1934 Hispano-Suiza J-12 Sedanca

o modern-day readers, the words town car conjures the

rectangular-bodied Lincoln sedan popular with real

estate agents and mid-level managers of the 1980s. Lincoln

borrowed the name to recall its original meaning , that of

a four-door car with an open front seat and a closed rear

compartment—in other words, something you’d have a

chauffeur drive for you. In Europe a town car was called a

Sedanca de Ville, and in this line of classification, the Hispano-

Suiza J-12 was called a Sedanca Drop-Head Coupe, having only

two doors but the open-front, closed-rear styling of a town car.

The custom body of this car is from Fernandez & Darrin,

the Paris firm of American Howard “Dutch” Darrin and

Argentinian-born J. Fernandez. Fernandez & Darrin built many

cars on Hispano-Suiza chassis, which was among the most

expensive of the day. They spared little expense in outfitting

their bodies, specifying high-grade cast hinges, closely fitted

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