Talbot

Talbot is one of the brands of automobile manufacturers having the most complicated history.

Table of contents

1 Inception of the British Talbot 2 Parallel Talbots in Britain and France 3 The Rootes era 4 The Chrysler era 5 The Peugeot era 6 External link

Inception of the British Talbot

Talbot was originally the British brand name used to sell imported French Clément-Bayard cars. Founded in 1903, this business venture was financed by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot, who lent his name to the firm. Starting in 1905, the the company branded its imported cars as Clément-Talbot and marketed a newly developed model under the name Talbot.

Parallel Talbots in Britain and France

During World War I, the firm manufactured ambulances. The firm's French and British operations continued in separate, parallel production and marketing processes until 1919, when the French firm Darracq took over the company. Darracq-made Talbot models were marketed as Talbot-Darracqs. The following year, Darracq was reorganised as part of the Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq (STD) conglomerate.

The Swiss-native Georges Roesch became chief engineer and in the early 1920's, Talbot built a number of successful models, including the 14/45 hp, or Talbot 105, which was first built in 1926. In the mid-1930's, Anthony Blight won a number of professional automobile races driving a Talbot 105.

The Rootes era

In 1935 STD combine collapsed and the Rootes Group took over Clément-Talbot. For Rootes, profits were more important than engineering - the existing models were simply rebadged. The French factory was bought by Anthony Lago who used Talbot-Lago as a brand afterwards.

In Britain, Sunbeam and Talbot marques were combined in 1938 to form Sunbeam-Talbot. Production ceased before the World War II.

The Chrysler era

After the war, only the French Talbot-Lago continued until 1959. In 1967, Chrysler took over Rootes and merged it with Simca to form the backbone of Chrysler's European operations. The Talbot name was not use in this era, although the Chrysler pentastar logo gradually replaced the Rootes brands as the 1970s progressed.

The Peugeot era

The French and the British marques were obtained by PSA from Chrysler following the American giant's withdrawal from Europe in 1978. The Talbot name was revived as Peugeot rebadged the Horizon, the Alpine and the Avenger models as Talbots. Legend has it that former Chrysler/Simca/Rootes dealerships were forced to retrofit these models, already in their showrooms, with "Talbot" badges. Over the next few years, the large Talbot Tagora executive saloon, and Talbot Samba supermini were introduced. Peugeot began phasing out the Talbot brand in 1986, which continued until 1991 solely on a PSA-Fiat designed panel van known as the Talbot Express.

External link

http://vea.qc.ca/vea/marques1/talbotfr.htm