Talbot-Lago was a French
automobile
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
manufacturer based in
Suresnes
Suresnes () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. Located in Hauts-de-Seine, from the centre of Paris, it had a population of 49,145 as of 2016. The nearest communes are Nanterre, Puteaux, Rueil-Malmaison, Saint-Cloud an ...
, Hauts de Seine, outside
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. The company was owned and managed by
Antonio Lago
Antonio Franco Lago (Venice, 28 March 1893 – Paris, 1 December 1960) was an Italian engineer and motor-industry entrepreneur. In 1936 he bought Automobiles Talbot S.A. from his employers, the collapsed Anglo-French S.T.D. Motors combine, and ...
, an Italian engineer that acquired rights to the
Talbot
Talbot was an automobile marque introduced in 1902 by English-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot ...
brand name after the demise of
Darracq London's subsidiary
Automobiles Talbot France
Automobiles Talbot France was the French subsidiary of British automotive manufacturer S.T.D. Motors Ltd., established in 1920 after the merger of British automakers A Darracq and Company, Clément-Talbot, and Sunbeam Company. Automobiles Talbot ...
in 1936.
[Talbot-Lago isn’t a household name, but this French beauty made history]
by Rick Carey on Hagerty.com, 19 April 2022
Under Lago's managing, the company produced a range of automobiles that included
sport
Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...
and
racing cars
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition.
Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...
, in some cases designed by coachbuild company
Figoni et Falaschi
Figoni et Falaschi is a French luxury brand and coachbuilder firm which was active from 1935 through to the 1950s. The designs were created by Giuseppe Figoni, while his partner Ovidio Falaschi ran the business.
Early history: Figoni
Giuseppe ...
.
[ until the Talbot-Lago demise in 1959, when company's financial problems forced Lago to sell it to ]Simca
Simca (; Mechanical and Automotive Body Manufacturing Company) was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat S.p.A. and directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by Italian Henri Pigozzi. Simca was affiliated with Fiat and, after Simca bough ...
.[
]
Predecessors
Alexandre Darracq
The Suresnes factory had been built by Alexandre Darracq
Alexandre Darracq (10 November 1855 – 1931) was a French investor, engineer, cycle manufacturer and automobile manufacturer. By 1904, Darracq was producing more than ten percent of all automobiles in France and he sold a substantial part of h ...
for his pioneering car manufacturing business begun in 1896, which he named A. Darracq & Cie. It was very profitable. Alexandre Darracq built racing as well as “pleasure” cars and Darracq rapidly became famous for its motor racing successes. Darracq sold his remaining portion of his business in 1912.
Talbot France
New owners renamed the Darracq business Automobiles Talbot in 1922. However, though its ordinary production cars were badged as Talbots, the new owners continued incorporating the Darracq name in Talbot-Darracq for their competition cars.
Owing to the simultaneous existence of British Talbot cars, French products when sold in Britain were badged Darracq-Talbot or Talbot-Darracq, or even simply Darracq.
Antonio Lago
In 1932, after the onset of the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, Italo-British businessman Antonio Lago
Antonio Franco Lago (Venice, 28 March 1893 – Paris, 1 December 1960) was an Italian engineer and motor-industry entrepreneur. In 1936 he bought Automobiles Talbot S.A. from his employers, the collapsed Anglo-French S.T.D. Motors combine, and ...
was appointed managing director in the hope that he might revive Automobiles Talbot's business. Lago began this process, but the owners were unable to stave off receivership
In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...
beyond the end of 1934. The receiver did not immediately close Automobiles Talbot, and in 1936 Antonio Lago managed to complete a management buy-out
A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...
from the receiver.
Reorganisation under Tony Lago
For 1935, the existing range continued in production but from 1936 these were steadily replaced with cars designed by Walter Becchia, featuring transverse leaf-sprung independent suspension. These included the 4-cylinder 2323 cc (13CV) Talbot Type T4 "Minor"
The Talbot "Minor" Type T4 (known outside France as the Talbot-Lago "Minor" Type T4) was a mid-sized executive car produced by the French Talbot company between 1937 and 1940.
Under the conventions of the time, the car would also have been calle ...
, a surprise introduction at the 1937 Paris Motor Show
The Paris Motor Show (french: Mondial de l'Automobile) is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently take ...
