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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial - tradition and elegance without a future

Name: Talbot-Lago Sport 2 Litre 500 1955
Brand: Talbot-Lago

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Created on June 2, 2017

Text:

Bruno von Rotz

Photos:

Daniel Reinhard

Bonhams

Bruno von Rotz

Archiv

Daniel Reinhard

Bonhams

Bruno von Rotz

Archiv

Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - elegant coupé line

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - compact coupé with attractive bodywork

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - the curved rear fenders still point to the past

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - one of the most elegant coupés of the time

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - 1.64 meters wide

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - strongly curved rear window

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - long snout, short tail

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - note the sliding side windows

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - very compact with a length of 4.2 meters and a wheelbase of 2.5 meters

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - sporty rather than luxurious interior

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - the gearshift reached directly into the gearbox located in the passenger compartment

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - 200 km/h was certainly more of a pipe dream for the Talbot

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - beautiful instruments by Jaeger

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - simple door openers and pockets, there was no room for crank windows

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - two Weber horizontal twin carburetors were responsible for mixture preparation

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - the engine with side camshafts and overhead valves

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - the displacement was exactly 2491 cm3

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - special camshafts were used for the Spécial

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - the radiator was modeled on the car Rosier had driven at the Carrera Panamericana

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - Talbot trademark

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - Borrani spoke wheels

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - Air outlet opening on the flank

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - central hubs and wing nuts

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - the spare wheel takes up some space in the trunk

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - Fuel filler cap

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - additional indicators on the flanks

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - the car was then called the Talbot 2500 Sport

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Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial (1956) - simple rear end

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Talbot-Lago T14 LS Spécial Coupé (1956) - sold at Bonhams Paris Sale 2012 for € 161'000 - ex Rosier (Lot 230)

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Talbot Lago Grand Sport 26 CV (1953) - elegant post-war factory coupé with pontoon line

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1955) - even a sports car has to refuel once in a while

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1955) - Coupé without sliding window

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1955) - still without sliding window

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1956) - at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1956 with sliding windows

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Talbot Lago Grand Sport 26 CV (1954) - the elegant coupé line was also adopted for the smaller 2500 Sport (T14 LS)

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1956) - during test drives in Monthléry in October 1956

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1956) - during test drives in Monthléry in 1956

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1956) - during construction

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1956) - during construction, view of the installed four-cylinder engine

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1956) - during construction, view of the door construction

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1956) - during construction, view of the interior, the early examples were all right-hand drive

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1956) - under construction, view of the interior

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Talbot Lago 2.5 Liter Sport (1955) - the technology of the small coupé

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 (1956) - elegant coupé with four-cylinder engine

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Talbot-Lago T14 2 Litre 500 14 CV (1957) - with BMW V8 and side sliding windows

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Talbot-Lago T14 LS (1956) - participant in Class C - Transitions - at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este 2013

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Talbot Lago Sport 2500 (1956) - in the pits at Le Mans in 1956, equipped with Maserati six-cylinder engines from the 250 F - both cars retired

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Talbot Lago America Coupé (1957) - at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este 2014

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Talbot-Lago T14 LS Coupé (1956) - with elegant coupé bodywork - Classic-Gala Schwetzingen 2018

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Talbot Lago Sport 2500 (1955) - offered as lot 015 at the Artcurial auction at the Rétromobile Paris 2020

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Summary

In 1955, the French car manufacturer Talbot-Lago hopefully exhibited its new smaller sports car at the Paris Motor Show, weighing around one ton and with 120 hp. However, the elegant coupé was not cheap and had a hard time on the market, so that only 54 examples were built. Seven or eight of these are special versions, as they feature aluminum parts and a more powerful engine. This report shows one of the rare Talbot Lago T14 LS Spécial from 1956 and describes the brief history of the make.

This article contains the following chapters

Downsized Grand Sport
2+2-seater
Front mid-engine design
Pre-war chassis
Willingness to compromise required
Even more special
BMW and Simca engines
Further information

Estimated reading time: 4min

Preview (beginning of the article)

When the French top-class car manufacturer Talbot Lago presented a new four-cylinder engine at the Paris Motor Show in 1954, the best times were already behind the company that had been successful at Le Mans in 1950 and in the Grand Prix circuit from 1949 to 1953. Expensive top-of-the-range products were not easy to sell and so a smaller engine was considered as a remedy. The only thing missing was a car for the new engine, which followed in the spring of 1955 and was presented to the wider public at the Paris Motor Show in the same year. From the outside, the new coupé, then called the Talbot-Lago 2.5 Litre Sport, looked like a scaled-down version of the expensive Grand Sport model with factory bodywork.

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