For the head of the State
The easiest way to enter a car class that has not been served by a manufacturer yet, is a license production of a mature and, ideally, still sellable model. This was also what Škoda thought in the first half of the 1920s. The search of a luxury saloon led the Czechoslovaks to Hispano-Suiza in Spain.
Since 1919, their portfolio had included the H 6 B model – a five-and-a-half-meter-long saloon with a 6-cylinder four stroke engine and a continuous output of 100 hp. At the time, the vehicle was considered innovative and had a reputation for very good quality.
The two factories came to an agreement and from 1924 Škoda was granted license to produce the H 6 B,
On 25 June 1925, the first order for a Škoda Hispano-Suiza 25/100 hp was received in Mladá Boleslav. The mail receiving office at the plat must have been astonished, because the sender was none other that the chancellery of the President of the Republic!
On 10 May 1926, the delivery note of the car was finally filled out for delivery to the State Chancellery. At the time, this procedure must have been carried out with pride. Equipped with the registration number “N-1”, the Škoda Hispano-Suiza 25/100 hp became the official car for the first president – who had been in office since 1918 – the then 76-year-old Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.
In addition to the presidential car, …”around 100” saloon were produced until 1929 – this is the official number that Škoda gives as the production figurde today. Other sources say “ … at least 50”.
