Page 18 - 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport -- Chassis 110101

JACQUES SAOUTCHIK:MAëTRE CARROSSIER
HISTORY AND STYLE
Beginnings
On October 23, 1947, a T26 Grand Sport chassis premiered at the Salon de l’Automobile in the Grand Palais where it was presented sans body in the center of the Talbot stand. Since the GS chassis had a wheelbase that was identical to the prewar T150 C-SS and many components were carried over, the gestation time for the first finished chassis of this new model would have been short. It is therefore likely that construction began sometime in the spring of 1947. A T26 Grand Sport chassis was also shown at the Foire de Lyon in March 1948. The two showings may have been two chassis or one and the same chassis, either 110101 or 110108—see below.1
Irrespective of the above, 110101 was demonstrably the first Grand Sport chassis delivered to an outside coachbuilder. It shipped on July 10, 1948, as a chassis nu from the Talbot factory at no. 33 quai du
Général Gallieni in Suresnes to the Saoutchik works in no. 46 rue Jacques Dulud in Neuilly-sur-Seine, both suburbs close to Paris. In fact, Saoutchik and Talbot were practically neighbors. The distance between the two enterprises was approximately three kilometers, and the chassis would therefore have been delivered on the same day it left the factory premises.
Also on July 10, the chassis was registered to its first owner, the man who had placed the order and fortuitously decided to have the Carrosserie de Luxe Jacques Saoutchik execute a body for him: Jean- Louis Robert Bogey of no. 9 Rue Bellanger in Levallois-Perret. It was common practice to register a chassis to its owner upon its delivery to a carrossier. In some few cases, especially if the owner lived in some far-away département, the carrossier would have the first registration made out in his name, after which the car would be re-registered at the owner’s location upon completion of the coachwork.
Once again, distances were small. Monsieur Bogey lived eight kilometers from the quai du Général Gallieni and a mere five kilometers from rue Jacques Dulud. How convenient to be able to use local craftsmen when ordering what was possibly the
LEFT: First unveiling of 110101 prior to the opening of the 1948 Paris Salon. (© Archives Club Talbot)
BELOW: A colorized image of its original livery of 110108 by Dubos as the car appeared on the Talbot stand at the 1948 Salon. Pale green with green metallic leather, it was another showstopper. Chassis 110108 may have been the first T26 GS chassis built by the factory, see the text for clarification. One more green car at the Salon. (Automobil Revue)
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