Description
Author: Peter M. Larsen with Ben Erickson, ISBN: 9781854432476, Hardcover, Two volumes in Slipcase, 219mm x 304mm, 648 pages, Limited to 600 copies.
The Talbot-Lago Grand Sport was an automobile destined for the grand cru sportsman and chic Parisian society in equal measure. It was a grand gesture, and the final flowering in France of the great tradition of the truly custom motorcar. The chassis was built to carry coachwork that was the last expression anywhere in the world of grand style and luxury. The Grand Sport was outrageously exclusive and something for the very few. Not just because of its price, which was stratospheric, or its limited practicality, which was irrelevant: this was a car that was chic, ritzy, aristocratic and sharp as a knife all at once.
Volume I tells the story of how the Grand Sport was born in the bleak post-war years. It is the story of how Talbot-Lago came into being, and the incredible tale of Anthony Lago’s life with his rise from refugee to penniless car dealer in London and finally luxury car maker in France. The post-war history of the marque is dealt with in great detail, additionally there is an in-depth discussion of the chassis and its components. A large section is devoted to a history of every single carrossier who bodied a Grand Sport chassis.
Volume II contains a detailed chassis by chassis history of every single Grand Sport laid down by the factory.
- Winner of the 2013 Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot Award
About the Author:
Born in 1954, Peter Larsen has been a chronic gearhead all his life. Those who were there have said that the first word he learned to utter was “Opel”. Peter Larsen is a Fulbright scholar and holds a Ph.D. in English literature and semiotics from the University of Copenhagen and Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Born in 1975, Ben Erickson grew up in Minnesota, where he was doodling cars long before he could read and write. A special interest are American cars from the challenging years in the 1970s and 1980s when, as Ben says, “they did the best with what they had”.