, and the 6-cylinder 2,696 cc (15CV) Talbot "Cadette-15", along with and the 6-cylinder 2,996 cc or 3,996 cc (17 or 23CV) Talbot "Major" and its long-wheelbase version, the Talbot "Master": these were classified as Touring cars (''voitures de tourisme'').[
There was also in the second half of the 1930s a range of Sporting cars (''voitures de sport'') which started with the Talbot "Baby-15", mechanically the same as the "Cadette-15" but using a shorter slightly lighter chassis. The Sporting Cars range centred on the 6-cylinder 2,996 cc or 3,996 cc (17 or 23CV) Talbot "Baby" and also included the 3,996 cc (23CV) 23 and sporting Lago-Spéciale and Lago-SS models, respectively with two and three carburettors, and corresponding increases in power and performance.] The most frequently specified body for the Lago-SS was built by Figoni et Falaschi
Figoni et Falaschi is a French luxury brand and coachbuilder firm which was active from 1935 through to the 1950s. The designs were created by Giuseppe Figoni, while his partner Ovidio Falaschi ran the business.
Early history: Figoni
Giuseppe ...
, and featured a particularly eye-catching aerodynamic form.
Lago was an excellent engineer who developed the existing six-cylinder engine into a high-performance 4-litre one. The sporting six-cylinder models had a great racing history. The bodies—such as of the T150 coupé—were made by excellent coachbuilder
A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...
s such as Figoni et Falaschi or Saoutchik
Founded by cabinet maker Jacques Saoutchik (born Iakov Savtchuk in Russian Empire in 1880), Saoutchik was a French coachbuilding company founded in 1906. In the 1930s, the company became well known for their often extravagant automobile designs ...
.
Talbot-Lago models 1935–1940
Although the proliferation of cars types and model names that followed Lago's acquisition of the business is at first glance bewildering, it actually involved only four standard chassis lengths as follows:
: Short Châssis ( wheelbase):
:: Minor T4 (4 cylinders, 2323 cc)
:: Junior 11
:: Baby-15 (6 cylinders, 2696 cc)
:: Baby 3 litres (6 cylinders, 2996 cc)
:: T150 3 litres (6 cylinders, 2996 cc)
:: Baby 4 litres (6 cylinders, 3996 cc)
:: Lago Spécial (6 cylinders, 3996 cc with twin or triple carbs)
: Extra short Châssis ( wheelbase):
:: Lago SS (6 cylinders, 3996 cc with triple carbs)
: Normal Châssis ( wheelbase):
:: Cadette-15 (6 cylinders, 2696 cc)
:: Major 3 litres (6 cylinders, 2996 cc)
:: Major 4 litres (6 cylinders, 3996 cc)
: Long (7-seater) Châssis ( wheelbase):
:: Master 3 litres (6 cylinders, 2996 cc)
:: Master 4 litres (6 cylinders, 3996 cc)
During the early years of the war Walter Becchia left Talbot to work for Citroen, but Lago was joined in 1942 by another exceptional engineer, Carlo Machetti, and from then the two of them were working on the twin camshaft 4483 cc six-cylinder unit that would lie at the heart of the 1946 Talbot T26.
After World War II
After the war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
, the company continued to be known both for successful high-performance racing cars and for large luxurious passenger cars, with extensive sharing of chassis and engine components between the two. Nevertheless, the period was one of economic stagnation and financial stringency. The company had difficulty finding customers, and its finances were stretched.
In 1946, the company began production of a new engine design, based on earlier units but with a new cylinder head featuring twin in-block camshafts. This engine, designed under the leadership of Carlo Marchetti,[ was in many respects a new engine. A 4483 cc six-cylinder in-line engine was developed for the ]Talbot Lago Record
The Talbot Lago-Record Type T26 was a large, six-cylinder executive car launched by the French Talbot company in 1946. In the context of the company's protracted financial collapse, the last T26s were probably those produced during 1953.
Steel-b ...
(1946–1952) and for the Talbot Grand Sport 26CV (1947–1954). These cars were priced against large luxurious cars from the likes of Delahaye
Delahaye was a family-owned automobile manufacturing company, founded by Émile Delahaye in 1894 in Tours, France. Manufacturing was moved to Paris following incorporation with two unrelated brothers-in-law as equal partners in 1898. The compa ...
