Darracq , Talbot Suresnes

France, 1896 – 1959

(1) Société A. Darracq, Suresnes, 1896 – 1905

(2) A. Darracq & Co (1905) Ltd, Suresnes, 1905 – 1920

(3) Automobiles Talbot, Suresnes, 1920 – 1959

An immense complexity of nomenclature surrounds the two makes, Darracq and Talbot Suresnes. While the cars themselves were always designed and built in France, the Darracq company was financed in England during its golden period and after (1905-1935), then merged with a French concern which had been formed to make Italian cars, and subsequently acquired American affiliations. Alexandre Darracq founded the Gladiator cycle company in 1891, selling out to British interests five years later. Darracq then turned briefly to the manufacture of electric carriages, exhibiting a Darracq coupé at the 1896 Paris Salon. In 1898, however, he acquired (for £10.000) the manufacturing rights of Léon Bollée’s 4-wheeler voiturette, a belt-driven 5hp machine with a single-cylinder air-cooled horizontal engine, tube ignition and steering-column gear-change. It was not a success, though column change was to persist on some of Darracq’s own designs until 1910.

The idea of a small and inexpensive Darracq runabout persisted, and in 1900 came the first real Darracq: its 785cc front-mounted vertical single-cylinder engine had automatic inlet valves, coil ignition, a cone clutch and shaft drive – Alexandre Darracq, like Louis Renault, never marketed a chain-driven car. The Darracq could be bought in England for £250 in 1901, in which year the Société Darracq took up racing with a 1.9-litre 2-cylinder machine driven by Henry Farman. Though only ‘Darracq singles’ were offered to the public in 1902, racing Darracq cars were formidable voiturettes with 5.9-litre 4-cylinder engines and won the light-car category of the Concours du Ministre alcohol race, besides doing well in the Paris-Vienna. A manufacturing licence for Germany was taken out by Opel that year. Darracq cars were raced until 1906, winning the light-car and voiturette categories of the Circuit des Ardennes. The Darracq company’s grandes voitures were less successful: Darracq was determined to win the 1904 Gordon Bennett Cup and entered not only his Darracq own team of 11.3-litre machines for the French éliminatoire, but also sponsored three Opel-built cars in Germany, with another three Darracq cars specially built from scratch by Weir of Glasgow, to carry the British colours. Only von Opel’s Opel-Darracq actually raced at Homburg and this failed to survive a single lap. Some very light 9.9-litre ohv Darracq cars were prepared for 1905, but it was not until the following season that a twofold success was achieved: Wagner’s victory in the Vanderbilt Cup, and Algernon Lee Guinness’s 117.66mph over the kilometer at Ostend on a special 22.5-litre ohv V8 Darracq sprint car. Darracq cars took 2nd and 3rd places in the 1908 TT but no more were raced until 1921.

Meanwhile the utility cars prospered. Single-, twin- and 4-cylinder Darracq models were marketed in 1903, all but the smallest having mechanically-operated side valves in a T-head, while the simplified 8hp Darracq Populaire sold for only 4.800fr in France. 1904 saw the introduction of steel frames pressed out of a single sheet of metal and also the advent of the rapid 3.1-litre 4-cylinder Darracq Flying 15 for sale at £460. The new type of chassis was universal by 1905, when the Darracq company was reorganized under British registry, and some quite big Darracq car were offered, though these were modestly priced, at the top of the regular range being a 5.9-litre 28hp with dual ignition and a 12ft 4in wheelbase at only £687. It was also possible to buy a 70hp Darracq sporting model based on the 1904 Gordon Bennett cars.

