1921 Talbot 25/50hp 4½-litre Type 4SW Saloon

Registration no. PA 9062
Chassis no. SW9408

Talbot's powerful and sporting 25/50hp model was designed by George W A Brown (later of Coventry Premier) working under Talbot Chief Designer, Mills. Like the Pomeroy-designed Prince Henry Vauxhall, its sidevalve engine gave little outward indication of its startling potential. This potential was manifest in November 1912 when English racing driver Percy Lambert, driving a streamlined 25/50hp Talbot, recorded the fastest lap for which a Brooklands Certificate had ever been issued. At 109.43mph, the 25/50hp Talbot had exceeded all expectations, taking also the Class F record at 113.28mph for the half-mile and 111.73mph for the mile. Little surprise therefore that the Talbot marque, marketed by Clement Talbot Ltd of Barlby Road, North Kensington, London, was advertised as 'The Invincible Talbot'. Few comparable cars of the era could even get close to the 120bhp developed at 3,000rpm by the 4½-litre engine, the Talbot ranking alongside the likes of the Prince Henry Vauxhall and the Alfonso Hispano-Suiza, both as a fast touring and sporting car.
The current vendor purchased this 25/50hp Talbot at a UK auction in 1994. At that time the car had been the same family ownership for nearly 40 years having been acquired in the late 1950s in the Bristol area where it had been sold new in June 1921. The family used the Talbot as a promotional tool for their motor agency in Bristol, displaying it on the roof of one of the showrooms. Totally renovated in 1968, the car was subsequently displayed at the Cheddar Motor Museum and the Haynes Motor Museum at Sparkford. It has also been featured on television and in specialist publications.
'PA 9062' is finished in maroon with black wings and roof, while the interior is trimmed in deep-buttoned beige Bedford Cord with brocade edging. The windows are of the railway carriage type, and the instrumentation is believed original. Here is a rare car (one of just a handful known) of outstanding quality from a leading British manufacturer of the day, well capable of keeping reasonable pace with modern traffic and yet having that quintessentially early-Vintage charm. It is offered with an old-style buff logbook and correspondence from The Autocar, the STD Register, and the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.