Talbot-Lago

The car world was expecting big things from one particular 1937 Talbot-Lago earlier this month, and, well, the vintage ride did not disappoint.

The coveted T150-C-SS Teardrop Coupe in question—chassis No. 90107—sold for a record-breaking $13.4 million at Gooding & Company’s live auction at Florida’s Omni Amelia Island Resort on March 4. Shattering the pre-sale estimate of $10 million, it’s now the most valuable French car ever sold at auction and the most expensive Talbot-Lago in existence.

The high hammer price isn’t a total surprise. For starters, this Goutte d’Eau, or “Teardrop,” variant is one of only a handful to feature bodywork designed and fabricated Figoni et Falaschi. It’s also one of just two to sport elegant all-alloy Modèle New York coachwork, and the only such example with its exterior still intact.

The automobile is as equally gorgeous on the inside. 

Photo by Mathieu Heurtault, courtesy of Gooding & Company.

Under the hood, meanwhile, lies a 4.0-liter inline-six engine with overhead valves and three Zenith-Stromberg carburetors that’s capable of churning out about 140 hp at 4,100 rpm. In addition, the coupe is fitted with a Wilson pre-selector gearbox, which allows the driver to “pre-select” the next gear, along with four-wheel mechanical brakes, a front independent suspension and a live rear axle. All of this combined was enough to render the T150-C-SS a real performance car for the time.

The car was one of only two examples of the all-alloy Modèle New York body style from the coachbuilder, and the only one extant. 

Photo by Mathieu Heurtault, courtesy of Gooding & Company.

To top it off, this Gallic beauty was treated to fastidious restoration work in the early 2000s and was returned to its original specification, including its blue and silver paint. The 85-year-old car has appeared at numerous auto shows, though this was the first time it had been put up for public sale since 1950.

A 1991 Ferrari F40 sold for $2.4 million. 

Gooding & Company

The Talbot-Lago wasn’t the only car to attract millions at the auction, either: A 1991 Ferrari F40 realized $2.4 million, while a 1967 Toyota-Shelby 2000 GT sold for $2.5 million. There were also several Porsches that eclipsed $2 million.

A 1967 Toyota-Shelby 2000 GT sold for $2.5 million. 

Gooding & Company

Gooding & Company sold 91 lots out of 99 and garnered $66.5 million in full. In fact, this month’s sale marks the auction house’s most profitable Amelia Island event to date. It has the Talbot-Lago to thank for that.

The French have a way with design, articulated with a distinct vocabulary of their own. Historically, no French car—especially a coachbuilt one from before World War II—would ever be mistaken for an English, Italian or German one. French design is about elegance, whether it’s a Louis XV chair or Dior haute couture. Or, in the case of an automobile, the Figoni et Falaschi–bodied 1937 Talbot-Lago to be featured by Gooding & Company during its live auction at Florida’s Omni Amelia Island Resort on March 4.

“The significance of bringing a car as revered, valuable and influential as this 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS Teardrop Coupe, bodied by Figoni et Falaschi, cannot be overstated,” says David Gooding, founder and president of Gooding & Company. “With its stunning, timeless styling, storied and unbroken provenance and indisputable rarity, this car comes to auction as one of the most valuable French automotive offerings, and surely the greatest Talbot-Lago offering, the market has ever seen. We are honored to present this masterpiece of a car on the auction stage in Amelia Island later this week.”
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Talbot began with the acquisition of Automobiles Darracq in 1916, and changed its name to Automobiles Talbot in 1922. A decade later, businessman Antonio Lago was brought on as managing director to turn around the automaker afflicted by the Great Depression. Lago, who introduced new models with four- and six-cylinder engines, went on to buy out the company, adding his name to the marque by 1936.

Following the war, the company struggled as the automotive industry grew and embraced mass production. Despite developing a number of road-going models, and even machines for Grand Prix competition, Talbot-Lago failed to thrive. By the early 1950s, the demise of the French luxury marques like Bugatti, Delage, and Delahaye was a fait accompli. Talbot-Lago folded and was acquired by Simca in 1959, but not before leaving to posterity one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

On March 4, Gooding & Company will auction off this 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS Teardrop Coupe bodied by Figoni et Falaschi. 

Photo by Mathieu Heurtault, courtesy of Gooding & Company.

