Talbot-lago
HAUTE COUTURE
The name ‘Talbot-lago’ conjures up a vision of the Grand Tour, wafting across Europe cosseted in luxurious comfort and travelling at speed — the automotive equivalent of the Orient Express. It is evocative of a special period in French motoring history for its most discerning clientele
Following World War II most French coachbuilders were still making cars the traditional way. Only the bold and always avant-garde Citroën was venturing down the new Budd unitary body path.
Talbot-lago sought distinction through performance, claiming a reputation as the fastest road cars in Europe. It secured custom among the European elite wanting the best of all possible worlds on their continental tours. Certainly some of the pre-war cars revealed customers’ taste for the exotic and the dramatic, the teardrop creations of designer Georges Paulin for Carrosserie Marcel Pourtout and Figoni & Falaschi on the T-150 chassis being prime examples.
In 1946 the company added a new twin-overhead-camshaft cylinder head to its 4483cc in-line six-cylinder engine which went into the Talbot-lago Record (1946–1952) and the Talbot
Grand Sport 26CV (1947–1954) to compete in the top rank of large luxury cars.
The Talbot-lago Record T26 had a claimed power output of 170hp (127kw) and a claimed top speed of 170kph. Usually a four-door sedan, a two-door cabriolet was also offered.
The Talbot-lago T26 models were often considered the best built of French sedans. From 1947 to 1955, the Talbot-lago factory at Suresnes in Paris produced a number of sedans and coupés, their bodies made infactory instead of being farmed out to coachbuilders as rolling chassis in accordance with usual practice —
Sitting in Paddy and Patsy Williams’ Dunedin garage is a stunning example of one of these rare French grand routier sedans. It is a 1949 four-door Talbot-lago Record Factory Berline sedan
although this was still a common option. Only a few hundred were made, making them a rare car by any measure. Naturally few made it to the Southern Hemisphere apart from the odd one or two coming ashore for restoration.
Sitting in Paddy and Patsy Williams’ Dunedin garage is a stunning example of one of these rare French grand routier sedans. It is a 1949 four-door Talbotlago Record Factory Berline sedan, to give its full name. Daughter Cath let us know how proud she was of her dad who had been tinkering away in his garage on this car for so many years.
Without exaggeration it has been a mammoth task. I first saw this Talbotlago in mid 2019. The long-nosed, sweeping, curved four-door saloon, clothed in its misty green metallic paint, was quite breathtaking. There’s more than a little English influence in it too, harking back to company owner Tony Lago’s involvement in the Clément-talbot-darracq era. The long front wings and bonnet, usually multi-louvred, highlighted with artful
Paddy, a retired civil and structural engineer, knows his way around a lathe. He has a well-equipped garage-workshop to assist in any machining tasks along with his other passion for restoring classic motorcycles