, Delage
Delage was a French luxury automobile and racecar company founded in 1905 by Louis Delâge in Levallois-Perret near Paris; it was acquired by Delahaye in 1935 and ceased operation in 1953.
On 7 November 2019, the association "Les Amis de Dela ...
, Hotchkiss and Salmson
Salmson is a French engineering company. Initially a pump manufacturer, it turned to automobile and aeroplane manufacturing in the 20th century,
returning to pump manufacturing in the 1960s, and re-expanded to a number of products and services ...
. Talbot would remain in the auto-making business for longer than any of these others, and the Talbot name was resurrected in the early 1980s.
Talbot Lago Record T26
The "Talbot Lago Record T26" was a large car with a fiscal horsepower
The tax horsepower or taxable horsepower was an early system by which taxation rates for automobiles were reckoned in some European countries such as Britain, Belgium, Germany, France and Italy; some US states like Illinois charged license plate pu ...
of 26 CV and a claimed actual power output of 170 hp, delivered to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual gear box, with the option at extra cost of a Wilson
Wilson may refer to:
People
* Wilson (name)
** List of people with given name Wilson
** List of people with surname Wilson
* Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender
* Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...
pre-selector gear box, and supporting a claimed top speed of 170 km/h (105 mph). The car was commonly sold as a stylish four-door sedan, but a two-door cabriolet was also offered. There were also coachbuilt specials with bodywork by traditionalist firms such as Graber
Graber (also known as Carrosserie Hermann Graber) was a coachbuilder based in Wichtrach in central Switzerland. Between 1927 and 1970 the firm supplied coach-built bodies for fitting on the chassis of various European and US auto-makers. G ...
.
Talbot Lago Grand Sport T26
The "T26 Grand Sport (GS)" was first displayed in public in October 1947 as a shortened chassis, and only 12 were made during 1948 which was the models's first full year of production. The car was noted for its speed. The engine which produced 170 hp in the Lago Record was adapted to provide or, later, in the GS, and a top speed of around 200 km/h (124 mph) was claimed, depending on the body that was fitted. The car was built for either racing or luxury and benefited directly from Talbot's successful T26C Grand Prix car. As such it was expensive, rare and helped Louis Rosier
Louis Rosier (5 November 1905 in Chapdes-Beaufort – 29 October 1956 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a racing driver from France.
Career highlights
He participated in 38 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 13 May 1950. He ac ...
with his son to win the LeMans 24 Hour race in 1950. The GS replaced the Lago-Record chassis which was named for its remarkable top speed. The GS was one of the world's most powerful production cars at the time. It had several special features from the T26 Grand Prix cars, such as a 4.5-litre inline-6 aluminum cylinder head, a hollowed camshaft, multiport exhaust system and triple carburetors. Chassis details were similar to the Grand Prix cars, but it was longer and wider. It came it two wheelbase lengths -104 and .
Almost all the Talbots sold during the late 1940s came with Talbot bodies, constructed in the manufacturer's extensive workshops. The T26 Grand Sport (GS) was the exception, however, and cars were delivered only as bare chassis, requiring customers to choose bespoke bodywork from a specialist coachbuilder. The GS was a star turn in a dull world and coachbuilders such as Saoutchik, Franay Franay was a French coachbuilder of renown operating at Levallois-Perret, a suburb on the prosperous north-western edge of Paris. The company was founded in 1903 by Jean-Baptiste Franay, a carriage upholsterer, following an apprenticeship with Bin ...
, Oblin, and Figoni et Falaschi competed to trump Talbot's own designers with elaborately elegant bodies.
Talbot Lago Baby
The Talbot Lago Baby (1948–1951) marked the return of a pre-war Talbot model name and was the third model presented by the company during the 1940s. The car was commonly sold as a four-door sedan, but a two-door cabriolet was also offered. Its engine comprised only four cylinders, but the twin overhead camshaft with cylinder valves on both sides of the engine block was again featured:[ at 2690 cc the engine capacity equated to a ]fiscal horsepower
The tax horsepower or taxable horsepower was an early system by which taxation rates for automobiles were reckoned in some European countries such as Britain, Belgium, Germany, France and Italy; some US states like Illinois charged license plate pu ...
