Delivered to Warwick Wright Ltd of Bond Street, London apparently for stock in February 1933, although the car has twin side-mounted spare wheels , which was not standard, but no further details have yet been found for the car pre war. Mr Mansell of Malvern, Worcestershire owned the car in 1947 and he sold the car to P.H. Stephenson of Cambridge who kept the car until 1952. Ownership then passed to a garage owner, Mr Samuel Plant of Malvern who kept the car for over thirty years during which time a comprehensive rebuild was carried out, leaving the car looking much as it does today. Mr Plant removed the radiator shutters and fitted the wire screen, had the sunroof removed and the roof recovered, and it is likely that he had the radiator shell nickel plated, replacing the normal chrome finish and the car re-sprayed silver.
In May 1985 the car was sold to the well-known veteran car enthusiast Johnnie Thomas and his son learnt to drive in the Talbot on the long drive to the family farm in Wales. In December 1986 it was sold at auction by Sothebys and bought by Andrew Ayres of Godalming in Surrey as a stable mate to his Type 65 Carlton DHC (RD 6326). Mr Ayres had the car stripped in 1990 and a bare metal re-spray carried out, returning the car to the original French Blue with black wings. Mr Ayres sold the car in March 1996 to finance the restoration of a Rolls-Royce 20 and it passed to Ray Denton of Cambridgeshire, who kept it only until later that year when Mr R.M.(Bob) Thackray of Bury St Edmunds took it over. While in his ownership, the running gear was rebuilt including the rear axle by Ian Polson and Bob Thackray replaced the original (unreliable) carburettor with a later Zenith. John Cook of Oakham bought the car in 1998 and he seems to have enjoyed a quiet spell of motoring until December 2007 when Chris Hartley of Matlock took over the car and he kept it until November 2013 when it came to Julian Hunt of Surrey who owns it to this day.
Since driving back to Surrey from Derbyshire, the car fulfilled its first duty, as a wedding car for the owner’s son and has visited Southport for the celebration of Sir Henry Segrave’s land speed record on the sands; made numerous visits to Brooklands, to Peterborough for the VSCC Anniversary celebrations, to Prescott and given the owner miles of smiles. During this period it has also had the gearbox rebuilt, the Dynastart rebuilt and the car re-wired with 24-volt starting.
15 July 2024
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