1951 Talbot-Lago T-26 Grand Sport Drophead Coupe

This Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport with chassis number 110160 was built in 1951 for de Almeida Araujo, the Portuguese Talbot agent. Mr. Araujo invited many top design firms to submit proposals for a two-seat Cabriolet - and Stabilimenti Farina won out. Upon the car's completion, Giuseppe Farina, a racing gear as well as a coachbuilder, drive it to the 1951 Paris Auto Salon, where it was named La Plus Belle Carrosserie Speciale (The Most Beautiful Coachbuilt Special). When Farina returned to Turin, the design and wooden patterns for the car were destroyed in his presence, so he could be certain the car would forever remain one of a kind.

Almost all Talbot Lago Grand Sports were bodied by French coachbuilders but this car was the first to be designed and built by an Italian firm. Stabilimenti Industriali Giovanni Farina was the coachbuilding company founded in 1919 by Giovanni Farina, the older brother of Battista 'Pinin' Farina. At an early age, Pinin learned the trade in his brother's company and eventually started his own Carrozzeria, Pinin Farina, eventually overtaking his brother Giovanni's company. Stabilimenti Farina closed in 1953.

The first 4.5-liter Talbot T26 road car was launched in 1947, and race versions swiftly followed, the most successful being the T26C Grand Prix car and the Dugarreau-designed T26 Barchetta. Around 30 examples of the T26 Grand Sport were built by Anthony Lago's Talbot company. This Grand Sport has the last 2.8-meter chassis to leave the Talbot factory and is the only Talbot-Lago Grand Sport to receive its first body from an Italian coachbuilder.

The car's next 35 years were spent in Portugal with its original owner, who often allowed the car to be displayed in the Museo de Caramulo. In 1985, the Cabriolet was sold to Jacques Touzet, also of Lisbon, who eventually had the car repainted in its original milk-white color. The car was sold to Charles Morse in 2000 and Peter Mullin in 2001. A full restoration was completed in 2010.