Description
Chassis No. 110060 Engine No. 45155 Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport The ultimate racing model signed by Talbot-Lago, four examples of the T26 Grand Sport were begun at the start of 1950. Only one of them was completed in time to take the start of the most famous endurance race in the world: chassis 110055. Entrusted to Louis Rosier, this car entered legend by winning the 1950 24 Hours of Le Mans. The three other examples followed a different path and were entered in customer racing starting the following season. In 1952, when the Commission Sportive Internationale banned single-seaters at Le Mans, Talbot-Lago adapted accordingly: thus, the T26 Grand Sport bearing chassis number 110060 was the only one to leave the factory in the form of a two-seat barchetta. Built from a Grand Sport whose wheelbase was shortened from 2, 800 mm to 2, 500 mm in order to adopt a more sporting character, it is the last car to receive the famous 4. 5-liter inline six-cylinder engine with dual overhead camshafts. Developing 240 horsepower, this engine is paired with a four-speed Wilson preselector gearbox, but in a configuration rarely-if ever-seen: gear changes are not made via the steering wheel as on its cousins; instead, the control is mounted directly on the gearbox, positioned to the driver's left hand in an H-pattern configuration. This brings the advantage that in the heat of racing, one cannot accidentally skip a gear on downshifts causing the engine to over-rev. 1952 24 Hours of Le Mans On 15 June 1952, the Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport, chassis number 110060, entered under race number 9, took the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, driven by teammates Pierre Meyrat and Guy Mairesse. Meyrat took the first stint, completing thirty laps before handing over to Mairesse, who in turn completed thirty laps. At 10:00 p. m., the car was running in 10th place, six laps behind the leading Gordini of Jean Behra, a position it still held at midnight. But around 3:00 a. m., the team was forced to retire due to a lubrication problem. Chassis 110060 withdrew from the race, victim of an oil pump failure. 2nd Grand Prix of Reims 1952 Barely two weeks later, on the Reims-Gueux circuit, the start was given at 11:00 a. m. under oppressive heat. Robert Manzon, leading at the wheel of his Gordini, set the fastest lap at 166. 63 km/ h before being forced to retire from the race, leaving first place to Stirling Moss in his Jaguar Type C. Starting only from 10th position, the T26 Grand Sport overtook its competitors one by one and finished the race in a remarkable second place, securing a podium finish for Mairesse. Its Swedish Years Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport, chassis number 110060, is accompanied by an extremely impressive historical file, notably enriched by Nicolas Maier. It includes numerous photographs spanning the decades, articles devoted to the car, sales advertisements, invoices, correspondence, and-among these-the personal recollection of one of its owners, Magnus Gyllenspetz. During the winter of 1968, this young enthusiast, still a student, noticed an advertisement in the Swedish press offering a racing Talbot-Lago for sale. It was being offered by Lennart Holmström, a distinguished professor in Stockholm, who had discovered it by chance in a scrapyard in Luleå, in northern Sweden, not far from the Arctic Circle, and had saved it from certain destruction. Drawn by the advertisement, the student traveled to Stockholm to see it. Although it required care, he immediately fell under its "brutal" or raw charm and purchased it. He then drove it home, braving 70 kilometers in the harsh Swedish winter at the wheel of his newly acquired barchetta. After some time in use, the clutch disc failed, and he decided to undertake a complete restoration. As his research and work progressed, and after several visits to Georges Grignard, former T26C driver, he realized that his modest student means would not be sufficient to restore his Talbot-Lago to the full splendor it deserved. He therefore made the decision to sell it. Yet how had this rare French racing car first made its way to the far north in the first place? Gunnar Bengtsson, a Swedish engineer and rally driver, owner of a Talbot-Lago Grand Sport with which he won the 1951 Swedish Rally and the Midnight Sun Rally alongside his co-driver Sven Zetterberg, was also a friend of Anthony Lago. During a visit to the factory, he noticed chassis 110060 under a tarp. The car, having completed its factory career, was sold to him at a favorable price. Bengtsson made no modifications to the car except for the transmission ratios, adapted for better response on ice, and entered two Swedish races in February 1954, finishing second and then first. The following year, Bengtsson sold the T26 Grand Sport to Eric Carlsson, also a racing driver. Carlsson entered it in numerous races during the 1955 and 1956 seasons in Sweden and Finland, regularly reaching the podium behind the wheel. It was subsequently sold to Tore...
