Beschreibung:

This beautifully proportioned Grand Sport Coupé is a rare survivor of Talbot-Lago’s last defiant gesture against the mindless egalitarianism that was destroying it. The Talbot-Lago story had commenced with the dissolution of the Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq combine in 1935, when Major A.F. ‘Tony’ Lago bought the Darracq factory at Suresnes and continued production, selling his cars as Darracqs in the UK and Talbots in France. The revitalized marque embraced both sports car and Grand Prix racing, and in 1937 achieved victories in the French Grand Prix and the Tourist Trophy; from then on it was an uphill struggle against the might of the German and Italian opposition. There were, however, many notable successes in the immediate post-war years, including three Grand Prix wins for French Champion Louis Rosier, and victory at Le Mans. The first Lago-built cars retained the existing X-braced, independently front suspended chassis, but were powered by new six-cylinder engines, in sporting guise featuring inclined overhead valves set in hemispherical combustion chambers and opened by a pair of camshafts mounted high in the block, Riley-style. The marque’s ultimate pre-war road car—the 4.0-liter Lago Special—produced 165bhp and was good for more than 160km/h (100mph). The model was revived in 1946 as the Record, now sporting hydraulic brakes, a Wilson pre-selector gearbox and a 170bhp, 4.5-liter version of the classic long-stroke, cross-pushrod engine. For serious competition work there was the short-wheelbase Grand Sport, with 190bhp engine, and it was this model which formed the basis of the Rosiers’ 1950 Le Mans winner, as well as the monoposto Grand Prix car. Further development kept the Talbot-Lago competitive at Le Mans for a few more seasons. However, by the early 1950s the company was in serious financial difficulty as a result of the French government’s taxation policies which heavily penalized cars of over 3.0-liters; sales fell from 433 in 1950 to just 80 in 1951. Despite the gloomy outlook, Lago pressed ahead with plans for a new flagship model. Launched at the October 1952 Paris Salon, the Talbot-Lago Grand Sport carried elegant ‘2+2’ coachwork, designed by Carlo Delaisse of Letourneur & Marchand, which was built ‘in-house’. Like its predecessor, the potent and expensive 1946 Record that in its day was the world’s most powerful production car, the Grand Sport was powered by a 4.5-liter engine derived from the Grand Prix Talbot unit. Despite the fact that a Saoutchik-bodied Record had been chosen as the official car of French President Vincent Auriol to symbolize national automotive prestige, the country’s socialist government introduced a vindictive regime of taxation, based on engine capacity, which destroyed the French luxury car industry overnight. Consequently, the production run of the 4.5-liter Grand Sport amounted to a mere 51 cars. Representing the last glorious flowering of a great French marque, this Talbot-Lago Grand Sport, fitted with factory body number ‘5302’, left the Suresnes works on 4th February 1954 for delivery to its first recorded owner, a Mr Counil, while accompanying documentation lists a further five owners up to 2007. Over the course of the past 20-25 years the car has undergone extensive restoration. The engine was completely rebuilt in the 1980s while more recently all its ancillaries were renewed including the starter motor, dynamo, carburetors, fuel pump, ignition system and air filters. The chassis, suspension and braking system were overhauled in the 1990s, and the coachwork stripped back to bare metal, repaired and repainted in Navy Blue. Interior refurbishment, carried out in 2000, included a full re-trim in beige leather, re-plating of all fittings, renewing the heat/sound insulation, and re-carpeting in wool. The electrics have been rewired and the headlights and other lamps replaced with period-correct items. In 2007 the valve guides and water pump were replaced and the Wilson pre-selector g