Marlboro Masters 1998:

Historic Grand Prix Cars (4/7)

A quaint little car, this pre-war Riley voiturette car. It's driven by Barry Gillies.
The design of the car is rather modern for its time: ultra low and streamlined.

Unfortunately the car broke down mid-race. The sixty year old 2 litre engine couldn't handle the strain and just gave up.

This is the car I liked the best: the monstrous Talbot Lago of Richard Pilkington. A real men's car I guess, judging by the frantic way Richard was driving it.
The engine made an impressive sound and the louvres on the bonnet and the exhaust pipes sticking out gave it a very aggressive look. That's what a racing car should look like, brimful of character!
Only 14 of these T26(C) cars were built, starting 1948. These cars were used in Grand Prix from then on up to 1953. Its main characteristics were fuel efficiency and reliability, its Italian competitors in that era had more power and better acceleration. The T26 won a few important Grand Prix and a lot of secondary races. The last important victory was in the Australian Grand Prix in 1953.

There were actually three Talbots entered for this race, but only one made it through the warm-up lap, which was a pity. This car is the same car that Juan Manuel Fangio drove in Le Mans in 1951, together with Louis Rosier. Richard Pilkington owns this car since 1959.

The T26 has a 6 cylinder 4485 cc engine, producing up to 280 hp. It's designed and constructed by Antonio Lago, the owner of the firm, and Carlo Marchetti. The car succeeded the "Monoplace" Grand Prix car, the first post war GP car the French factory produced. The T26 was actually the last GP car Talbot made, not counting the "Talbot"-Ligier F1 cars in 1981/82, which were funded by Peugeot (that had acquired the Talbot name rights) and had Matra engines.

Go to the fifth page about this race by clicking the arrows pointing right...