Golden Touch: Driving Goldie Gardner's Bespoke Talbot

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Goldie Gardner’s name goes hand-in-hand with his racing and record-breaking with MG, but what did he drive on a day-to-day basis? He drove MGs, of course, but not exclusively. In fact, he had a very broad taste in cars and owned various makes and models, each new acquisition exhibiting the judgment of a connoisseur. This 1930 Talbot AO75 is typical of the refined sporting thoroughbreds for which he had a particular predilection.

That he wasn’t driving an MG in 1930 isn’t surprising, since his first drive with a C-type was not until 1931, but the Talbot was still a world apart from the Austin Sevens and French voiturettes he had hitherto been racing. No doubt he had been moved by the superb performance of the AO90s when they made their début at the 1930 Double-12.

Gardner ordered his 75 from Warwick Wright at the Earl’s Court Motor Show. He requested a special body from KC Bodies in Fulham, an interesting boat-tailed four-seater which, from several angles, looks like a two-seater. His lofty frame necessitated choosing the 75 over the shorter 90, but Fox & Nicholl upgraded it to 90 specification, and even then he still required the instrument panel to be raised. He raced it, too, at Brooklands in 1933.

Recently unearthed in the custodianship of only its third owner, the Talbot was a car most befitting a man of Gardner’s calibre, says his biographer John Mayhead inthe November issue of The Automobile, on sale now.

Words by Zack Stiling
Photographs by Stefan Marjoram
 

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