Talbots Win at Pebble Beach! From Rally Car to Concours Winner; The Preparation 18th Aug 2023

Dr Richard Lisman’s Talbot AV 105 Vanden Plas Alpine Team Tourer won its class at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance this August. It was the first time a Talbot had been recognised with an award - and this year there were two! 

Simon Bish from SB Historics takes up the story of Richard Lisman’s. He was given only a fairly short period of time to turn PJ 7363, a well-used but generally good condition car that had been extensively toured and rallied, into a concours car to grace the refined lawns of Pebble Beach. As essentially a race and rally preparation company, this was a new challenge.

The car was really good, says Simon, and there was nothing wrong with it at all, so it became a full cosmetic restoration to bring it up to the highest concours standard in the world, whilst ensuring everything worked for the tour section of the event. The chrome was removed and reworked or replated as necessary, some areas of body and wings were repainted and small details of trim repaired. All the event stickers were removed and photographs taken for reference in case a future owner ever wants to reinstate them; after all, they are part of the car’s history too. Even the underneath of the car was repainted by hand.

Not having dealt with a Talbot before, Simon called in advice from Gareth Burnett and Ian and John Polson to advise on originality, which is a key criterion for Pebble Beach. Any rally mods had to be taken off the car; modern filters had to be removed and exchanged for originals and an expansion tank ditched. A later carburettor had been fitted and the correct original Zenith had to be found; it doesn’t work as well, but it’s correct. 

Dr Richard Lisman has been a customer of SB Historics for more than a decade and loves old British cars, of which he’s had a few pass through his hands over more than 35 years of collecting. Richard had entered Pebble Beach before and had achieved a couple of awards, but a top placing had eluded him. He says he didn’t expect to win this time either as all the cars are of such a high standard, so it was a wonderful surprise. Not only are the other competing cars so good, but Talbot is pretty much an unknown marque in America and PJ 7363 is essentially a rally car, not the style that usually appeals at Pebble Beach. However, the Americans just loved the distinctive colour, he laughs, and clearly thought the Talbot was magnificent, and its period competition history clearly counted in its favour in achieving the first in class award.

Richard is not only a concours competitor, showing at Amelia Island as well as Pebble Beach, but uses his cars too; he’s a serial fifteen-times Mille Miglia entrant in different cars and hopes to get an entry for his OM next year.

Richard is clearly thrilled to have won and gives full credit to Simon Bish at SB Historics and Tony Dutton at Northumberland Engineering for their work.