Geneva 2010: Hispano Suiza debuts the... Hispano Suiza

Hispano-Suiza - click above for high-res image gallery

Before World War II there were several high-end European luxury marquees that sadly didn't survive long past the Great Depression. One of these makes was Hispano-Suiza, and the car world was worse off as a result. Check out the V12-engined Hispason-Suizas built in the 1930s if you're a non-believer. But guess what? As we mentioned previously, Hispano Suiza is back, only they've dropped the hyphen from their name and the V12 in favor of an Audi V10.

That's right, an Audi V10, which is actually a Lamborghini V10, and Lambo is owned by Volkswagen. But forget all that. The new Hispano Suiza (there's no model name) is essentially a rebodied aluminum, magnesium and carbon fiber Audi R8 V10 5.2 FSI, only they've plugged two electric-superchargers into the intake manifold. As a result, power is up through the roof, improving upon the R8 V10's 525 hp by 225 ponies for a total of 750 horsepower. As you may have guessed, performance is also way up, with 60 mph happening in 3.3 seconds (up from 4.5 in the R8) and a top speed of 211 miles per hour (196 mph in the Audi), propelling the new 3,505-lb Hispano Suiza squarely into hypercar territory.

The reborn Hispano Suiza company plans to build between 20 and 25 of their new cars per year. Our take? Good luck. The one stat we haven't mentioned yet is that they'll be selling these puppies for a cool €700,000. That's about $950,000 at the current exchange rate. Frankly, that's a ludicrous amount of money for a vehicle that just doesn't do much for us. For that lofty price tag, you'd think they could at least give the poor car a name.