Carmel's Concours on the Avenue Part 2: Talbot Lago, Carrera Speedster, and Esoterica from Japan and Italy

On our first day of immersion in the automotive madness that grips the Monterey Peninsula every August, we tried for an overview.  Here we circle back to have a look at some participants we missed or treated only briefly the first time around.

This Talbot Lago T23 from the late Thirties is named for its fiscal horsepower under the French taxation system; the inline overhead-valve six cylinder made over twice the taxable horsepower (and over twice the real hp) as the original Citroen 11 Traction Avant introduced a few years earlier.  A Wilson pre-selector gearbox offered 4 speeds.

The "CH" plate indicates Swiss registration at some point.

This Alfa Romeo 2500SS below was bodied by Pinin Farina in 1951. The SS designation indicates triple carburetors on the twin cam six cylinder engine.  

This Lancia Aurelia B24 below also features a 2.5 liter six cylinder engine, but here the cylinders are arranged in a V-formation and the four-speed transmission is at the rear, a feature pioneered on production cars by Lancia.

While the Lancia design dates from five years after the Alfa, a lighter and more modern approach suffuses the design, also by Pinin Farina.  Note that by this time left hand drive was available on Lancias, while both Lancia and Alfa Romeo had favored right hand drive earlier.

The Porsche Speedster was introduced at the request of New York distributor Max Hoffman in 1954 as a stripped-down, lightweight model for amateur racers.  Paradoxically, what was then the least expensive model in the Porsche line has since become one of the most highly valued by collectors.  

This one, however, represents the Holy Grail for Speedster fanciers because it has the extremely rare option of the Type 547 Carrera 4 cam engine with the roller bearing crankshaft loved by SCCA racers and dreaded by mechanics.  When I attempted to photograph the engine, I realized it was barely visible under the engine fan and carburetors. In that regard, the modern water-cooled Boxster and Cayman are not all that different.

Not officially entered in the show, but docked on a side street and poised to float away on its hydropneumatic suspension, this Citroen DS21 Chapron cabriolet showed signs of the many miles covered on its comfy seats.

The Triumph Italia shown below was made from 1959 to '62 and features a body designed by Michelotti and built by VIgnale on a TR-3A chassis.  Total production of the Italia amount to 329 cars.  

Some curious onlookers initially thought they were looking at a product from Maserati or Lancia…

Many had never seen the Mazda Cosmo rotary either.  Introduced in 1967 as Mazda's first production car employing their version of the Wankel rotary engine, the 2 seat Cosmo was never officially imported into the States.  Long forgotten for that reason, it now has achieved cult status… 

The Toyota 2000GT getting the celebrity treatment below has been a cult item for a bit longer; it was built by Yamaha for Toyota and features a jewel-like twin cam two-liter inline six, which, along with its over $6,500 price tag in the US, placed it in competition with Porsche's 911.  Just over 350 examples were produced between 1967 and 1970.  The graceful body design by Satoru Nozaki may reflect influences of Zagato, the Jaguar E-type, and also allegedly some sketches of a GT car offered to Yamaha by Albrecht Goertz, who earlier had penned the BMW 507 and would propose designs for the Datsun 240Z. 

I missed the svelte elegance of the 1952 Delahaye 235 pillarless fastback coupe shown below, but my eagle-eyed friend George caught it on a side street. Wrapped around a chassis powered by a 3.5 liter overhead valve inline six with Cotal electromagnetic pre-selector transmission, Jacques Saoutchik's body design integrated the sweeping fender lines of French classics with the airy, light roofline of a modern GT.

During the course of a couple restorations since its original sale in 1953, this 235 has lost its original bumpers, but their absence displays the form to better effect.  

This was the last Delahaye body built by Saoutchik, and one of only two 235s completed by Saoutchik before Delahaye stopped car production in 1954 after building 84 of the 235 series.  Saoutchik closed its doors the following year... 

*Footnote:  More of the Delahaye story, including the race cars, can be found in the blog archives in "Golden Days of Delahayes" from June 30, 2018 and in "Dreyfus and the Million-Franc Delahaye vs. the Third Reich" from November 22, 2015.

Photo Credits:  All photos are by the author, except for the photos of the Delahaye 235, which were provided by George Havelka, and the front view of the Toyota, from newatlas.com.