by While the world argues about what a “true supercar” is, history itself provides the answer. In Belgium, a unique 1954 Pegaso Z-102 was auctioned off—a car whose design was created by Ukraine-born Yakov (Jacques) Savchik. The price was 424,236 euros, or almost half a million dollars.
The Pegaso Z-102 is a Spanish supercar that few know about today. The Pegaso company once attempted a breakthrough into the world of luxury cars but quickly focused on trucks and buses. Yet this brief flash left behind a true legend—a model considered the fastest production car in the world in the 1950s.
The top version with a 275-horsepower engine accelerated to 243 km/h—this at a time when roads were narrower and seat belts weren’t even in fashion.
Only 84 examples of the Pegaso Z-102 were built in total, and only 18 of them received bodies from the French coachbuilder Saoutchik, founded by Ukrainian Yakov Savchik. He moved to France as a child and opened his own atelier in a Paris suburb in 1905. There, they created bodies for Bentley, Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Mercedes-Benz, and Rolls-Royce, but the Pegaso is considered the true masterpiece.
Its style is a blend of elegance and avant-garde: a curved roof, a long hood, chrome accents, and an interior trimmed in leather and wood. Under the hood of this beauty is a 3.2-liter V8 with 225 horsepower, allowing it to reach speeds of up to 201 km/h.
This particular Pegaso Z-102 Saoutchik underwent restoration in the 1980s and has been in a museum in Salamanca, Spain since 2002. And now—it’s back in a private collection, a reminder that Ukrainian names left their mark even in the highest automotive league of the last century.
Because when the world says “Made in France”—it’s sometimes worth clarifying: the design was made by a Ukrainian.