The 1907 1100cc single Darracq sold for £159 and had mechanically-operated valves, but at the other end of the range there were the 4.7-litre ‘20/28’, the 11½-litre ohv ‘Vanderbilt Cup’ type, and a 5.7-litre 4-speed six Darracq selling for £850. This had grown up to 8.1-litres with square cylinder dimensions a year later, though Darracqs still had a progressive gear change, and there was a short vogue for rear-axle-mounted gearboxes on a brace of new L-head monobloc fours with 2.3-litre and 3.1-litre engines. This transmission was dropped in 1909, the last year of ‘Darracq singles’, and the twins disappeared twelve months later. Gate change arrived in 1910 on Darracq cars for sale. In 1911 there were seven Darracq models, the 15hp at £275 having overhead inlet valves. The 1912 p Darracq rogramme, however, saw a catastrophic flirtation with the Henriod rotary-valve engine, installed in the 4.4-litre P12 4-cylinder with a 10ft 5in wheelbase, worm drive and dashboard radiator. A 2.6-litre rotary-valve Darracq model had conventional cooling arrangements, but profits faded away to almost nothing, and in the ensuing upheaval M. Darracq retired. Owen Clegg from Rover took over the management and the 1913 Darracq cars were obviously inspired by his successful Rover Twelve. They came in 2.1-litre and 2.9-litre sizes with L-head Monobloc-cylinder engines and worm drive and very soon the Darracq firm was back on a sound footing. Additional to the 1914 range was a 4-litre ’ Darracq 20/30’ and the 16hp Darracq was sold with electric lighting and starting. This latter Darracq model went back into production in 1919 and was joined shortly afterward by an advanced 4.6-litre sv V8 with coil ignition and spiral bevel final drive, which had acquired 4-wheel brakes by the time it reached the production stage.

In June 1920 the British firms of Sunbeam and Talbot, who had joined forces in 1919, merged with Darracq and thenceforward nomenclature becomes complex. For the first few years after the amalgamation, the term ‘Talbot-Darracq’ was freely used on both sides of the Channel, but strictly the cars were ‘Talbot’ (pronounced à la Francaise) in Europe, and ‘Darracq’ in the British Commonwealth up to 1939. The new combine Talbot and Darracq supported racing, though the very successful Henry-designed twin ohc 4-cylinder differential-less voiturettes evolved in 1922 ran indiscriminately as Talbots and Darracqs. They and their descendants were, however, conceived and designed at Suresnes and victories included the 200-Mile Race at Brooklands (1922 running unblown, 1924 and 1925 in supercharged form), the Coupe des Voiturettes (1922 and 1923), and the Penya Rhin race (1923). 1926 saw a team of advanced blown twin ohc 1½-litre straight-8s which never really proved themselves before Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq’s precarious finances forced a withdrawal from racing in 1927.

In the touring-car field, Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq settled down to fifteen years of competing against themselves. A 3.2-litre sv 15hp Darracq with detachable head appeared in 1921, still with worm drive, and this was followed a year later by a small ohv 970cc Darracq machine with no differential and coil ignition, made also in England as the 8/18 Talbot, and the first of a line of 1½-litre ohv fours, the 10CV, selling at £595. Worm drive was dropped, and fwb had spread to the smaller Darracq cars in 1924 with the 2.1-litre Darracq DS – in sports form this was said to give 57bhp – but though the firm reverted to magneto ignition they retained wood wheels (still found on some Darracq cars as late as 1931) and 3-speed gearboxes. A year later the 1½-litre Darracq had grown up into the handsome ‘Darracq 12/32’ with 4-wheel brakes and Weymann saloon bodywork; this theme was continued until 1928, by which time the car had a 1.7-litre engine and four forward speeds. Late in 1925 came the first of a long line of ohv push-rod sixes on conventional lines, with 3-speed gearboxes, single-plate clutches, magneto ignition and Perrot-type fwb: the 2.5-litre Darracq TLA gave 72bhp and sold for £800. Both an extra forward ratio and the option of a 2.9-litre unti came the following year. 1928 saw a real light six of 2 litres’ capacity with coil ignition, Talbot’s bi-metal pistons and Bendiz brakes. Only 6-cylinder cars were marketed for sale by Darracq in 1929, when 7-bearing crankshafts and centralized chassis lubrication made their appearance, while the inevitable straight-8 was listed for 1930: it featured a 3.8-litre 100mhp engine with a 9-bearing crank and nitralloy liners, and could be had on an 11ft 10in wheelbase. The next major facelift came in 1933, with box-section frames and transverse ifs on the sixes and eights. Only one 6-cylinder Darracq model was catalogued in 1934, the year in which Darracq followed the lead of Roesch at Talbot by adopting the Wilson preselective gearbox which was retained until 1954.

