The 1938 Dubonnet Xenia: A Love Story on Four Wheels

Mechanical Love - Art and engineering meet in the most moving ways when a machine is built to honor a person — and the 1938 Dubonnet Xenia is a perfect example. Born from André Dubonnet’s twin obsessions with innovation and elegance, the Xenia was conceived as a personal tribute to his late wife, Xenia Johnson, and it carries that emotional intention into every curve. This story began with a bold idea and a high-quality Hispano-Suiza chassis, then grew into one of the most forward-looking coachbuilt cars of the 1930s. 

The 1938 Dubonnet Xenia was created as André Dubonnet’s personal tribute to his late wife, Xenia Johnson, designed by Jean Andreau and hand-built by Jacques Saoutchik upon the refined Hispano-Suiza H6B chassis. (Picture from: WIkipedia)

André Dubonnet was more than an industrialist: he was a racer, a former pilot, and an inventor who earlier patented an independent front-suspension system (a “hyperflex” setup) in 1927 that influenced makers like General Motors and Alfa Romeo. After the 1932 Paris Auto Salon he bought a French-built Hispano-Suiza frame to use as a rolling laboratory for styling and chassis ideas. 

The 1938 Dubonnet Xenia features an exterior that mirrors an airplane fuselage—long, smooth, and sculpted for airflow—with a panoramic curved windshield that wrapped around the front, foreshadowing the wraparound designs seen decades later. (Picture from: WIkipedia)

For the Xenia project he teamed with Jean Andreau, a designer steeped in aircraft-inspired shapes, and Jacques Saoutchik, the coachbuilder whose hands turned sketches into living metal. The Xenia’s exterior reads like an airplane fuselage translated to road use: long, smooth, and clearly sculpted for airflow. A panoramic curved windshield wraps the front, a daring touch that anticipated similar wraparound screens decades later. 

The 1938 Dubonnet Xenia features a minimalist yet elegant cockpit with a metal dashboard, analog gauges, and a thin, leather-wrapped steering wheel reflecting its aviation-inspired design. (Picture from: Autoevolution)

The side windows are Plexiglas panels that lift upward — a distinctive, canopy-like detail that looks gullwing-inspired; the windows alone move up to admit air and light. Importantly, the body’s passenger doors are rear-hinged “suicide” doors, opening toward the back rather than upward — a dramatic and period-correct choice that enhances the car’s theatrical entry while keeping the structure conventional under the sheetmetal. 

The 1938 Dubonnet Xenia is powered by Hispano-Suiza’s 6.6-liter inline-six single overhead cam engine producing 160 hp, paired with a 3-speed manual transmission that drives the rear wheels. (Picture from: Autoevolution)

Behind the cabin, the body flows gracefully into a fastback silhouette crowned by a distinctive triangular rear window, a feature that perfectly complements its aerodynamic lines. The entire composition gives the impression of motion even when the car stands still, as if the air itself shaped its curves. These details, combined with its seamless proportions and aircraft-inspired elegance, lend the Xenia a level of modernity almost unimaginable for 1938 — more a rolling piece of streamlined sculpture than a conventional prewar luxury automobile.

The 1938 Dubonnet Xenia tapers gracefully behind the cabin into a fastback silhouette crowned by a distinctive triangular rear window that accentuates its aerodynamic form. (Picture from: WIkipedia)

Underneath the sleek coachwork, the Hispano-Suiza H6B chassis remains relatively tall and robust, so while the Xenia looks low and slippery it is, in truth, a substantial and elegantly heavy automobile. That tall stance was a consequence of building atop the existing frame rather than lowering or heavily modifying it, and it allowed the hyperflex front suspension to be showcased without compromising the car’s mechanical pedigree. The result is an unusual mix: aircraft-like aerodynamics married to the solid presence of a luxury chassis. 

At the 2022 Chantilly Arts et Elegance concours, the all-electric Carmen hypercar shared the stage with its muse, the 1938 Dubonnet Xenia, whose visionary design inspired the modern EV eight decades later. (Picture from: Autoevolution)

The emotional heart of the project is impossible to ignore: Dubonnet named the car Xenia for his wife, who never saw the finished masterpiece. Every design choice reads as both technical experiment and personal memorial — a way for Dubonnet to channel loss into a lasting object of beauty. Today the 1938 Dubonnet Xenia is one of the collections of the Peter Mullin Automotive Museum Foundation in Los Angeles, where it continues to gather admiration for its daring lines and thoughtful engineering. | XRa_asf-Fdg |

Viewed from today’s perspective, the Xenia still appears strikingly fresh. It reminds us that true design can transcend its time, proving that a car can be both a testbed for innovation and an expression of emotion. The 1938 Dubonnet Xenia endures as an unforgettable fusion of invention, craftsmanship, and devotion — a rolling tribute whose story gleams through every polished curve. Even in the modern era, its spirit continues to inspire the 2020 Hispano Suiza Carmen GT, an electric supercar that celebrates the rebirth of the legendary Hispano Suiza name. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | FRISTARTMUSEUM.ORG | AUTOEVOLUTION | WIKIPEDIA ]

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