GT with a difference

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Look at the picture – what do you see here? It could well be a Ferrari or Maserati with body by Michelotti or Vignale, couldn’t it? An AC perhaps? Or a special bodied Aston Martin or Jaguar? All wrong. This, boys and girls, is a Talbot Lago. Not your ordinary one, though. It’s a big 1948 T26 Grand Sport with one of the better proportioned coachwork jobs you’ll ever see on one, the work of Oblin of Belgium.

It wasn’t always as pretty though. Originally the chassis was brought over to Vandenplas to be fitted with a not so attractive body, commissioned by British racer Goldie Gardner who lived in Brussels at the time. It was the second owner who took it to Oblin in 1952 to revamp it into the stunning aluminium bodied coupe you see here. Despite being heavy, the 190bhp strong car with its pre-selector transmission came 12th in the 1952 Liège-Rome-Liège rally. The next year it unfortunately had to retire from the 24-hours race at Spa-Francorchamps, while starting at pole poition. 49 Years later, in 2002, it rolled at that very same track after it had been handed over a couple of times to a new owner. However it was beautifully restored without doing harm to the car’s patina. Twelve years ahead it hasn’t lost any of its charm when coming to the market at Bonhams’ Quail Lodge sale… 

(picture courtesy Bonhams Auctions)

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