This luxurious car represents the perfect brilliance of car designers of the pre-war period. The vehicle was made under the French Talbot-Lago brand and is strongly inspired by the Art Deco style. The shape of the vehicle was influenced by great names such as Giuseppe Figoni and Ovidio Falaschi. The vehicle was designed to evoke a water droplet (goutte d'eau).
The car, with a 140-horsepower four-liter 6-cylinder engine (with three carburators), can reach maximum speeds of about 100 mph. The engine is equipped with a four-speed transmission by Wilson. The chassis itself is the work of Vincenzo Bertarione and Walter Becchio, who equipped it with independent suspension of front wheels and a rigid back axletree with semi-elliptic leaf springs, even though the latter was already standard at the time. The chassis was robust, reliable and easy to read.
Talbot-Lago is the first vehicle to receive the Peninsula Classics Best of the Best award. This competition, sponsored by the Peninsula Hotels group, gathered 6 of the best global car brands in order to have them assessed by a group of 24 professionals from industry and recognized automotive experts. These also included, for instance, Fabio Filippini, the project manager of Pininfarina, car historian Adolfo Orsi Jr., fashion specialist Ralph Lauren and Jay Leno.
Two were made in 1937, and one was purchased by the Indian princess Stella Karputhala, the daughter of the Indian maharaja. The second one was completed in November 1937 and had a fairly calm life. It survived the war in a warm garage in Switzerland. In 1946, its owner gave it a nontraditional new cabriolet chassis. Still, the vehicle did not see much use. It got new owners twice: first in 1966 and then once more in 1987. Then the new owner decided to transform the car back to its original luxurious shape – with a solid, drop-shaped roof.
The new owner will get a truly breathtaking car, in its original shape and form and in perfect condition. And the price? A luxurious one hundred million Czech Crowns.