I’m absolutely exhausted, my face is sunburned like a radioactive tomato, and my feet feel like I’ve been using them as jackstands, but I really have zero right to complain, because these are all the results of an intense, non-stop firehose of incredible cars from Monterey Car Week. And in the upcoming days and weeks we’ll be getting as much of that experience transferred to you as possible, via words and pictures and video, but minus the sunburn and the caviar-shits. As a little taste have a look at one of my favorite cars of the week, this 1948 Talbot-Lago Grand Sport Figoni Fastback Coupé, built for France’s Zipper King.
Yes, Zipper King.
We’ll have more soon about this cyclopean stunner, but here’s a bit of background, first. Talbot-Lago updated their pre-war cars after WWII, getting back into the business of making fast, expensive racing and sports cars. These cars used a 4.5-liter straight-six and, like a number of manufacturers of that era and before, the cars had bodies made by coachbuilders, so there’s a wide variety of looks for the 29 chassis Talbot-Lago delivered.
This particular one was bodied by Figoni et Falaschi, a pair of Italian partners who started a coachbuilding concern in Paris in 1935. They were known for extravagant, flamboyant, and flowing designs, as you can tell from this example.
This one was built for Monsieur Fayolle, a man who made his money selling zippers, and you can see a hint of that in the nose of the car, those chrome strips above the cyclopean headlight that are meant to suggest a zipper.
What I love about this car is how it somehow feels like a car designed by a wealthy, perhaps mullosk-based being instead of a human. There’s something dazzlingly alien about it, but it’s still stunning and looks like almost nothing else I’ve ever seen. The lines are simultaneously ornate and sleek, flowing and bulbous and aquatic and lithe, but also with bulk. It’s contradictory and surprising and yet it all just works, so very well.
We shot a great little scene with this car that’ll be part of a video coming up as soon as we can get it edited. Along with a lot more. So, stay tuned, because I can’t wait to show you everything.
Hey little boy
What you got there?
Kind sir
It’s a mollusk I found
Beautiful pic.
Weather? Caused by those ICEs
On behalf of the triops, which is a real creature with a face very evocative of this, you are bad at judging what a cyclops looks like.
Triops are fucking terrifying! They are tiny little killer monsters. If they were, say, the size of your average house cat, I would never go anywhere near any water anywhere.
Managed to drop around Monterey a couple times but missed the chance to tower over you properly. Better luck next year!
The French coach makers have made many stunners over the years.
First impression!
Lightning McQueen’s girlfriend Sally Carrera had a love child with Thomas the Tank Engine
I love the look of this, but at the same time I’m just thinking of Doc Hudson from Cars.
Maybe its the windows and the color.
I didn’t know that caviar shat.
True story, one year on Christmas eve all I ate was caviar, deviled eggs, and whiskey.
The fact I wasn’t hungover Christmas morning is known as the Christmas Miracle of 2014.
Similar, and it might have even been the same year. In our case, it was foie gras and brie, but the fact I woke up feeling great the next day was a little scary. I have never drunk that much whisky in one night before or since.
It’s Monterey Car Week, not Pebble Beach Car Week. The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is one of the events like the Concours Italiano, Exotics on Broadway, Concours d’Lemons and all of the auctions. Pebble Beach is THE show and it closes Monterey Car Week.
https://whatsupmonterey.com/article/activities/monterey-car-week-overview
… maybe Jason attending the wrong thing.
An event in a parallel universe, that would not be surprising.
I went to Monterey car week for a dozen or so years but all I ever went to was the Historics at Laguna Seca.
Interesting that it’s right hand drive.
I can’t wait to see the car owned by the inventor of the Mansier! 🙂
I think you meant to say Bro?
(‾◡◝ )و
So, the reference went over my head, but I had to thumb you just for your pic there!
All sorts of jealous-but more so glad an Autoper has one. And I hope it gets miles at least monthly if not daily.
Good on ya!
Me: most modern cars are so wasteful, look at how much you can fit into an original Mini, or even a new Golf
Also me: why can’t cars look like art deco sculptures?
Well, it’s a conspiracy between our transdimensional reptilian overlords, the NTSA and the IIHS.
In case you forget what mom said the first time you blew something up with gasoline, fun is absolutely verboten.
Yeah, I’m aware of the safety standards issue (see the current Mini with its ridiculous looking long nose to meet pedestrian impact standards). But have you seen the back seat space on the Talbot Figoni Sport Back?
Well I am pretty sure if they did you would get a 1 of 1.
There’s good money in zippers, I see.
I’m more of a banana stand guy myself.
Monterey is one airport-surplus auction away from someone showing up at the Concours d’Lemons in the Bluth Company staircar. Well, that and a low bridge or two.
I met a man who made many many millions working with YKK – his shtick was to always say that “he made good with slide fasteners.” Absolutely refused to take the word “zipper” in his mouth.
Decades after the debut of the Talbot-Lago Grand Sport Figoni Fastback Coupé, a Talbot descendant was named Executive Vice President of Vehicular Nomenclature at BMW.
He arrived for his first day of work driving a 1989 Ford LTD Crown Victoria Country Squire Wagon.
Well, unfortunately it looks like the Talbot got his willy stuck in the zipper……
At least it didn’t get the beans above the frank.
The Zipper King sounds to me like a ‘70s porn movie.
The car itself I find beautifully sleek & swoopy even if visibility looks to be like a modern Camaro
There actually IS a video of that name, about Tadao Yoshida, the guy who made YKK zippers into an international phenomenon. Although it’s not adult content, it’s a really good case study in how to run a company, any company, and make it a success. Worth watching.
I like how you qualified that last statement. As if most case studies on business management are adult in nature.
Actually, that might explain why the most successful businesses seem to eventually fuck everyone over.
Fact. Unfettered capitalism has much in common with your run-of-the-mill STD.