03 Jul 08
Spain is on the up at the moment. Its football team have at last fulfilled their potential by winning Euro 2008 and one of its favourite sons, Rafael Nadal is set to take Wimbledon by storm this weekend. He's beaten our-boy Murray, but does he have what it takes to take the Wimbledon crown?
Dunno, but did you know that Spain also has a car industry? Of course we all know about Seat. This week it launched its new Seat Ibiza Sport Coupe - and we didn't like that much - but there have also been plenty of other carmakers in the country's history that have built some pretty decent cars. So we say: 'Viva Espana'.
King Alfonso XIII
Francisco Anglada y Gallardo, from Cadiz in Andalucia, was a port engineer turned bicycle-maker. He became a Spanish car manufacturing pioneer after making a car for King Alfonzo XIII, which was the first Spanish car supplied to the royal family. His car factory, which opened in 1902, built bespoke vehicles for Spain's well-to-do, ranging from one-cylinder runarounds to a luxury four-cylinder, like King Alfonso's 24hp model.
The royal 24hp was advanced for its time, with three forward gears plus reverse, and was so well-received that Anglada was commissioned to build cars for customers in Uruguay and Argentina, making him Spain's first car exporter. He ran into financial difficulties; the company was relocated to Cordova but was closed in 1908. Anglada himself moved to Madrid, where he ran a car-repair shop until his death in 1917.
