When the conversation turns to the great prewar race and rally teams, the big names—Bentley, Maserati, Alfa Romeo—tend to dominate the list that is produced. Certain marques managed to get a great deal of attention at the time and have hogged the memory of most prewar enthusiasts. That leaves a lot of important players and stories out of the equation. However, we have had the very good fortune to develop a longer-term relationship with some of the lesser-known, but very significant cars of the 1930s.
The author, and teammate Gareth Burnett, drove the 1934 Talbot 105 “BGH 21” in the 2005 Tour Britannia. Photo: Pete Austin
Early in 2005, a new event was announced for the UK, the Tour Britannia, bringing back the style and memory of the 1970s Tour of Britain. Modeled on the classic Tour Auto in France, it had a challenging combination of road stages, races, rally special stages and hill climbs. Whereas the original ’70s event was for current cars, the new Tour is for classics, both pre- and postwar. With the help of event organizers Fred Gallagher and Alec Poole, I was fortunate enough to find myself co-driving with Gareth Burnett in one of John Ruston’s Team Talbot cars, the 1934 Talbot 105, registered BGH 21. While we tackled the competition division of the Tour, Ruston himself won the regularity section with co-driver Jeremy Haylock, in a sister team car. (They even repeated the feat in 2006.) We won the class and would have won the prestigious handicap award but for a driveshaft failure at the last stage, on the last day! The performance of the Talbot was stunning, and this co-driver saw 120 mph on the clock at one point…though I dare not reveal where!
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