Lago offered the Grand Sport in two wheelbase lengths -104 and 110 inches. Indeed, the Grand Sport was virtually a widened and lengthened Talbot Grand Prix car, its 125-mph potential making it a claimant for the title of the worlds fastest production chassis. But in many respects the Record model was over-engineered and heavy, and it was to make up for this that the lighter and livelier Grand Sport, its engine uprated to 190 bhp with triple Zenith-Stromberg carburetors - was conceived to make the most of the make's formidable reputation. It was the world's most powerful production car, with a 4.5 liter engine derived from the Grand Prix power unit, but with twin high-set camshafts.

'Whenever one of my cars wins a race, I feel that I am paying a moral debt to the country which has permitted me to realize my life's dream,' said Tony Lago rather pompously in 1946, the year in which he launched his new 'Lago-Record' road car. It was one of a very special breed, for its 4.5-litre power unit was derived from the successful Grand Prix engine that carried the blue of France to victory both before and after the War. American collector Paul Myers purchased the Grand Sport from M Harloux, and it was subsequently purchased by the Rosso Bianco Collection.Īlthough an exhibit for the last few years, and re-commissiong is always recommended for such motorcars, it is reported that engine, gearbox and brakes were in operational order. The car later passed to an enthusiast in Germany and subsequently to Maurice Harloux of Belgium. It was delivered to its first owner, a Monsieur Cayala, in France on 17 October 1950. Only 36 Grand Sport chassis were made, this car being built on the short (104 inch) wheelbase Grand Sport chassis. This fine example of his work shows him combining the fashionable pontoon style with his postwar trademark tapered teardrop style in a body virtually half whose length is the hood indeed, the steering wheel hub is at the midpoint of the body length. √mbitious, scheming, passionate about modern art, Jacques Saoutchiks prime obsession was with shape, and that plastic audacity was never better expressed than in his bodies on Lago-Talbot chassis. Those own ideas included many daring novelties - transformable bodies, cars with removable windshields, parallel opening doors on pantograph linkages but it was that love of ornamentation for which he is particularly remembered. Yes, he was definitely a man with his own ideas. I particularly remember his beautifully finished interiors. He was also one of the few coachbuilders in France then who wasnt copying us in some way. Other coachbuilders appreciated the graceful flowing contours of Saoutchiks bodywork: He was a real craftsman, that fellow, said Howard ∝utch Darrin of Hibbard & Darrin. That visual magic was expressed in the brightwork appliqué that adorned so many of Saoutchiks bodies, highlighting the dominant lines of the coachwork.

Obsessed with form visual magic is what he was after. Nicknamed Viollet-le-Duc, he never hesitated to embellish with chrome or even gilt.

Saoutchik, recalled the noted designer and historian Philippe Charbonneaux, took every possible risk.

A cabinet maker by trade, he quickly graduated into the coachmaking craft, exhibiting his first motor bodies in 1905. Born Iakov Saoutchick in the Ukraine in 1880, the young Saoutchik had arrived in Paris in the early 1900s. One of just 36 Grand Sport Talbot-Lagos produced between 19, this remarkable car was bodied by one of Frances most flamboyant coachbuilders, Jacques Saoutchik of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

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