94 year-old finds and restores his dad's 1937 car

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Ever heard of a Talbot-Darracq? Story here.

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Left: A family photo from 1937 of Malcolm Stern sitting on his father's Talbot-Darracq as a child. Right: Malcolm Stern sitting on the running board of the same car in 2023. (Family photo)


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...Malcolm, now 94, recalled riding through London in the Talbot-Darracq during the 1930s with his father, Alec Stern. Years later, the Second World War broke out, and the British government evacuated the city's children to the countryside. [His son] Jonathan recalled Malcolm describing how he'd looked out the bus window and seen a familiar flash of yellow: Alec was driving behind the bus, following them to their new home...

...Malcolm, a mechanical engineer who'd served in the British Army's engineer corps, was up to it, Jonathan said. But he was around the same age as the car. ..

But he rebuilt much of the Talbot-Darracq himself, Jonathan said, even using his 3D printer to fashion replacement parts.

"He's always been this, 'I can design it. I can build it. I can get it done,' kind of incredibly resourceful guy," Jonathan said. " … He's probably put in 1,000 hours of work."..

Last week, three years after purchasing the Talbot-Darracq, Malcolm and Jonathan took it on its first drive. The nonagenarian car creaked and groaned, and Jonathan struggled with its ancient gearbox and lack of power steering, but it rumbled for 15 miles to a local pub.

"The two of us, I think our faces hurt from smiling so much," Jonathan said.

They drove to the pub to join a gathering of vintage car enthusiasts from a club that Malcolm had joined as he worked on the Talbot-Darracq. The other motorheads gathered in awe and took photos as Malcolm showed off his work.

"He was the star of the show," Jonathan said. "Ninety-four years old, driving around this great big yellow car."
 
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I wonder if there was a connection to the French automaker Talbot-Lago ? They made some very interesting and exotic automobiles prior to WWII and even through the 1950's like these.
 

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I wonder if there was a connection to the French automaker Talbot-Lago ? They made some very interesting and exotic automobiles prior to WWII and even through the 1950's like these.
Well, I 'looked it up in my Funk & Wagnall's" (aka Wikipedia) and yes, there was a connection:

Talbot-Lago.

Talbot-Lago was a French automobile manufacturer based in Suresnes, Hauts de Seine, outside Paris. The company was owned and managed by Antonio Lago, an Italian engineer that acquired rights to the Talbot brand name after the demise of Darracq London's subsidiary Automobiles Talbot France in 1936.

Under Lago's managing, the company produced a range of automobiles that included sport and racing cars, in some cases designed by coachbuild company Figoni et Falaschi until the Talbot-Lago demise in 1959, when company's financial problems forced Lago to sell it to Simca...

Predecessors:

Alexandre Darracq

Main article: Automobiles Darracq France

The Suresnes factory had been built by Alexandre Darracq for his pioneering car manufacturing business begun in 1896, which he named A. Darracq & Cie. It was very profitable. Alexandre Darracq built racing as well as "pleasure" cars and Darracq rapidly became famous for its motor racing successes. Darracq sold his remaining portion of his business in 1912...

...Owing to the simultaneous existence of British Talbot cars, French products when sold in Britain were badged Darracq-Talbot or Talbot-Darracq, or even simply Darracq..
 
Re-reading the article, when I came to the line:
"Ninety-four years old, driving around this great big yellow car."
I couldn't help thinking of a line from the famous WWI Laurence Binyon poem, For the Fallen:

"Age shall not weary them..."

A very different frame of reference of course (although Nov. 11 is approaching), but clearly age hasn't wearied Mr. Stern much.
 
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