TALBOT-LAGO T26 GRAND SPORT CHASSIS 110109: THE BAILLON CAR

Description:

1949 TALBOT-LAGO T26 GRAND SPORT CHASSIS 110109: THE BAILLON CAR

Jacques Saoutchik, Maître Carrossier

By PETER M. LARSEN and BEN ERICKSON

The story of Talbot-Lago 110109 is one of beauty, decay, legend, and rebirth. Once displayed at the Geneva and London Motor Shows, the car later became famous as part of the 2015 auction of the Baillon Barnfind Collection at Rétromobile, where its haunting state of decay captivated the collector-car world. Including an extended history, this book celebrates the extraordinary journey of 110109 from forgotten relic to restored masterpiece.

REBIRTH

This is a book about a famous car. It was not especially well-known when it was new, although it did appear in period at the Geneva and London Motor Shows. It is what happened to it later in life, the way it was allowed to romantically deteriorate, and how it was eventually sold at one of the most remarkable auctions the world has ever seen, that has made it the stuff of legend.

The Authors clearly remember walking through the darkened hall where the Artcurial auction house had placed the cars from the so-called Baillon Barnfind Collection. It was 2015, and the cars had been brought there with the utmost care. Every cobweb, every piece of dried earth, every mouse excrement remained in place as the fragile artefacts were loaded onto trucks and transported to Paris as if they were Fabergé eggs. 

Rust and decay were everywhere. Muted spotlights placed strategically under the chassis, inside fender wells and in interiors gave an almost ghoulish illumination. The entire tableau was accompanied by sombre, moody electronic music that set a dreamy and pensive mood. 

One was truly transported to an automobile graveyard, redolent with the passing of time, where each car was its own symbolic tombstone and mausoleum rolled into one. It was a hallucinatory experience, a masterclass in psychological manipulation, of sophisticated mind control. 

The auction the following day was an equally fantastical and bizarre experience. People were packed like anchovies in a jar. The atmosphere was electric. Like the ozone you smell during a thunderstorm. We saw cars selling for ten times their estimate. It was something never to forget. 

When 110109 finally sold, there was universal applause. Now, more than ten years have passed. Like a phoenix, risen out of the flaky rust of its disintegrated past, 110109 has re-emerged in its original splendour. This book is a celebration of this remarkable rebirth.