Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupe Saoutchik - Looks over functionality

There are arguably a few cars that are as beautiful as the 1948 Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupe Saoutchik.
It’s exotic looks and curvy lines are designed by the Ukrainian furniture designer, Jacques Saoutchik.

After Saoutchik fled from Ukrain he started his own coachbuilding company in 1906. he had just one goal, to build the most beautiful and luxurious cars to world had ever seen. He didn’t care about functionality, performance or anything like that, the cars just needed to be breathtaking.
You can easily recognise Saoutchik’s designs, by the big curvy wheel-arches, subtle fins and loads of chrome detailing.

The Grand Sport was the only version of the Lago which wasn’t build just by Talbot themselves, Talbot build the chassis, engine and driveline after which specialised coachbuilders like Saoutchik, Franay, Oblin and Figoni et Falaschi finished the car by giving it a beautiful body and interior.

In my opinion, Saoutchik did a great job when designing this vehicle. Look at those huge wheel-arches, they cover pretty much the entire side of the car. The rear wheels are covered up like a lot of cars had back then, so if you had to change a tyre you first had to remove that panel before you could remove the wheel.

Speaking of wheels, as you can see it has whitewall tyres with beautiful chrome rims.

Quick history lesson about whitewalls.
Whitewall tyres were an idea of the small American company, Vogue Tyre and Rubber Co. In the early days of motoring tyres were made out of pure natural rubber, in order to make the wear better and increase traction they used zinc oxide, making the tyre completely white. Though this did not offer sufficient endurance, so they added carbon black to the rubber which made the tyre black obviously.
They used carbon black only in the tyre tread, and zinc in the outer sidewalls, giving it whitewalls. So that’s a little history lesson on the whitewall tyre, so back to the car.

The Grand Sport as a rather impressive front end, with its long bonnet with loads of chrome detailing. Of course you can’t talk about the looks without mentioning that huge chrome grill.

Whereas the front is full of interesting design features, the rear is rather simple, no big exhausts, just a couple small lights, simple bumpers and not a lot of chrome.

Alright, so let’s talk about the numbers.
The Grand Sport is powered by a 4.6-Litre inline six engine with aluminium cylinders, a hollowed camshaft and triple carburettors, the same engine they used in the Grand Prix version. It produced 195bhp with a top speed of 200km/h (124mph).

Because of its looks it reminded the people a lot of the Second World War, because of this only 36 were sold.

So what’s your opinion on this car? Do you like it? Anyways, thanks for reading and have a nice day :)

Marijn M.

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