of 15 CV,[ which was enough to attract the punitive levels of car tax applied by the French government to large cars. The power output was initially , which in 1949 was increased to .][ Although the postwar Baby sedan closely resembled the more powerful Record on a brief glance, the Baby's 2,950 mm wheelbase was slightly shorter than the 3130 mm wheelbase of the Record, and the overall length was correspondingly 200 mm shorter, reflecting the shortened 4-cylinder engine block.][ Additionally, the cheaper car sat on a simplified suspension set-up. Baby customers could specify as an option a Wilson pre-selector gear box.][
Talbot Lago manufactured three special made seven-seater presidential cars; one for the President of France, one for the President of Tunisia and one for the royal family in Saudi Arabia.
]
Talbot-Lago T26C
The Talbot-Lago T26C is an open-wheel
An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...
formula race car, designed and developed by French manufacturer Talbot-Lago
Talbot-Lago was a French automobile manufacturer based in Suresnes, Hauts de Seine, outside Paris. The company was owned and managed by Antonio Lago, an Italian engineer that acquired rights to the Talbot brand name after the demise of Darracq L ...
, and built to the new Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
racing rules and regulations, in 1948.
New bodies for 1952
In 1951, as rumours of the company's financial difficulties intensified, a new Ponton format body appeared for the Talbot Baby and Record.[ The wheelbases were carried over from the earlier models. Although in many ways strikingly modern, the new car featured a two piece front windscreen in place of the single flat screen of its predecessor, presumably reflecting the difficulties at the time of combining the strength of a windscreen with curved glass at an acceptable price and quality. The new car's large rear window was itself replaced by a larger three-piece “panoramic” wrap around back window as part of the car's first face-lift, which took place in time for the 1952 ]Paris Motor Show
The Paris Motor Show (french: Mondial de l'Automobile) is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently take ...
.[ The engine specification of the four-cylinder unit was unchanged as was the claimed performance even though the new body was some 100 kg heavier than the old. A new development with the Ponton-bodied cars body was the availability of the larger six-cylinder unit from the Talbot Record in the top-of-the-line Talbot Baby, which in this form was called the Talbot Baby/6 Luxe, and had the slightly longer wheel-base and overall length enforced by the greater length of the six-cylinder engine.][
]
T14 LS engine / Talbot Lago Sport
At the 1954 Salon de L'Automobile de Paris, Talbot-Lago presented their last new engine: the new four-cylinder still had the typical twin laterally mounted camshafts, although it was upgraded to five main bearings. The new 2,491 cc engine was called the T14 LS, but it did not have a car to go in until May 1955 when the Talbot-Lago 2500 Coupé T14 LS was finally presented. The first car had all-aluminium bodywork, but later cars used more steel. Fifty-four of these coupés were built, but they proved hard to sell - the stylish bodywork couldn't quite hide the thirties' underpinnings, and the rough engine offered little elasticity nor longevity.[ Decker, p. 38]
Lacking the resources to engineer the necessary improvements, for 1957 Talbot-Lago had to resort to buying in an engine. They chose the V8 2580 cc made available by BMW, albeit with the bore diameter slightly reduced, to 72.5 mm, which gave rise to a 2476 cc engine displacement, positioning the car (just) within the 14CV car tax band. Reflecting the company's export plans, Talbot now rebranded the car as the "Talbot Lago America" and (finally) came into line with other French automakers by placing the driver on the left side of the car.[ However, market response remained lukewarm, and only about a dozen of the BMW powered Talbot Lago Americas were produced.][ In the early summer of 1958, Tony Lago decided to accept an offer from Simca president, ]Henri Pigozzi
Henri Théodore Pigozzi (born Enrico Teodoro Pigozzi; 26 June 1898, in Turin – 18 November 1964, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a car merchant and industrialist who is best known for having founded Société Industrielle de Mécanique et Carrosserie A ...
, for the sale of the Talbot brand to Simca
Simca (; Mechanical and Automotive Body Manufacturing Company) was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat S.p.A. and directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by Italian Henri Pigozzi. Simca was affiliated with Fiat and, after Simca bough ...
.[ The sale of the business went ahead in 1959.]