After the collapse of Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq Motors in 1935 the Suresness factory came under the control of Major A.F. Lago, who had been well known in London for his L.A.P. ohv conversions in the 1920s. Lago introduced a new line of 6-cylinder ohv cars retaining the X-braced frames and ifs, while synchromesh gearboxes were available on the cheaper variants. The 2.7-litre Darracq 15CV and 3-litre Darracq 17CV were pleasant but not particularly lively tourers, but the 4-litre Darracq 23CV with 7-bearing crank disposed of 165bhp in its Lago Special guise with cross-push-rod valve gear and hemispherical head, and would comfortably exceed 100mph. A 1-2-3- victory in the 1937 French sports-car Grand Prix at Montlhéry in 1937 was followed up by Comotti’s win in the TT. Under the 1938 GP formula the cars were less successful – stripped sports machines could do nothing against Mercedes-Benz and Auto-Union, while the low offset 1939 4½-litre single-seaters were not much faster. A 3-litre blown V16 engine never came to anything, any more than did a plan laid in 1937 to revive the Invicta name by building 3-litre and 4-litre Darracqs with Delage-style bodywork in London.

After World War 2, however, the 4½-litre racers (now ‘Talbot’ or ‘Lago-Talbot’, never ‘Darracq’) came into their own. What they lacked in power they made up in modest fuel consumption, and could often go through a race without refueling, an attribute not shared by blown 1½-litre machines. Chiron’s win at Comminges in 1947 was a prelude to a career that spanned four seasons, and was backed by Rosier’s 1950 Le Mans victory on a similar machine with sketchy road equipment. Pierre Levegh would have repeated this in 1952, against Mercedes-Benz, had he not attempted a single-handed drive for the 24 hours. Touring-car production was hampered by crippling taxation and uncertain finances: 433 cars were sold in 1950, but only 80 in 1951. In spite of this M. Lago had a revised 4½-litre 170bhp Lago Record sports car with hydraulic brakes in production in 1946, following it up with a simpler and cheaper corss-pushrod four, the 2.7-litre Baby in 1950. This was said to have 118bhp, had hydraulic brakes and the choice of synchromesh or preselector, and was offered only with rhd; but it was not a particularly good car, and its styling did not enhance it. By 1952 the range had been restyled, but though Lago was extracting 247bhp from his Le Mans engines, he met with no success, and henceforward the road lay downhill. Various engines were tried: in 1955 there was a 5-bearing 2½-litre four on established Talbot lines, with a 4-speed ZF gearbox and handsome GT-style bodywork. In 1956 Maserati 250 engines were fitted in the Le Mans cars and in 1957, when two cars were still being turned out every week, a final attempt was made to earn dollars with the Lago America, the 1955 chassis with a 2.6-litre BMW V8 power unit. By 1959 Simca were in control at Suresnes, and the Talbot coupé had yet another engine – the old sv V8 motor inherited from Ford of France. Though an odd-looking coupé with Simca Aronde engine was shown on the Talbot stand at the 1960 Paris Salon, no more cars have been made. It is ironic to note that the three partners in the Sunbeam-Talbot- Darracq venture were re-united once more as a result of the Rootes-Chrysler deal in 1965, Chrysler already having a substantial stake in Simca.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Morgan

GB, 1905 – 1906

Morgan and Co Ltd, Leighton Buzzard, Beds.

Made by a well-known firm of coachbuilders, the Morgan car was a conventional shaft-driven car with 5.8-litre T-head 4-cylinder Mutel engine, distinguished only by the Sparks-Boothby hydraulic clutch on the Morgan car, soon abandoned in favour of an ordinary leather cone. Only about five Morgan cars were made and their lack of success resulted in Morgan cars becoming Adler concessionaires in 1907, and abandoning motor manufacture.

GB, 1910 to date

Morgan Motor Co Ltd, Malvern Link, Worcs.

