Before delving into the Talbot London, it’s refreshing to look back at 1930s Great Britain to appreciate the world of motoring that the Talbot London AW75 was born into. Nostalgic photographs and artwork adorning biscuit and confectionary tins depict motoring in the period as a wonderfully pleasant experience. Drivers and passengers alike, aboard coupe-style cars, have happy, smiling faces as their hair flows through the prevailing breeze. It is a picture of utmost driving pleasure and tranquility. However, in truth, the reality of those days of motoring was drastically opposite. In a country where war had torn through the fabric of communities just over a decade previous and some areas were now facing depression, the car was king. Ironically, despite the economy, horse-drawn transport was becoming a thing of the past, replaced with four-wheeled vehicles driven by increasingly powerful petroleum-fuelled engines. It was an era when motoring was becoming available to the masses rather than just the elite. Roads, such as they were, were the most dangerous of places to be, with more than 7,000 deaths and over 250,000 injuries each year. The motorist of the day was considered by many as having an arrogant attitude similar to Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows character, Mr. Toad. Animals and pedestrians alike were still coming to terms with the power, pace and presence of automobiles, especially in urban and city areas.
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