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

Talbot

1903 – 1938

Clement-Talbot Ltd, North Kensington, London W.10

From 1903, Clement-Talbot Ltd, a company backed by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot, began importing the French Clément car into Britain; in spite of its name and an interest held by Adolphe Clément, the concern was British, and by the end of the year its cars were called Talbot cars. The 1904 models Talbot cars were a 6hp single, and 11hp twin, and two big fours. All of the Talbot cars had shaft drive and side valves in T-heads, except for the biggest, the 27hp voiture de luxe Talbot car, which used overhead inlet valves and a single camshaft. Trucks, buses and boats were also advertised, next to Talbot cars. Promotion of the Talbot car, which was at first in the hands of the managing director, D.M. Weigel, was energetic and successful.
By the end of 1904, an impressive Talbot car factory had been built, complete with test track, and in the following year British-assembled, and partly British-made Talbot cars emerged from it. A wide variety of types Talbot cars was listed, from an 11hp twin to a great 50hp 4-cylinder Talbot car. One model that was to be famous, the 12/16hp Talbot car, had already been designed. French cars were still being imported by the Talbot car company. However, the 20hp Talbot car of 1906 was the first British-made Talbot car. It was designed by C.R. Garrard, and while still conventional, this Talbot car had an unusually efficient engine of 3.8 litres’ capacity. Both this and the 2.7-litre ‘12/16’ Talbot car were fast cars that quickly made a name for themselves in competitions; the slogan for the Talbot cars became ‘The Invincible Talbot’. For 1907 a 3-litre 15hp, a Talbot car in the same mould, superseded the ‘12/16’. By 1908 this Talbot car was the only British chassis offered, into which could be installed 15hp, 25hp or 35hp engines. The Talbot car popularity was due to a combination of smoothness, reliability, speed and reasonable price. The French range Talbot cars was still listed. A six was introduced for 1910, and the 4½-litre 25hp was revised by G.W.A. Brown with an L-head valve arrangement. This model Talbot car, highly tuned and lightened, and fitted with a racing body, became the first car to cover 100 miles in an hour, at Brooklands in 1913 in the hands of Percy Lambert. In the same year a new model Talbot car, the 2.6-litre 15/20hp, was introduced. This Talbot car and the 25hp, now called the ‘25/50’, were the famous cars that kept the Talbot car name before the public eye in competitions. A sports model Talbot car of the latter was also listed. By this time, the French range Talbot cars had been dropped.

In 1919 Clement-Talbot was taken over by another French-sounding, but in fact British-owned firm, the Société Alexandre Darracq of Paris. Darracq proceeded to acquire Sunbeam as well, but private Talbot car policy was at first unaffected. The 25/50hp and 15/20hp Talbot cars were continued. For 1922, however, the new 1-litre Darracq light car was offered as the 8/18hp Talbot car. In the Talbot tradition, this Talbot car was a solid car with above-average performance and handling. The push-rod overhead valve engine had coil ignition, there were only two seats in the Talbot car, there was no differential, and suspension was by quarter-elliptic springs all round. Both acceleration and brakes of the Talbot car were excellent; in other words, this Talbot car was a light car more typical in France than of England. Georges Roesch, who had been Chief Engineer since 1916 and had already devised the Talbot 12hp of 1919, a Talbot car which was never put on the market, quickly revised the ‘8/18’ Talbot car as the 10/23hp, which was more ‘English’ in that the Talbot car had a long, wide, roomy body, and a differential, with an enlarged bore and 1100cc to cope with the added weight.
From 1923 to 1926, the Talbot car company tried to exist on the ‘10/23’ Talbot car and a series of obscure small sixes of which few Talbot cars were made. The pre-war big four Talbot cars had been dropped, but nothing as popular had been found. Clement-Talbot cars were at a very low ebb when Georges Roesch saved them with a one-model policy, based on a small six of the type just becoming fashionable. However, the 14/45hp Talbot car was better than the rest because the Talbot car combined efficiency and high quality with comfort, roominess and smoothness. Considering all this, the price of the Talbot car was not high. It was, in fact, Roesch’s intention to provide the characteristics of the Rolls-Royce 20hp to the Talbot car but with half the engine size, weight and price. The cubic capacity was only 1665cc (61x95mm). The reciprocating parts, including the overhead valves, were very light, and the compression ratio was notably high, enabling revolutions and power output to be high also. Even so, the engine of the Talbot car was an unusual combination of silence and flexibility. The brakes were excellent, though it was suprising to find only quarter-elliptic springs at the rear of the Talbot car. The car’s main drawback was weight: bodies of these Talbot cars were very spacious, mounted on a deep, stiff but heavy frame with a long wheelbase. However, most Talbot car customers did not want ultra-high performance; the 60-65mph of the ‘14/45’ Talbot car was very good for such a large car with so small an engine.

