Description:

Talbot AV105.  JJ93 Chassis No 35227 Engine No AV78

Eligible for the world’s greatest historic rallies & race events including The Flying Scotsman, Alpine Trial, Goodwood Revival & Le Mans Classic

The 105 Talbot, so-called following a discovery that its engine produced 105bhp at 4500rpm, was designed by the brilliant German-Swiss Georges Roesch. Roesch was chief engineer at Talbot before the marque’s Darracq takeover; one of many changes of ownership in its complex history. In 1925, Roesch moved to London to focus on Talbot’s racing models, supplying examples to the legendary Fox and Nicholls privateer team who built racing bodies for the cars and campaigned them competitively. 1931 saw the birth of the 105 and the resulting success on track through Fox and Nicholls kept the Talbot marque’s road sales increasing as other STD fortunes continued to decline. By the beginning of 1934, Sunbeam Talbot Darracq was in real trouble, and the Talbot marque was sold off to Rootes to redeem an outstanding bank loan. It was, at this time, that Roesch was at the peak of his career and design ability. His cars are renowned for their cohesive and economic design, and his engines for their bulletproof simplicity. As Anthony Blight noted in his go-to book on the subject, George Roesch and the Invincible Talbot, the road versions of 1934 were ‘more desirable than ever to the discriminating motorist with a taste for long fast journeys’. History JJ93 as the car is known because of its registration number, became an extremely well known example of one of the nine works bodied Brooklands and Alpine that appear regularly in both modern historic racing and rallies. The Chassis with all its mechanicals was supplied in 1933 to Warwick Wright with a view to fitting it with a saloon car body. This didn’t happen and was held in Warwick Wright’s store until end of 1935/36 when it was commandeered by Jack Scott ( Talbot’s General Sales Manager) and fitted with a body by the works that was similar to the works 34 racing team bodies. This body came from the famous Dr Roth car AYL 2 which was converted to a single seater after a year’s Brooklands racing. The body whilst a basic copy of the Alpine Cars was unique in that it didn’t have doors, stowage compartments for hoods or facia with a view to saving weight for Brooklands competition. It was extremely flimsy and gradually through owners changed into an Alpine type body. The first owner of the car was a young subaltern in Kings Royal Rifles Regiment, P.Beaumont-Earle, who lightly campaigned the car in various speed events .No doubt with some success as it was a formidable combination with its light construction and high power output. At that point it had a streamlined nose similar to that used by the works on the race cars. The car went through a few hands after Beaumont being the subject of articles in War editions of Motor Sport and advertised at one point. The car found its way to John Bland in 1947 who was the foremost Talbot expert in his day who did some standard work on the car. The car was bought by John Shepherd-Lewery in 1952 and spent the next 16 years in Lytham St Anne’s, Lancs who had it painted red and silver to match his glider, which it frequently towed! It needed much care when it’s days in Lytham St Anne’s were over and it was tracked down and purchased by Major Rex Leppard of Hove who thought he had discovered AYL 2 but found out the correct history of JJ93.He worked hard to restore the car to its former glory but beaten by ill health passed the baton to the son of a friend Mrs Anne Benson of Angmering. Allowed once again to deteriorate and in poor mechanical state it arrived in the hands of John Havill in 1976 The car was rewired, received an Arthur Archer rebuild and bought back to life. Unfortunately once this work was complete it was involved in a RTA and once again Havill set about a 7 year total rebuild. Once complete the car did many road events up to 1989. In 1990 the car was entered into a Phillips auction at an estimate of 110,000/130,000 pounds At that point it was bought by Talbot collector John Ruston who interchanged it for a VDP tourer with Geoff Crabtree at one point but used it for many road trips. In 1994 he sold the car to the Paul and Jane Wignall as he was planning on buying one of actual works cars. Paul and Jane are extremely well known for their rally exploits and used it on many international rally’s throughout their ownership with some extremely good results. John Ruston by chance met Paul Wignall whilst he was doing the Tulip Rally in France in 2010 and started to chat about the car and Paul mentioned that he was now using post war rather than Pre War cars. John Ruston bought car back from Paul and at same time bought what remained of AYL2 from Northern Ireland. He did what Blight suggested in the 60’s and corrected history with building the two cars historically correct. The original 30’s body of AYL had long since been repaired strengthened and messed with so a proper regular body was fitted to JJ. The car was sold to Julian Messient in Belgium and stayed with him for three years when the car collector Peter Neumark took over ownership in 2015 having one of the replica Pace Historic engines fitted and original engine put on the shelf. He used it in rallies and other events. Once again the car went back to John Ruston who passed it onto his car owning associate Michael Birch in July 2017 and it has subsequently won races at Le Mans Classic and Thruxton as well as high positions at Silverstone and Spa. Over the last few years the car has been regularly invited to some of the most prestigious classic car events including Hampton Court Concours, Mille Miglia Historic, Goodwood Revival and Members meetings, and Le Mans Classic amongst others, proving to be a great car not only on the race track but also on road rallies. Throughout his ownership it has been prepared by Pace Historics to the same specification as the works cars. A rare opportunity to purchase an original Talbot competition car, a well documented history, and a great entry into the best historic motoring events. For further information please contact James Hanson at Speedmaster on +44 (0)1937 220360 or by email to info@speedmastercars.com     

 

Website:

http://www.speedmastercars.com

Keyword Search Terms:

Le Mans Classic, Goodwood Revival. Mille Miglia, vintage racing, brooklands