Lago Talbot trio arrives for Phillip Island Classic
The three Lago Talbot T26C racing cars that will race at the Shannons Phillip Island Classic race meeting from 9-11 March have now come together for the first time in Melbourne.
It will be the historic first time that three of these fabulous French, front-engined Grand Prix cars have raced together at the same meeting in Australia.
The naturally-aspirated 4.5 litre straight-six Lago Talbots were regular winners in Post War European racing against the supercharged 1.5 litre Alfa Romeos and Ferraris of the day due largely to their comparatively good fuel consumption and reliability.
Three-time Australian Grand Prix winner Doug Whiteford added a new level of professionalism to local motor racing when he purchased the ex-Louis Chiron Lago Talbot T26C and drove it to victory in the Australian Grands Prix at Bathurst in 1952 and at Albert Park in 1953.
After selling the Lago, he went on to purchase a later-specification, more powerful T26C in 1954, winning the Argus Trophy race at Albert Park on its first outing in 1955 and placing third in the Australian Grand Prix behind Jack Brabham's Cooper Bristol and Reg Hunt's Maserati 250F the same year.
In 1956 he drove the car to a very creditable eighth in the 'Olympic' Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park behind a string of new Maserati 250Fs including the 'works' cars of Stirling Moss and Jean Behra. Had he not been forced to stop twice for water for the overheading Lago, his lap times confirmed he would have been right up with the factory Maseratis.
Purchased in damaged condition by Reg Hunt and then fully restored to mint condition in the early 1980s, Whiteford's second T26C (Chassis No 110002) will race again at Phillip Island in the hands of its new owner, Ron Townley.
It will line up along the similar French blue Lago Talbot T26Cs of Britain's Dean Butler (Chassis No 110006) and expatriate Englishman Peter Giddings, whose late model Lago (Chassis No 110054) has just undergone a comprehensive 18 month-long refurbishment in New Zealand.
Appropriately, the Maybach Mk.1 driven by Stan Jones that led Whiteford's Lago Talbot at the 1953 AGP at Albert Park until forced to withdraw with overheating problems, will again line up against the French racer in a classic rematch.
Bob Harborow has totally rebuilt the famous Australian special fashioned around the engine from a German scout car since he acquired it in 1990.