The Talbot car company’s crisis had allowed no time for development, so the new Talbot car came straight off the drawing board to the public; but the Talbot car was so good in design that there were no major snags, and the Talbot car firm sold all they could make. The engine of the Talbot car was very difficult to work on without garage equipment, but the ‘14/45’ Talbot car was designed for replacement rather than repair of parts: another very modern, if not entirely desirable, feature. The design was obviously capable of great development, and during 1930 the first stages were announced – the Talbot 75 and 90. Both Talbot cars had the same size of engine; the ‘14/45’ Talbot car with an enlarged bore, providing 2¼ litres. The ‘75’ Talbot car was a touring model available alongside the ‘14/45’ to those who wanted a little more performance, while the ‘Talbot AM90’ was a more highly-tuned sports Talbot car, giving over 80mph with the same refinement. This Talbot car was sold in closed as well as open form, but the most handsome body was the standard sports tourer. Additionally, a cheaper Light Six 14/45 Talbot car with a shorter chassis was added at the lower end of the range.
With the ‘Talbot AM90’ began Talbot cars second lease of life as a distinguished sporting make. Third and fourth places in the Le Mans 24 Hour Race were followed by class wins of Talbot cars in the Irish Grand Prix, the Ulster Tourist Trophy Race and the Brooklands 500 Miles Race. In spring 1931 the Talbot 105 was introduced with a new, 75x112mm engine providing 3-litres. To improve the breathing, the valves were in a staggered arrangement instead of bing in line as hitherto. All types of body, from saloon to four-seater sports, were offered on this Talbot car chassis. The last Talbot car was a 100mph machine. The bigger engine of the Talbot car was difficult to start, in spite of assistance from two 12-volt batteries, for the starter was not geared down. It was no help when the optional Wilson self-changing gearbox was fitted from 1933. In competitions, the Talbot car name went from strength to strength. The ‘Talbot 105’ came 3rd in the Irish Grand Prix and at Le Mans, 4th in the Tourist Trophy and 2nd in the 500 Miles Race. A 105 tourer Talbot car took home a Coupe des Glaciers after a fault-free performance in the Alpine Trial. The Coupe des Alpes team prize was won in 1932 by Talbot 105s, and in that year came a 2nd place in the Brooklands 1000 Miles Race (which replaced the Double Twelve), and 3rd place at Le Mans and in the 500 Miles Race with a Talbot car.
These racing successes were won by Talbot cars prepared by Fox & Nicholl Ltd with works support; in spite of the fame and success of the Talbot car, the Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq group had been in financial trouble since 1930 and earlier, and racing was a luxury. At the end of 1932, however, Fox & Nicholl’s participation was discontinued and the great run of triumphs for Talbot cars ended. The normal production Talbot cars continued to do well. In 1932 the Talbot 65, a new model basically the same as the ‘14/45’, was announced. The ‘Talbot 95’, consisting of the ‘Talbot 105’ engine in a longer wheelbase for more sedate use, was introduced for 1933. In the following year Talbot cars with the self-changing gearbox were given a centrifugal clutch to avoid drag, and for 1935 there appeared the last developments of the standard type Talbot car, the ‘Talbot 110’. This superb Talbot car had a larger bore than the 105, giving 3½-litres. Early in 1935, however, Rootes gained control of Clement-Talbot. The ‘Talbot 65’ was dropped for 1936 in favour of the Rootes Talbot Ten, a Hillman Minx-based design, and by 1938 the last Roesch survivor, the ‘Talbot 110’ was gone.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN
The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com