1932 Talbot AM75/AO90
Registration number: LG 8282
Chassis number: 33427
Georges Roesch’s Talbot AO90 Team competition cars run by famed preparation specialists Fox and Nicholl caused a sensation when they appeared at the 1930 Double Twelve race at Brooklands, humbling far more complex and vaunted designs from Alfa Romeo, Bugatti and Bentley. They continued this form throughout the 1930 season of international sports car races. With strong results at the Irish Grand Prix, Ards TT, 500 Mile Race and perhaps most impressively Le Mans, with 3rd (1st in the coveted Index of Performance) and 4th places overall, beaten only by two Works Bentleys of much greater capacity and complexity.
The AO90 arguably combines all the best parts of the Roesch Talbot design era - the ultra-smooth, light and torquey 2,276 cc engine, the beautifully precise 'silent-third' manual gearbox, with the strong yet still compact 9 ft 3 in chassis. To make a car which is arguably superior to the more famous AV105, being lighter to drive and more nimble, with a real feeling of vintage era quality matched by very few other cars.
The team cars were specially constructed by Talbot for racing and were bodied by Hoyal with a striking lightweight fabric body, although mechanically fundamentally virtually standard. The three Team cars were issued the registration numbers PL 2, 3 and 4.
Given the quality, useability and success achieved by the ‘PL’ 90 Team cars, inevitably replicas have been built over the years and here we are pleased to offer one such example.
Based upon a 1932 Talbot AM75- virtually identical to the AO90 aside from having a 10-foot chassis as opposed to 9 foot 3 inches, original factory sales ledgers show this car left Talbots Ladbroke Grove factory in February of 1932, bodied as a saloon and registered from new ‘LG 8282’ a number it retains today. Little is known of the cars early history but a buff logbook on file lists the known owners as Wiseman 1952, Brown, Hazell and Roach 1953.
During the 1970s ‘LG’ passed to Ian Polson arch Talbot enthusiast and founder of our sister Talbot specialist restoration firm IS Polson. By this point the car was mechanically complete but had lost its body and was very tired.
Over the years Ian gradually worked on the car, restoring the chassis to be exactly as per AO90 specification, making a fuel tank exactly to the ‘PL’ Team car specification and undertaking various other mechanical jobs.
In 1986 ‘LG’ was sold to local enthusiast Roger Hart, who continued to gradually advance the project, purchasing a set of ‘PL’ Team Car type wings from IS Polson, for instance. However the car was still an un-finished project when purchased by the current owner in 1996. A great enthusiast for British sports cars and a furniture designer/manufacturer and later industrial designer by trade he set about the project with renewed vigour.
A wooden body frame was made and covered, copied of course from the ‘PL’ cars, correct louvered bonnet sides were purchased from IS Polson, the bottom end of the engine was rebuilt by IS Polson, along with work to the cylinder head, rear axle and torque tube, supplying Arrow connecting rods, full flow oil filter conversion, together with work and parts supplied by Arthur Archer, Cecil Schumacher and other specialists, see many invoices and correspondence on file.
This project took some time and was finally only recently completed to the point of being a running and driving car, which has now carried out circa 200 miles on the road. Sadly the owner is now of an age where he is not able to enjoy the fruits of his labour and ‘LG’ is now offered reluctantly for sale.
A nearly completed project, running and driving fundamentally correctly but requiring finishing and sorting ‘LG’ represents a relatively economical way of owning one of the finest British sports cars of the era, well suited once completed to the pre-War rally stage, racing circuit or more relaxed continental touring.