With the sale of the business to Simca, the new owners found themselves with a handful of the final Talbot Lago Americas which were awaiting engines. There was now no question of Simca being permitted, or wishing, to produce cars with BMW engines, and the only solution available was to fit the last batch of cars with Simca's own 2351 cc V8.[ This ]engine
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...
had its roots in 1930s Detroit, and was originally provided by Ford to give the (then) Ford Vedette
The Ford Vedette is a large car formerly manufactured by Ford SAF in their Poissy plant from 1948-1954.
Originally conceived by Edsel Ford and Ford designer Eugene T. "Bob" Gregorie as a “light” Ford model, smaller than the 1942 Ford. Howeve ...
produced by their French subsidiary a flavor of the driving experience offered by an unstressed US style V8 sedan.[ It was by no stretch of the imagination an engine for a sports car, and even with a second carburetor produced only , as against the of the BMW-engined cars from the previous year's production.][ Claimed top speed was now 165 km/h (103 mph) in place of the 200 km/h (124 mph) listed the previous year.][ At the 1959 ]Paris Motor Show
The Paris Motor Show (french: Mondial de l'Automobile) is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently take ...
a stand had been booked for what was by now the Simca-Talbot brand, but a late decision was taken not to exhibit a Lago America and the stand was instead given up to a hastily constructed "motor show special" prototype of which, after the motor show, nothing more would be heard.[
]
Commercial and financial
Sales data by model were kept confidential, possibly in connection with the company's financial difficulties, but the overall totals for the early 1950s tell a dire story. The Suresnes
Suresnes () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. Located in Hauts-de-Seine, from the centre of Paris, it had a population of 49,145 as of 2016. The nearest communes are Nanterre, Puteaux, Rueil-Malmaison, Saint-Cloud an ...
plant produced 155 cars in 1947, an output which increased by 23 in 1948.[ 433 cars were produced in 1950, but this then fell to 80 in 1951 and to 34 in 1952. In 1953 it is thought that the company turned out just 13 of the 26CV Record model and 4 of the 15 CV Babys.][ During the rest of the decade volumes did not recover significantly; no more than 54 of the T14 LS were built in 1955 and 1956.]
As the company's commercial trajectory implies, the years following the end of the war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
were marked by the slow financial collapse of Anthony Lago's Talbot company. Other luxury automakers whose glory years had been the 1930s fared no better in the 1940s and 1950s than Talbot, with Delage
Delage was a French luxury automobile and racecar company founded in 1905 by Louis Delâge in Levallois-Perret near Paris; it was acquired by Delahaye in 1935 and ceased operation in 1953.
On 7 November 2019, the association "Les Amis de Dela ...
, Delahaye
Delahaye was a family-owned automobile manufacturing company, founded by Émile Delahaye in 1894 in Tours, France. Manufacturing was moved to Paris following incorporation with two unrelated brothers-in-law as equal partners in 1898. The compa ...
, Hotchkiss and Bugatti
Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a German then French manufacturer of high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the Italian-born industrial designer Ettore Bugatti. The cars w ...
disappearing from the car business while Panhard
Panhard was a French motor vehicle manufacturer that began as one of the first makers of automobiles. It was a manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its final incarnation, now owned by Renault Trucks Defense, was formed ...
, nimbly if slightly improbably, reinvented itself as a manufacturer of small fuel efficient cars. Customers with enough money to spend on a luxury car were hard to find, and even among those with sufficient funds, in a country where well into the 1950s the Communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...
, buoyed by the heroic role played by some of their leaders during the years of Resistance
Resistance may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Comics
* Either of two similarly named but otherwise unrelated comic book series, both published by Wildstorm:
** ''Resistance'' (comics), based on the video game of the same title
** ''T ...
, regularly polled 25% of the vote in national elections, there was little of the “live for today: pay later” spirit that had supported extravagant spending patterns in the 1930s. Government policy supported the austerity by creating a post-war tax regime that savagely penalised owners of cars with engines above two litres in size, and an Economic Plan, the Pons Plan, which bestowed government favour (and allocations of materials still in short supply such as steel) on just five automakers, these being the businesses that became France's big five automakers in the 1950s and early 60s. For France's other luxury automakers, meanwhile, including Talbot, the tide had simply gone out.[
The money ran out, and Anthony Lago was obliged to seek court protection from his creditors, under a procedure known at that time as a ”Dépôt de bilan”. On 6 March 1951 the court agreed a debt moratorium which permitted a limited restart to production at the company's Suresnes plant, but the affair provided unwelcome publicity for Talbot's cash flow problems, and the company now experienced increased difficulty in obtaining credit. Production was also limited by the extent to which it had been necessary to cut the workforce, and by the reputational damage caused by reports of the whole process.][
The business staggered on till 1959, but never had the financial strength to support the development and production of its last model, the Talbot-Lago 2500 Coupé T14 LS, launched after a lengthy gestation in May 1955. In 1958 Lago decided to throw in the sponge and put the business up for sale. An offer was received from ]Henri Pigozzi
Henri Théodore Pigozzi (born Enrico Teodoro Pigozzi; 26 June 1898, in Turin – 18 November 1964, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a car merchant and industrialist who is best known for having founded Société Industrielle de Mécanique et Carrosserie A ...
under the terms of which the remains of the Talbot business would become part of Simca
Simca (; Mechanical and Automotive Body Manufacturing Company) was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat S.p.A. and directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by Italian Henri Pigozzi. Simca was affiliated with Fiat and, after Simca bough ...
. In order to avoid bankruptcy, Lago agreed to sell the business on the terms proposed by the Simca president-director, a fellow Italian expatriate. Talbot-Lago was transferred to Simca in 1959.[ Despite the sorry state of the Talbot business during the preceding ten years, commentators suggest that Pigozzi got a good bargain, receiving at Suresnes an industrial site and buildings worth many times the amount paid, along with a brand name that still resonated strongly with anyone old enough to remember the glory days of Talbot.][
Tony Lago died in 1960.][
]
Today
Talbot-Lagos have become a top-prized car at various auctions. A Figoni et Falaschi-bodied T150C SS Teardrop Coupe, owned by Brooks Stevens
Clifford Brooks Stevens (June 7, 1911 – January 4, 1995) was an American industrial designer of home furnishings, appliances, automobiles, and motorcycles, as well as a graphic designer and stylist. Stevens founded Brooks Stevens, Inc., head ...
, would sell for US$3,535,000 at Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is an automotive charitable event held each year on the Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California. It is widely considered the pinnacle event of its kind and one of the most prestigious car events in ...
auction on Aug 18, 2005, another for US$3,905,000 at the Palm Beach International Concours d'Elegance Gooding & Company
Gooding & Company is a classic car auction company headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Incorporated in 2003, the company holds three of the top ten all-time records for most expensive cars sold in auction. The company also provides private ...
auction on January 22, 2006, where it was unanimously voted "Best in Show", and another for US$4,620,000 at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance RM Auctions Sports & Classics of Monterey auction on August 14, 2010. A T150 C SS with a Pourtout
Carrosserie Pourtout was a French coachbuilding company. Founded by Marcel Pourtout in 1925, the firm is best known for its work in the decades prior to World War II, when it created distinctive and prestigious bodies for cars from numerous Europe ...
Aerocoupé body, designed by Georges Paulin
Georges Paulin was a French Jewish dentist, acclaimed and inventive automobile designer and coachwork stylist, and died as a hero of the French Resistance during World War II.
Born 1902 in a working class section of Paris, Paulin was a pioneer of ...
, sold for US$4,847,000 at the 2008 Bonhams & Butterfields Sale of Exceptional Motorcars and Automobilia at Quail Lodge.
An unrestored 1948 T26 Grand Sport, with coachwork by Oblin and chassis #110106, is a part of the permanent collection of the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia, PA, USA.
A 1949 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupé by Saoutchik
from the Baillon Collection sold for €1,450,000 at the Artcurial auction in February 2015.
Even Talbot-Lagos with factory bodies, rather than custom coachwork, are highly valued; a factory-bodied 1939 T150 C SS selling in 2013 for US$418,000 at the Gooding & Company Scottsdale auction.1939 Talbot-Lago T150 C SS chassis 90060
/ref>
Sources
External links
Talbot-Lago Flickr Group
1949 - Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupé by Jean Barou - chassis 110107
*http://vea.qc.ca/vea/marques1/talbotfr.htm
{{Automotive industry in France
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of France
Formula One constructors
Formula One entrants
French auto racing teams
French racecar constructors
French brands
Suresnes
Sports car manufacturers
Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers