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12/10/2024 6:09 pm
A friend of mine owns this car which he has had for some time. Tommy Lee owned and names "Stinky". My friend presented it at the Quail in 2008. The following is an VeloceToday.com article on the car from that show. Plans are to restore the car which I hope happens as he has many other projects.
“Stinky”: Quail’s Most Interesting Car
The Lee T150C SS Talbot
An unrestored classic among the finest restored classics on one of the world’s most prestigious golf courses.
Story and Photos By Brandes Elitch
For the sixth year, Quail Lodge, a prestigious hotel and golf course in Carmel Valley, California, served as host for one of the most elegant shows on the concours circuit.
The Lodge sits on 850 acres, and its golf course was rated this year by the Conde Nast publication Traveler as one of the Top Hundred courses worldwide, so this should tell you something about the overall atmosphere. Only 3000 tickets are printed for this one day show, and ticket price is $250, which must set a record for admittance to a car show, and as there were only 100 cars admitted, it works out to $2.50 per car on display!
This year, what I was looking for was a truly unique car, that neither I, nor anyone else, had seen before, at least not in my lifetime, a car that would blow you away when you saw it. I found what I wanted, and here is the story:
Don Lee started selling Cadillacs in 1906, and was awarded the West Coast distribution in 1919. In 1926, Lee bought KFRC radio in San Francisco, and the next year bought KHJ in Los Angeles. In 1929 he paid for LA’s first television broadcast, and in 1932 broadcast the first motion picture. Eventually, Lee owned twelve stations and became a CBS, and later, Mutual Broadcasting affiliate. To this day the ridge above the famous “Hollywood†sign, where he put his transmitter, is called Mount Lee. But in 1934, Lee succumbed to a heart attack, at only 54 years of age. His son, Thomas (Tommy) Lee inherited the empire, but left business management to CEO Willet Brown, to pursue, as author Lou Brooks has succinctly put it, “his other interests, namely race cars and women.â€
This Talbot Lago coupe was once owned by millionaire Tommy Lee, who reportedly owned four of the fourteen teardrop Talbots made.
Tommy was only 28 when he inherited this empire. He collected cars from all over the world, sponsored race cars, and raced himself. Among the cars that interested him was the Talbot-Lago. Antonio (Anthony) Lago was the genius and inspiration that brought these special cars into the world. In 1934, when the British company Sunbeam Talbot Darracq fell into financial difficulty, the Rootes brothers took over the British operations, and Lago took over the French side. He had some definite ideas about how to make a grande routiere out of the Talbot; a new pushrod OHV hemi-head motor, the Wilson preselector gearbox, and a new IFS transverse spring layout. He asked Figoni et Falaschi to design and build the bodies. The car was a sensation. The first teardrop coupe was shown in 1937.
Roger Barlow races Stinky at Goleta in 1949. Photo by Jack Cambell, courtesy of Malcom Cambell Archives.
The young Californian loved his Talbot Lago T-150C SS. He raced it on the street, and he raced it on the dry lakes such as Muroc, in stock form and against the hot rods, which must have been quite a sight. When Tommy owned it, he called it “Stinkyâ€, probably after finding a dead rodent in the car, the hard way.
Interior seems to have weathered California’s heat in reasonably good condition. Note the coupe body style, different than the fastback style of the fourteen teardrop Talbots.
This car was one of two with this type of coupe body style. Its sister car had an entirely different, more conservative front end and was driven by Rosier/Huguet in the 1938 Le Mans, run as #6 and entered by Luigi Chinetti. The coupes were also called “Faux Cabriolets”. These two coupes were in addition to the fourteen “goutte d’eau†(teardrop) fastback cars bodied by Figoni et Falaschi. Tommy Lee owned four of the Figoni et Falaschi bodied Talbots.
With good looks and unlimited wealth, Tommy lived a life that today’s car collector can only fantasize about (I’m talking about the cars here). On Friday, January 13, 1950 he flew from Palm Springs to LA for an appointment with his dentist at the Pellissier Building. He left the dentist’s office, and, while his chauffeur and nurse waited in the car, took the elevator up one floor, climbed out the window to the fire escape, and jumped to his death, at age 44. No one knows why.
Roger Barlow, who owned International Motors in L.A., bought the Lee Talbot in 1948, still called “Stinky” and raced it at the Goleta time trials in 1949. But the coupe then disappeared around 1951, to be disassembled and left in a barn for a generation.
This is a significant car, and for the last 50 years it was presumed lost. But it was just hiding, in a barn somewhere in Central California. And then, for The Quail, the owner had it disinterred and re-assembled in pieces on the show field, so people could see what an original, 70 year old unrestored car looks like.
Many people believe that the Figoni et Falaschi Talbots are among the very most beautiful cars ever built, which is why the mis en scene was so dramatic: one of the most desirable cars in the world looking like it was just dragged out of a junkyard, and dropped in the middle of the manicured greens of Quail Lodge! And so our vote for the Quail’s Most Interesting Car.
