Car of the Week: This 1938 Talbot-Lago Could Fetch $8.5 Million at Auction

Imagine tossing a Bugatti for another car. That’s what gentleman racer and banker Antoine Schumann did in 1938, ordering this Talbot-Lago T150 C Lago Spéciale Teardrop Coupé to replace his Bugatti Type 50. Schumann’s prescient eye for exquisite design, as well as an appreciation for technical accomplishment, likely informed his decision. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense, but in the heat of that inventive 1930’s moment, it’s up to debate whether anyone—coachbuilder included—quite recognized that this car would come to be regarded as perhaps the most beautiful automobile ever made.

“That’s a bold statement,” to quote John Travolta’s character Vincent Vega from the film Pulp Fiction, but apropos of this automobile, it’s a defensible proposition. One long look at its profile, proportions, and scale suggests that, really, a more exquisite car has not been created in the nearly 85 years between then and now.

In 1925, Luigi Chinetti was working as a mechanic for Alfa Romeo’s racing team, soon establishing a lifelong friendship with coachbuilder Joseph Figoni when commissioning a body for an Alfa race car. (In 1964, Chinetti opened the first official Ferrari dealership in the U.S.) Upon leaving Alfa Romeo, he became a sales agent for Talbot-Lago, and obtained exclusive rights in France to sell Talbot-Lago chassis fitted with teardrop bodies by Figoni et Falaschi. He sold chassis No. 90034 to Schumann for an impressive-in-the-day 165,000 francs.

For this very special chassis, Schumann selected Figoni et Falaschi’s design No. 9222, which, with its open-rear-fender style, was a good deal more sporting than the enclosed-rear-fender approach of design No. 9221. But design No. 9222 is nevertheless a style that in many ways remains the most elegant and tasteful of all Joseph Figoni’s efforts.

An additional 30 centimeters of wheelbase, compared to the T150 C-SS chassis, allowed Figoni et Falaschi to create a flowing design that was longer, lower, and wider than its other streamlined bodies. Notable features of the styling are the car’s split windshield, integrated doorhandles, grille, front-fender tips, and the double row of side louvers on the hood. Bespoke details specified by Schumann included freestanding headlights for improved visibility at night, a sliding sunroof, detachable rear fenders, and a graceful, chromed trim on the body side.

In 1940, Germany’s invasion of France forced the Schumann family to flee, leaving the car behind, hidden away. Schumann went to Egypt and joined the French Resistance, serving with honors. Returning to Paris after the war, he passed away at the age of 50.

By 1947, chassis No. 90034 was purchased by Frédéric Damman, who ran it in the 1948 edition of Belgium’s 24 Hours of Spa, where the car won its class. Damman kept the vehicle for 32 years, until 1979. Subsequent owners included Yves Rossignol, a penurious automotive enthusiast and self-described “adventurer,” whose ownership for 23 years included a long stint in South America.

It was eventually passed to Swiss collector Marc Caveng, who auctioned the car in Monterey in 2005, where collector John O’Quinn acquired it, soon commissioning RM Auto Restorations to perform a comprehensive refurbishment. Uncharacteristic of such an old automobile, all of the body panels—painted a deep, luminous black—remain original. The original tobacco leather and wood trim were retained and renewed, and the engine and mechanicals were fastidiously reconditioned. Following Quinn’s passing in 2009, it was sold to its current owner at the Monterey auctions in August of 2010.

With an unbroken history of ownership, chassis No. 90034 boasts the kind of comprehensive provenance that every serious collector covets. It’s an undisputed masterpiece, as at home in the finest modern art collection as in any automotive museum. Sure to be a highlight of the upcoming Monterey Car Week, it will be offered during the Broad Arrow Auctions sale at the Monterey Jet Center, which takes place August 14 and 15. The car carries an estimate of $6.5 million to $8.5 million.

Click here for more photos of this 1938 Talbot-Lago T150 C Lago Spéciale Teardrop Coupé.