The most successful division of the Anglo-French Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq combine, Talbot might well have escaped takeover by Rootes in 1935 had it not been shackled to its weaker partners.

The company's healthy position had been achieved by a succession of well-engineered products penned by its designer, Swiss-born Georges Roesch, whose obsession with the pursuit of high performance through increased engine revolutions led to some of the most memorable cars of the 1930s.

Talbot's Chief Engineer from 1916, Roesch rescued the company from the brink of failure with the launch of the 14/45.

Introduced in 1926 as the basis of a one-model policy, the 14/45, like all Roesch's Talbot creations, was powered by a smooth and flexible six-cylinder overhead-valve engine endowed with a remarkably high output for its size.

Abandoning the one-model programme, Roesch developed the 14/45 to produce the 75 and 90 models, the latter setting Talbot on the path towards renewed sporting success.

1931 saw...