This topic was modified 1 year ago by Curtis Parisi
12/10/2024 6:59 pm
Thank-you for posting this story that certainly 'fleshes-out' the tragic life of Tommy Lee. I feel sure that one day somebody must make a movie on him - but perhaps the days for such a film have passed us by. I hate to question the experts, but this car doesn't look at all like a Figoni et Falaschi to me. Not even on one of their more abstract excursions.
If this is by Figoni et Falaschi it is absolutely not of New York design 9220 Goutte d'Eau and the flatish bridge between engine cowl and fender speak to an earlier period from 1935 to 1936 or even later, as the fluid styles gave way to a more rational look towards 1939. This grille looks like a '39 grille. I have found one example that resembles the front end treatment, but has free-standing Marchal headlamps and is a cabriolet. I include a piece of writing translated from Dutch, on the car below ....... Year given 1939, no chassis number given
In 1938 the original Figoni design was modified, the modified version would be known as the second series. The design was modified to create a design that was to provide greater ease of use and also be easier to produce. The modification of the design was still quite extensive. The shrewd businessman, Lago, soon realized that there was a lot of money to be made by selling extra versions. He gave his customers the option of adding an aerodynamic and patented Figoni grille to the car. If a customer ordered this option, the grille was manufactured by Figoni and added to the car by Talbot-Lago, this car is equipped with this rare grille.
In total, Talbot-Lago built 51 units of the T150 C. This count includes both the regular and the SS versions. Like all luxury French cars from before the war, the steering wheel is mounted on the right. As soon as you open the door, the Winston pre-select lever immediately catches your eye. It is a beautiful piece of technology in all its simplicity. The pre-select is wonderfully easy to operate and was light years ahead of the standard manual transmissions used by the competition.
It is not possible to say with certainty, but it seems that this specific example was delivered new in the United States. In this case, it is almost inevitable that the car was imported by Luigi Chinetti, who at that time was the importer for Talbot-Lago in the United States. He was not only the importer but also a great enthusiast of the brand and in particular the Talbot-Lago T150 C. In an interview, he even stated that, as far as he was concerned, the Talbot-Lago T150 C was on the same level as the Alfa Romeo 2.9, which he knew so well from racing. It seems that the car was later sold by Otto Zipper's Precision Motor Cars in Santa Monica, who was known in the 1940s and 1950s for trading and racing extremely high-end cars. In the 1960s, the car was sold by Briggs Cunningham to Wilbur F. Sanders. The car was then bought by collector Peter Mullin, who then sold the car to Bill Marriot. The car was restored by Marriot’s restorer, David Carte, who used the car as a model during the restoration of the Talbot-Lago T150 C-SS Teardrop. The car was then sold to Swiss collector Christopher Gardner. The car was offered by him in 2012 in an unrestored state and was then purchased by the penultimate owner.
Above is the sister car - Rosier/Huguet in the 1938 Le Mans, run as #6 - mentioned in the article so we are definitely looking at a later Talbot-Lago T150 C
12/10/2024 8:03 pm
Great article Curtis. Whatever the design origins of this vehicle, it is a fantastic car. I really enjoyed this saga of its owners and history. thank you.
12/10/2024 11:50 pm
Awesome story of a stunning car , once it is restored of course.
However
Maybe it would remain more interesting in it's unrestored state.
Loving the photos of the racers on the narrow dirt road. In the late 40s and through the 50's there were often interesting road racing creations seen on track. One of the most famous was "Old Yeller" seen here. Many were not nearly as clean looking.
https://www.supercars.net/blog/1959-old-yeller-ii/
https://classicmotorsports.com/articles/old-yeller-ii-amazing-underdog-story/
Models = Miracles in miniature = Holding History in ones hand
Cheers and Happy Collecting,
Steve
13/10/2024 1:54 am
excellent read thanks Charles
13/10/2024 7:05 am
Fascinating account Curtis - Thank You!! As one of two, nearly never seen coupes, a restored Talbot like this would be a show stopper at Quail or Pebble Beach. Hope we're all around to see it.
Charles, that Cabriolet is fabulous! And thanks for providing a look at the second coupe in #6 racing livery. Gives an idea of what the restoration could like like.
Fantastic thread gentlemen!
John Kuvakas and Charles Rockett reacted
13/10/2024 9:24 am
I enjoyed the read Curtis and Charles.
13/10/2024 11:40 pm
A car with a so dedicated history should be left unrestored but drivable. I don't see any interest to see another beauty queen on a trailer just having in mind to imagine judges arguing if it is right or not. Patina just comes once and with it the spirit of the former owners the way they tried to preserved it for so long.
A few years ago, a Classic Motoring Club visited the Olympic Peninsula and stayed at a local hotel for a few days. I was really wondering what they were doing here because we are mostly in the middle of nowhere. We have the mountains and the sea mostly together but they wanted to drive their 1910 -1920's that were what I recalled to be mostly " drivers ".
What really stuck me was to see two 1917 Pierce-Arrows Touring, fully unrestored but roadworthy to drive the circuit of the tour. They were really beauties in their patina and unpolished brass. For me, these are Classics that were meant to be driven.
14/10/2024 12:06 am
Here a few pictures..........
There was also an amazing 1916 Buick and so many others.