Star Cars: Peter Ustinov’s 1934 Hispano-Suiza J12 By Binder

Following the end of the Second World War, the 1950s were a time of recovery and growth, when the industries previously crippled could once again flourish. The entertainment industry boomed, and European cinema experienced a veritable re-birth.

Two-time Academy Award-winning British actor Sir Peter Ustinov quickly became one of the brightest stars of the era, going on to enjoy a stellar film career spanning several decades. Ustinov’s other passion in life was cars, and he owned a number of desirable vehicles throughout his adult life. These included Maseratis, Alfa Romeos, Lagondas, rare drophead coupe examples of the Aston Martin DB2/4 and DB4, as well as many pre-war cars.

Considered something of a connoisseur for these pre-war machines, Ustinov acquired several examples of legendary renown, though his favourite by far was the 1934 Hispano-Suiza J12 by Binder of Paris. This behemoth of a car entered Ustinov’s life on his 40th birthday, presented to him as a present by his wife. Unbeknown to Ustinov, she had tasked one of his good friends, the French Formula One photo-journalist Bernard Cahier, to find an exceptional machine.

Due to Cahier’s wide connections in the automotive world, he delivered in spades. The Hispano-Suiza J12 was the largest and most expensive car ever produced by the Spanish company. Just 114 examples were built between 1931 and 1938, manufactured as a running chassis only, so each buyer had to commission a coachbuilder to craft a body.

Peter Ustinov’s example featured elegant coachwork by Binder stretching over its massive limousine chassis. Under the expansive bonnet sat an equally gargantuan 9.4-litre OHV V12 designed by Marc Birkigt. It featured a ‘lightweight’ aluminium block and heads, and produced around 220bhp, which was driven through the rear wheels via a three-speed manual transmission. Despite its size, the J12 boasted impressive performance for the era, with a 0-60mph time of 12 seconds, and a top speed of 100mph.

Sadly, the J12 was stolen at some point in the 1980s. A newspaper clipping from the period suggests that the car had been put into rented storage in Nice, but the ownership of the storage facility had changed, leading both Bernard Cahier and Paul Condriller, (who was in charge of the car’s maintenance) to try in vain to contact the new owner to retrieve the keys to the container. After months of work, the pair called in a locksmith to crack open the storage container, but the doors eventually swung open to reveal an empty box.

Upon hearing the news while filming in Germany, Ustinov – now ironically well known for his role as detective Hercule Poirot – was devastated, and he employed the best private investigators to try to track down his beloved car. Sadly, even a real-life private eye could not uncover the J12’s whereabouts, and the beautiful machine was presumed lost.

Many years later though, the car finally resurfaced, so Ustinov hired a lawyer to claim back his pride and joy. Unfortunately for Ustinov, the courts found in favour of the new owner, ruling that the car had been bought in good faith.

Disheartened that he had come so close to retrieving his beloved J12, Ustinov is quoted as saying that the outcome was predictable; “Napoleon rewrote a French law to justify his own thefts, and the French don’t like anyone other than a Frenchman owning the best car they ever made".

The story of Peter Ustinov’s Hispano-Suiza J12 then appears to become lost to myth, with seemingly no knowledge of what happened to the car after the court case. Ustinov would have to fall back to his other Hispano-Suiza: a H6C ‘Faux Cabriolet’ by Vanvooren. If only the story had been a plot in an Agatha Christie novel; the brilliant detective Poirot would no doubt have foiled the scheme, and retrieved the stolen jewel.