The Talbot-Lago 150-C-SS was a real performance car for the time. The “C” stood for Competition, and the shorter, lighter Super Sport (or “SS”) chassis was the one to have. The vehicle is powered by a 4.0-liter inline-six engine—designed by lead engineer Walter Becchia—featuring overhead valves and three Zenith-Stromberg carburetors. Output is about 140 hp at 4,100 rpm. Shifting is through a Wilson pre-selector gearbox, which allows the driver to “pre-select” the next gear, the transmission remaining in the current gear until the driver presses the clutch pedal, thus eliminating the need to master smooth gearchanges in a non-synchro transmission.
The model is also equipped with an independent front suspension and live rear axle with leaf springs, while the Brakes are mechanical drums all around. The platform, being lightweight, short and low, was ideal for such an aerodynamic body. The T150-C-SS was sold as a bare chassis for 78,000 francs—expensive for its day— and priced in line with competitors like the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 and Bugatti Type 57S.

The vehicle is powered by a 140 hp, 4.0-liter inline-six engine featuring overhead valves and three Zenith-Stromberg carburetors. 

Photo by Mathieu Heurtault, courtesy of Gooding & Company.

From 1937 to 1939, Talbot-Lago built a limited number of T150-C-SS chassis, which received custom bodies by a variety of coachbuilders, the most beautiful of which were, by far, designed and fabricated by Figoni et Falaschi. Depending on the source, between 10 and 12 were made in two variations: a fastback, known as Goutte d’Eau, or “Teardrop,” and a notchback called Jencart, after the patron who commissioned the first of five examples.
The all-alloy Modèle New York coachwork, unveiled at the 1937 New York Auto Show, is the most elegant version of the Teardrop concept, taken to the extreme with fully enclosed, skirted front fenders. While two examples were made, the car on offer—chassis No. 90107—remains the only original-bodied example of that design. Its shape exemplifies the modern streamlined style, and may be considered the ultimate automotive expression of “art for art’s sake.”

The car was one of only two examples of the all-alloy Modèle New York body style from the coachbuilder, and the only one extant. 

Photo by Mathieu Heurtault, courtesy of Gooding & Company.

Remarkably, this exotic French confection has spent nearly 80 of its 85 years in Southern California. It’s speculated that chassis No. 90107 was commissioned, with three other built-to-order Teardrops, by famed playboy and Olympic bobsledder “Suicide Freddie” McEvoy.  It was purchased, in 1939, by Stewart Lee, the 33-year-old heir to the Don Lee Cadillac and broadcasting fortune, who had inherited $9 million dollars in 1934.
Lee ran his companies while amassing numerous custom cars and aircraft. According to Automobile Quarterly, many of Lee’s cars were acquired through racer Luigi Chinetti, who later became the exclusive Ferrari importer for the United States. A man with an eye for Talbot-Lago, Lee owned two other T150-C-SS Coupes, chassis No. 90108 and No. 90114. During his ownership, No. 90107 was repainted dark red and occasionally raced in the desert, where it was clocked at over 117 mph. During the 1940s, Lee was badly injured in a car wreck, got hooked on painkillers and, tragically, took his own life in 1950 after being committed to a sanitarium.

The automobile is as equally gorgeous on the inside. 

Photo by Mathieu Heurtault, courtesy of Gooding & Company.

The publication Road & Track, whose classified ads from the 1950s and 1960s offer a tantalizing glimpse of the period’s used sports car market, announced the Talbot-Lago as follows: “Forced Sale of Prize Collection: The Thomas S. Lee world famous foreign sport cars must be sold immediately. By order of the Los Angeles County Public Administrator.”
The purchaser was John Duckworth, a car enthusiast in San Fernando, Calif., and the car subsequently appeared on the cover of Road & Track. After a couple of interim owners, it was acquired in 1956 by Lindley Locke, a collector of French cars who saw the Talbot-Lago parked on a street in Los Angeles. The car was put in storage at his Santa Monica garage in the early 1960s, and remained unseen for 40 years. In 2004, Locke’s widow donated the Talbot-Lago to the Nethercutt Collection in Sylmar, Calif. Known internationally for the quality of its cars and its fastidious restoration work, the Sylmar team returned No. 90107 to its original specification, including its blue and silver paint.

The dashboard is elegance incarnate. 

Photo by Mathieu Heurtault, courtesy of Gooding & Company.

