Start with what the Hispano-Suiza H6B Dubonnet Xenia is: a 2-door targa top with 8.0 , built from 1938, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Jean Édouard Andreau / Saoutchik.
The story
The Hispano-Suiza H6B Dubonnet Xenia is a one-off luxury car built on the chassis of a Hispano-Suiza H6B for French pilot and racing car driver André Dubonnet in 1938. Although it is based on an H6B, it uses the larger, more powerful engine from the H6C, features an entirely new suspension system designed by Dubonnet, and a body built by coachbuilder Saoutchik from a design by aerodynamicist Jean Édouard Andreau.
What is underneath
The engine is 8.0 . Drive goes through a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: the engine sits behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle, which puts the mass in the middle of the car and is why mid-engined cars change direction the way they do. The wheelbase is 4064 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the Hispano-Suiza line-up the Hispano-Suiza H6B Dubonnet Xenia has a clear place: the factory was Paris (Bois-Colombes factory), France. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Volkswagen Beetle, the Lincoln Continental, the GAZ GAZ-61. Nearby in the Hispano-Suiza catalogue sit the HIspano-Suiza K8 and the Hispano-Suiza Alfonso XIII.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Hispano-Suiza H6B Dubonnet Xenia has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.