Talbot T4 Minor: the four-cylinder Lago Talbot

The Talbot T4 Minor was a medium-sized car produced by Talbot in France from 1937 to 1940. Shown at the Paris Motor Show in October 1937, it extended the range downwards and gave Talbot a rival to the Hotchkiss Type 864 and Salmson S4.

Talbot T4 at a glance

There is no English page for the T4; the model is described in the French article, with company background from the English Talbot-Lago page.

History of the Talbot T4

The T4 Minor appeared at the Paris Motor Show of October 1937, in the period when Anthony Lago was rebuilding Talbot after buying the French part of the collapsed Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq group in 1935. Although the company kept building pre-bankruptcy Talbot models in 1935, Lago quickly replaced them with a range of sporting six-cylinder cars built around the Talbot Baby, with the less sporting Major and the smaller Cadette. The cars were designed by the expatriate Italian engineer Walter Becchia, who left for Citroën in 1939 and later played a key role in the Citroën 2CV.

The launch of a four-cylinder model, the T4 Minor, was a new departure for Talbot and a surprise to industry observers. It widened the range downwards and allowed Talbot to compete with the Hotchkiss Type 864 and the Salmson S4. The car took its chassis from the sporting Baby saloon. Becchia designed a new four-door steel body that resembled the larger six-cylinder Cadette and Major, and for traditional customers who preferred to choose their own coachwork the Minor could also be supplied as a bare chassis. The steering wheel and driver’s seat were on the right, following a convention that had been almost universal among coachbuilders twenty years earlier but was old-fashioned where traffic drove on the right. The front wheels had independent suspension on a transverse leaf spring, while the rigid rear axle was carried on longitudinal leaf springs.

The 2,323 cc four-cylinder engine placed the car in the 13 CV tax class. With overhead valves and a single Stromberg 22 carburettor, it produced an announced maximum of 62 hp at 4,000 rpm. In France the car would have been called the Talbot 13CV, but the name was not adopted, probably because of superstition about the number 13.

At launch the Minor cost 42,500 francs with the factory steel body and 35,000 francs as a bare chassis. Its obvious rival was the Hotchkiss Cabourg Type 864 at 39,900 francs, or 29,500 for a bare chassis; with an announced 68 hp from an engine of practically identical dimensions, the Hotchkiss looked far more competitive. Neither car was small enough to challenge the mass-market makers on unit sales. The Talbot Minor was still being built several months after the declaration of war in September 1939, and even after November 1939 Talbot was delivering staff cars to the French army, but during the first half of 1940 the Suresnes works was converted to war production.

Design and features

• Four-cylinder Talbot: the first modern four-cylinder model of the Lago era.
• Baby chassis: the same chassis as the six-cylinder sporting Baby.
• Steel saloon body: a new four-door body resembling the larger Cadette and Major.
• Bare chassis option: for customers who wanted their own coachwork.
• Wartime end: production continued into 1940 before the works turned to war work.

Talbot T4 versions

• Factory steel saloon: the standard four-door body at 42,500 francs.
• Bare chassis: supplied at 35,000 francs for individual coachwork.

The T4 used the chassis of the Talbot Baby, and the larger six-cylinder cars of the period led to the Talbot-Lago T26. More cars are in the Talbot collection.

Sources

• Talbot Minor Type T4, French Wikipedia: launch, chassis, engine, price, production
• Talbot-Lago, English Wikipedia: company background, model range