• Handsome special in 'Team Car' style • Second oldest known Talbot 105 engine • Present ownership since 2000 • Restored in 2004 • Little used since completion 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 then 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 seminal 14/45.

Introduced in 1926 as the basis of a one-model policy, the 1.7-litre 14/45 offered roomy, comfortable transport at a competitive price and, like all Roesch's Talbot creations, was powered by a smooth and flexible six-cylinder overh...