Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport – #110102

by peter ruch Sonntag 9 Februar, 2025 Published in radical-mag.com

Der Männliche

Antonio Lago war ein Mann von vorzüglichem Geschmack. Davon zeugen nicht nur seine Konstruktionen, sondern auch die Wahl jener Meisterschneider, die Hand an seine Fahrzeuge legen durften. Klar, da denkt man in erster Linie an den T150 und Figoni & Falaschi, «Goutte d’Eau», aber auch bei seinen Nachkriegsmodellen, in erster Linie also den T26 Grand Sport, war ihm die Schönheit ein inneres Bedürfnis. Natürlich konnte die Kundin selber wählen, doch nach dem 2. Weltkrieg war die Auswahl an Carrossiers nicht mehr so gross wie in den 30er Jahren, praktisch alle Hersteller boten auch ab Werk einen Aufbau an. Das macht Lago zwar offiziell nicht, doch wenn der Käufer sich nicht so recht entscheiden konnte, empfahl der Patron die Gebrüder Dubos, dort dann Carlo Delaisse. Was wir hier sehen bei Chassis-Nummer #110102, das ist ein solcger Delaisse-Entwurf, doch eher schlicht, aber gleichzeitig maskulin – was bestens zum 4,5-Liter-Reihensechszylinder des T26 passte, der ja irgendwie ein verkappter Rennwagen war. Wir empfinden ihn jetzt einfach als: schön. Die ganze Geschichte der T26 Grand Sport und auch eine kleine Sammlung finden Sie übrigens: hier.

Chassis-Nummer: T26GS110102
Auktion: Broad Arrow, Villa d’Este 2025, Schätzpreis 1,2 bis 1,5 Millionen Euro, mit diesen Informationen: «The Dubos Frères Coupe is regarded as the body style that was sanctioned personally by Anthony Lago. It was designed by Carlo Delaisse, a well-known freelance designer who had created bodies for the great coachbuilders Vanvooren, Franay, Chapron, and Letourneur et Marchand. For this reason, it was the Dubos Frères Coupe that was depicted in the 1948 Talbot factory brochure, illustrated with an imaginative charcoal drawing by the famous illustrator Piet Olyslager, as the first body was yet to be built. T26 Grand Sport chassis 110102 was delivered to its first owner, a certain Mr. Wight Whiting, on 27 September 1949. The body had been commissioned by Talbot directly from Dubos Frères and was first used for concours showings in Paris in June and July of that year, prior to being sold to Whiting. The chassis received Dubos Frères body number 6162, a number which is visible on the coachbuilder plaque mounted on the inner door sill. 110102 was the second GS by chassis number and received engine, transmission, and rear axle numbers 114 – like Bugatti, Talbot did not match mechanical component numbers to the chassis number. All these original mechanical components are still fitted to chassis 110102.
The Dubos Frères body was finished new in Noir Soudée, a black nitrocellulose shade, with a lighter interior in piped leather. This interior is believed to have been red, and that is how it is finished today. Chassis 110102 made its first public appearance at the Concours d’Élégance du Bois de Boulogne which took place on 23 June 1949. The car was not registered and wore number 3931-WO, a dealer plate belonging to Talbot. It was there shown by Madame Marc Soudée, née Françoise Guerlain, and won a Grand Prix, namely the Coupe Parfums Carven. Monsieur Soudée was president of the company that bore his name and supplied paint to Dubos Frères. The concours win was publicized in the July 1949 issue of l’Equipment Automobile, while the Soudée paint company ran ads in the newspaper Le Figaro. The April 1950 issue of Road & Track featured an image of 110102 taken by the legendary car dealer Roger Barlow of International Motors in Hollywood, California. The photo was taken in California as it showed Barlow’s wife Louise behind the wheel. Given the deadline for delivering photographs to a magazine, 110102 is likely to have been on the West Coast of the USA as early as December 1949 or January 1950. Factoring in the transit time from France to California, it seems that 110102 was very likely exported shortly after it was sold to Whiting at the end of September 1949. This is supported by the fact that the badge on the hood of 110102 and the chassis plate both read LAGO and not TALBOT, as Lago was used by the factory for chassis that were exported. Since his name is on the production card, it is likely that Whiting imported the car to the USA, although it is evident that he kept 110102 for a very short time.
Barlow sold 110102 to the renowned racing driver and exotic car dealer/importer Otto Zipper, who raced the car, but the year of the transaction is unknown. A colleague and competitor of Barlow as well as a friend of Briggs Cunningham, Otto Zipper operated Precision Motors on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and 26th Street in Santa Monica. During the 1950s, a number of the most exclusive Delahayes, Bugattis, and Alfa Romeos in the world passed through his hands before he focused his attention on Ferraris in the 1960s. An Austrian immigrant, Zipper was also a personal friend of Tony Lago having previously owned several Lagos including a Pourtout-bodied Teardrop and a GP car. Towards the end of the factory’s life, Zipper ended up with several of the BMW V8-powered Lago Americas as a partial debt settlement from the more or less permanently broke Tony Lago. There is a widely publicized picture, perhaps taken at Laguna Seca, showing Zipper working on 110102. In a handwritten Grand Sport listing made by the late Roland Poncet, the name Schaeffer, USA is listed as a previous owner of 110102. Some years later, 110102 passed to Richard Straman, a well-known Southern California Ferrari restorer. Straman believed that the 8,000 miles shown on the odometer when he acquired it were genuine and that the original tires were still on the car. Straman began a restoration, stripping the car and partially renewing the interior, but did not finish the restoration. On 24 February 1997, he sold 110102 to Jerome Sauls, proprietor of the famous Ritz Garage in Warrington, Pennsylvania. Sauls commissioned a full frame-off restoration, where great effort was made to be correct in every detail. Sauls showed the car at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in August 1998. Collector George Howitt from Belgium purchased 110102 in late 2004. In 2005, he showed the car at Rétromobile in Paris after having it refinished to a high standard. Chassis 110102 was purchased by a well-known Talbot-Lago authority in the summer of 2009. This collector has retained the car since and showed the car at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in 2010.»