RACING IMPROVES THE BREED
Just how versatile the new doubleoverhead camshaft engine was, when mated to the car’s proven chassis, became clear when the company ventured into Grand Prix (GP) racing. It achieved success with modified versions of its smooth, unsupercharged 4.5-litre six in the T26C model which also had the fourspeed Wilson preselector gearbox.
On its debut at the Monaco
GP in 1948 it finished second with Louis Chiron at the wheel. A year later Louis Rosier triumphed at the Belgian GP and Chiron went one better than on debut, winning the French GP. In 1950 a two-seater version was driven to victory at Le Mans by Louis and Jean-louis Rosier. Success was not confined to Europe. Doug Whiteford won the Australian GP in 1952 and 1953 in a T26C. The T26 chassis also found favour among contenders in endurance events for its reliability and performance.
A fault with the now-very-rare gearbox helped Paddy negotiate a good purchase price: “A band was broken in the Wilson preselector gearbox and we ended up making another three new bands for the gearbox. I renewed all the linings too. Wilson boxes were always used as Tony Lago was manager or managing director of Wilson gearboxes at one time. He kept Wilson boxes for all of those cars for the whole time he was making them.”
Paddy repaired the gearbox himself: “I built the gearbox up and it was a bit concerning when I came to use it but seems to work well. I had an incredible job getting people to come around and work on it. That’s why I did the gearbox. It happened to five different things I was working on. They wouldn’t turn up; it was so annoying.”
During the restoration Paddy had a multitude of parts to repair or replace, although the Talbot-lago does use some regular items, which made it a little easier sourcing parts.
“The standard headlights are Peugeot 403 units,” Paddy says.
A number of door handles and window winders were broken and Paddy had new ones made by a local manufacturer.
“He did a magnificent job,” Paddy says. “They are all made of brass. It was a slow business getting them plated but the plating is good. Getting a good metal polisher is hard.”
Local businesses worked on the car to get it through the final stages of the restoration. Now that the job is finally completed Paddy is very satisfied with what he has achieved.
“Paul Bouman and then
Rob Douglas completed the final work on it and it ended up a better car for that work being done,” says Paddy.
It’s always good to be able to track the history of a car as rare as this one is. The papers in Paddy’s possession show it was a 1948 factory build. It was transported to Amsterdam, where it was sold on 14 December 1948 by Ets Cobar, a Dutch car dealer. “Where it went from there, I don’t know. It arrived in New Zealand about 1956 I think,” Paddy says.
On 29 December 1956, the car was registered to Mrs Gerarda Maris-mcarthur, who was employed at the laboratory of the City Engineer’s department of the Wellington City
Corporation. Another owner was a Christopher Treahy of Khandallah, who owned the car for a few months before it went to DW Wild Motors in Christchurch. “It had about six owners before I got hold of it,” Paddy says.
When he bought the car it was a slightly greyer shade of green than it is now. “The colour is Evergreen Frost which was a Ford Canada colour. It’s similar to a colour used for Aston Martins. It’s the right colour for it and it looks good. I wanted to get a colour which was reasonably close to the colour of the seats. It’s hard to believe I’ve actually finished it after all these years!” he says.