Ultimatecarpage.com update (02-28-08)

[Wouter Melissen]

Dear Ultimatecarpage.com visitor,

With competition proven chassis and superbly designed custom coachwork the French cars of the 1930s are regarded as the finest ever constructed. Unfortunately only very few of these great names returned after the War and only Talbot Lago managed to introduce a brand new model.
Built around a highly advanced twin cam engine, the new T26 was available as a road car and a racing car. The base model road car was known as the 'Record' and the range was topped by the high performance, short wheelbase 'Grand Sport'. Only 36 of these are known to have been constructed. Today we take a closer look at one of the second series of cars that used a slightly longer wheelbase. The featured T26 GS used a highly attractive and very striking coupe body designed and built by Jacques Saoutchik.
In 1948 Talbot Lago entered Grand Prix racing with the T26C, which as the name suggests is very closely related to production road cars. It featured a narrower and slightly shorter version of the Grand Sport chassis and proved immediately successful. In addition to winning many minor and local open wheel races, the T26C racked up two Grand Prix wins in 1949. In 1950 season a cycle fendered sports racer was developed, which promptly scored a victory in that year's 24 Hours of Le Mans race. The pictured T26C was one of the final four Grand Prix cars built in 1950 and placed fourth in the first Formula 1 World Championship race.
The T26 remains as the last of a great line of French road cars and the very last racing car to win both a Grand Prix and a major endurance sports car race.

Enjoy the links:

Talbot Lago T26 GS Saoutchik Coupe - Ultimatecarpage.com - Images, Specifications and Information

Talbot Lago T26C Grand Prix - Ultimatecarpage.com - Images, Specifications and Information

Regards,
Wouter Melissen