaso? Here's the picture that proves it. As they say, don't believe everything
you see or read on the internet – it might just be a Photoshopped fake using
a little 1:43 scale model car (made by IXO)!

It's sad that the Pegaso's lifespan as a sports car was so brief. Just the 1950s, and not even the whole decade, just seven years (1951-58). The Pegaso company itself was a well-known maker of trucks and coaches, and then all of a sudden someone managed to convince the bosses to agree to make this beauty, the Z-102, with a quad-cam V8 engine with desmodromic valves, all encased in sleek bodywork by Tourig. Unfortunately, the cars themselves, while looking a million dollars, also cost far too many dollars to make, hardly won any races and put a lot of unwanted financial pressure on the company. And so the brief flirtation with high-end sports cars ended, with only 86 cars being produced. At least the cars are now eminently collectable and rare.