Talbot-Lago

Talbot-Lago was born in 1935, when the Italian engineer and businessman Antonio Lago took over the Talbot works at Suresnes and restored the marque's front-rank sporting ambitions. In the years that followed, Talbot-Lagos distinguished themselves in Grand Prix racing and endurance alike, embodying with panache a certain idea of the French automobile: robust, elegant, enduring machinery. The most glorious Le Mans page was written in 1950. That year, the T26 Grand Sport — closely derived from the T26C Grand Prix single-seater and powered by a 4.5-litre six-cylinder engine — was entered by Écurie Rosier. At its wheel, Louis Rosier and his son Jean-Louis produced one of the most extraordinary feats in the race's history: the father drove almost the entire race, handing the wheel to his son for only a handful of laps. The indefatigable Louis Rosier, who even carried out a repair on his car himself mid-race, drove the blue Talbot to victory in a demonstration of human endurance as much as mechanical stamina. A father-and-son victory, unique in the history of the 24 Hours, it remains one of Le Mans's most moving stories. That 1950 success marked Talbot-Lago's sporting peak. The marque continued to race at La Sarthe in the early 1950s, but the economic difficulties that struck France's prestige manufacturers eventually proved fatal: sales collapsed, production withered, and Talbot-Lago was finally absorbed by Simca at the end of the decade. What remains on the roll of honour is an overall victory that says everything about an era: one in which a Grand Prix car barely re-bodied for endurance could win Le Mans in the hands of an artisan racer from the Auvergne and his son. The T26s are today among the most sought-after French automobiles for collectors, and the name Rosier remains forever bound to that of Talbot-Lago.

• Country : FRA
• Founded : 1935
• Le Mans wins : 1
• First win : 1950
• Last win : 1950