This car is no newcomer to the concours lawn. Prior to coming to California and being sequestered for decades, it won the Prix d’Excellence at the 1938 Concours d’Elegance Fémina in Paris, testament to the influence of, and regard for, Figoni’s design when new. In this century, and after its restoration by Nethercutt, the Talbot-Lago was awarded Best in Class at the 2005 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, followed by Best of Show at the 2007 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.
Presented for public sale for the first time since 1950, the car is estimated to fetch more than $10 million when it crosses the block. In a world where flavor-of-the-month modern supercars can command a third as much, this seems a relatively modest valuation for one of the greatest French automobiles of all time.

For aficionados of the automobile, gathering to see and talk cars with like-minded souls—whether in parking lots over coffee or inside storied museums and warehouses—offers a collective celebration that was put on hold during the pandemic.

But as vaccine distribution slowly loosens Covid-19’s fierce grip, one such escape returns. Beginning April 9, the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, Calif., will reopen to the public, allowing access to a dazzling array of French-made rolling sculpture brought together by collector Peter Mullin. It’s an assemblage that is both award-winning and historically significant.

The sprawling 47,000-square-foot facility houses scores of vehicles that hark back to a time when most cars were one-off works of art commissioned by royalty, industrialists and legendary racing drivers. Standout Mullin pieces include one of only three Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantics in existence, the one-of-a-kind 1938 Hispano-Suiza Dubonnet H6B “Xenia,” a 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C SS Goutte d’Eau and one of only three Bugatti EB 110 Supersport “Le Mans” examples to be built.

The Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, Calif. 

Photo: Courtesy of the Mullin Automotive Museum.

“The Mullin Automotive Museum presents a captivating educational experience for car enthusiasts to learn more about French history and culture of the Art Deco era,” says founder and executive director Peter Mullin. “After several months of closure, we are thrilled to reopen our doors and continue sharing our passion for this genre in a safe and responsible manner.”

One of only three remaining examples of the Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic. 

Photo: Courtesy of the Mullin Automotive Museum.

The museum harbors not only classic cars but also an array of artifacts that bring to life the artistry of France’s belle epoque, a period that comprises the final decades of the 19th century to the start of World War I. For example, the museum’s half-dozen exhibits include “The Art of Bugatti,” which showcases furniture designed by Carlo Bugatti, father of Ettore Bugatti who founded the namesake automaker in 1909. To this day, the eponymous marque makes some of the world’s most expensive and powerful cars. On the more whimsical side is “Le Mans,” which recreates pit lane areas from the French endurance race as a way of spotlighting cars that ruled over the 24-hour motorsport contest.

A pristine 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C SS Goutte d’Eau. 

Photo by Drew Phillips, courtesy of the Mullin Automotive Museum.

While most other collections limit what’s presented to gleaming showpieces, Mullin makes sure that his museum gives visitors a glimpse into how some cars are found before master restorers take them back to concours-quality condition.

To that end, don’t miss the “Schlumpf Reserve Collection,” an assortment of unrestored cars from a wealthy European textile family. It includes 65 vehicles, many of them from Bugatti, that were accumulated during years when the family’s business was actually failing. That eventually led an angry mob to burn down their facilities, damaging some of the cars.

A 1994 Bugatti EB 110 Supersport “Le Mans” on display. 

Photo by Drew Phillips, courtesy of the Mullin Automotive Museum.

An even more eye-opening—and heart-rending—exhibit, however, is “Lady of the Lake,” starring a completely rusted shell of a 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Brescia Roadster. Suffice to say that its ready-for-Hollywood story involves Grand Prix driver René Dreyfus, a card game gone bad, an abandonment deep below the surface of Italy’s Lake Maggiore and, decades later, a resurrection and sale that honors a boy who died from a violent attack.

The “Lady of the Lake,” a 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Brescia Roadster recovered from Italy’s Lake Maggiore. 

Photo: Courtesy of the Mullin Automotive Museum.

While museum officials are excited about reopening—new days and hours are Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.—they acknowledge that the pandemic is not yet in the rearview mirror. Temperature checks will be conducted at the door, masks are mandatory and hand-sanitizer stations stand guard.
In addition, capacity will be limited to 25 percent and attendees will choose between either a morning or afternoon visit so staff can clean between sessions. Tickets are $16 for adults and $14 for both seniors and students with ID. Active military members with ID and children under the age of two-years-old are admitted for free.