Talbot

Clément-Talbot Limited was formed in London in 1903 by Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury, with French backing from car maker Adolphe Clément, to build cars in Britain. Its 28-acre works at Ladbroke Grove, North Kensington, had a palatial office building on Barlby Road, and the Shrewsbury and Talbot crest appeared on the radiators. In 1913 Percy Lambert drove a Talbot at Brooklands to become the first person to cover 100 miles in an hour.

Darracq bought Clément-Talbot in 1919, and in 1920 it became part of S T D Motors with Sunbeam. Under Swiss engineer Georges Roesch, Talbot built a series of refined, fast six-cylinder cars in the 1920s and ’30s. S T D collapsed in 1935 and the Rootes Group bought the London Talbot business, launching the Sunbeam-Talbot marque in 1938; the Talbot name was dropped altogether in 1954.

Peugeot revived the name after buying Chrysler’s European business, and from 1 August 1979 all former Chrysler cars registered in Britain wore Talbot badges, including the Horizon, Alpine, Solara, Sunbeam and Samba, built at Ryton near Coventry and, until 1981, Linwood in Scotland. Talbot passenger cars ended in 1987 and the Talbot Express van in 1994, when the marque was finally retired.