The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Photos and story by Hugues Vanhoolandt
From the VeloceToday Archives, November 2018
As you know, Pegasos are very rare sports cars that were manufactured in Spain between 1951 and 1956. The main goal of the company was to build trucks, vans and buses for which there was a need in the context of Spain’s economic recovery after the difficult times of the Spanish civil war and WWII.
By David Beare
The name Pegaso isn’t familiar to many people other than a post-1945 generation of Spanish truck and bus drivers, plus some classic car enthusiasts who may have heard of (but probably never seen) that almost mythical sports-car, the Pegaso Z-102. The Pegaso company was named after another mythical beast, Pegasus, the winged horse, except the Spanish company logo lacked wings – Mobil Oil in the US had trademarked a Pegasus with wings in the early 1920s.
By Pete Vack
Last week we reviewed Volume 1 of David Beare’s two part look at Hispano-Suiza and Pegaso, which took us from the establishment of Hispano-Suiza in 1904 to the takeover by the Spanish government in 1946 and the establishment of a new, totally Spanish firm to produce a line of trucks based on the work of Marc Birkigt. Enter Wifredo Ricart (b. 1897) and the car that would be called Pegaso. (read Beare’s article). Volume 2 is Pegaso and Ricart From Hispano-Suiza to Pegaso: trucks, busses and sportscars. [Read more…] about Pegaso and Ricart: A New Book on Pegaso
Reveiw by Pete Vack
Images from the book unless otherwise noted
David Beare first introduced himself with the publication of Panhard, the Flat Twin cars 1945-1967 and their origins in 2013, which we thoroughly enjoyed. His books, then and now, are enthusiasts publications; softback, low price, chock full of technical information and historical information. Our kind of book.
After the success of the Panhard book, Beare decided he wanted to write a book on Pegaso but found that it was almost impossible to do so unless he researched the creation of another car, the Hispano-Suiza, and Spanish social and political history. What began as a single slim volume on Pegaso became a larger two volume work that incorporates not only an overview of Hispano Suiza, but Marc Birkigt and the often sad and violent history of the Iberian peninsula. [Read more…] about Hispano-Suiza and Pegaso Reviewed