ELIZALDE TYPES

TYPE REINA VICTORIA EUGENIA

The 1919 Barcelona Motor Show was the scenario chosen to première this variant of the Type 20. Its power unit is an evolution of the Super 20 side-valve mono bloc engine, with displacement increased (5 mm more bore and 20 mm more stroke) to 3,016 cc and a four-speed transmission instead of the usual three. Its effective engine power was 45 hp.

There were other major changes. As Auto Moto explained, «the changes introduced were the petrol-based fuel system delivered through an intermediate tank between the rear tank and the carburettor, where petrol level was always constant, the front and rear cantilever suspension, which should make the car a very smooth drive, and the perfectly-compensated four-wheel braking system».

Indeed, the most outstanding new development in the RVE was that it featured four-wheel braking, when normally only a rear-braking system was used. It was the first car made in Spain to use this system. Hispano-Suiza had started to do this that same year, in the H6, manufactured in Boulogne, although it did not apply it to its Spanish range until much later, namely with the T-49 in 1925. Curiously enough, Arturo Elizalde took two years to register the patent, which he eventually did in 1921.

It was also the Catalan make’s first model in which the gearbox levers were displaced towards the centre of the chassis, obliging the driver to operate them with the left hand (the steering wheel was still located on the right), although it also permitted the assembly of a four-door bodywork. The bodywork was either of the fixed limousine type – as it was originally presented –, a demountable seven-seater limousine, cabriolet and also torpedo, known as the deluxe.

The Reina Victoria Eugenia was a long time in the making before its début at the 1919 Show. The make entered a prototype with smaller internal dimensions (78 x 140 mm), still without front brakes, for the II Vuelta a Cataluña race held in June 1916, albeit under a different name (the authorisation to use the real name dates from January 1917). The car was driven by Salvador Elizalde and it did well, coming in third in its category.