This Morgan car was the best-known, and best, of the British 3-wheelers that were popular while the horsepower tax gave the Morgan cars an advantage. H.F.S. Morgan’s tricycle was also the first of its type, this Morgan car going into production in 1910. At the front of a tubular chassis frame was an sv, air-cooled V-twin motor-cycle engine of 1.100cc by JAP, transversely mounted. Transmission of the Morgan car was by dog clutches and chains, providing two forward speeds. The steering was direct. The front wheels of the Morgan car, had independent front suspension, by sliding pillars and coil springs. There were two seats. A reasonable amount of power plus light weight meant an excellent performance of the Morgan cars. The Morgan car was safer than most 3-wheelers because its road-holding was above average. This recipe made the Morgan car popular with sportsmen, for whom the Morgan Grand Prix model was produced in 1914: the first catalogued competition Morgan car. Soon afterwards, an exiguous four-seater Morgan car, the forerunner of the Morgan Family model of the 1920s, was listed.

After World War 1, Morgan carscontinued to cater for all markets. Names changed, but the Morgan Sports or Morgan Standard model was the normal two-seater, also available in De Luxe form; the Morgan Family model was the more capacious type Morgan car, and the long-tailed Morgan Aero, later the Morgan Super Sports, was the Morgan car intended for serious speed work. Engines of Morgan cars were water- or air-cooled to choice, most being supplied by JAP, or by Blackburne in the case of the competition Morgan cars. From 1925 all the latter’s power units had overhead valves. By 1927 the Super Sports Morgan car could attain 80mph in standard trim, while the less sporting Morgan cars now had internal expanding front wheel brakes and electric starting. Geared-down steering and (if required) three forward speeds followed on Morgan cars in 1929. Even so, Morgan cars were losing customers to new, cheap sports cars such as the M-type MG. Three speeds and reverse in a normal gearbox (though still with chain final drive) were available from 1931 and standard on the Morgan car after 1932, and a modified 8hp Ford 4-cylinder engine could later be had in the Morgan car instead of the twin. Four years later the first 4-wheeled Morgan car was introduced, the excellent little Morgan 4/4. This Morgan car used an 1.122cc 4-cylinder Coventry-Climax engine with overhead inlet valves, developing 34bhp. The Morgan car was still light in weight, and retained the Morgan independent front suspension, so the performance and handling qualities of Morgan cars were well up to form. The Morgan car could attain 75mph. The twins were last catalogued in 1939.

Just before World War 2, a 1.267cc Standard 10hp engine with ohv head was substituted in the Morgan 4/4. When this was no longer available, from 1950, Morgan fitted a tuned Standard Vanguard unit in the Morgan car giving 70bhp. In this Morgan Plus Four, as the Morgan car was renamed, performance became still more lively, and when the 90bhp Triumph TR2 engine became available in 1954, maximum speed of the Morgan car rose to 100mph for the first time. With the advent of the Morgan Plus Four, there was no longer a small Morgan car, but this gap was made good in 1955, when the Morgan Series 2 4/4 arrived. This Morgan car used the very hard-wearing 1.172cc sv Ford Ten engine which had powered F4 Morgan. (The latter was the last 3-wheeler Morgan car, which had been made until 1950.) The result was a cheap, pleasant and reliable sports Morgan car of the old school. Later, the ohv Ford 105E engine was substituted. The latest version Morgan car had a 1.599cc 98bhp engine, a 4-speed all-synchromesh gearbox, front disc brakes, and the traditional Morgan suspension. The Morgan Plus Four kept pace with Triumph’s TR engine development, also acquiring disc brakes and, eventually, the 2.138cc 105bhp TR4 unit. A streamlined coupé, the Morgan Plus Four Plus of 1964, was a brief deviation from the classical Morgan car line which met with little approval and was discontinued after only 50 of these Morgan cars had been sold. When Triumph changed to a six during 1968, Morgan cars adopted a new engine for their bigger Morgan cars, and the Morgan Plus Four became the Morgan Plus Eight, powered by Rover’s 3 ½-litre 160bhp V8 and capable of 125mph. The 1973 versions of the Morgan car use the 4-speed all-synchromesh Rover gearbox in place of the Moss box previously fitted.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS, TRN

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com