Home » Cold Start: Monterey Car Week Was A Hell Of A Week

Cold Start: Monterey Car Week Was A Hell Of A Week

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I’m absolutely exhausted, my face is sunburned like a radioactive tomato, and my feet feel like I’ve been using them as jackstands, but I really have zero right to complain, because these are all the results of an intense, non-stop firehose of incredible cars from Monterey Car Week. And in the upcoming days and weeks we’ll be getting as much of that experience transferred to you as possible, via words and pictures and video, but minus the sunburn and the caviar-shits. As a little taste have a look at one of my favorite cars of the week, this 1948 Talbot-Lago Grand Sport Figoni Fastback Coupé, built for France’s Zipper King.

Yes, Zipper King.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

We’ll have more soon about this cyclopean stunner, but here’s a bit of background, first. Talbot-Lago updated their pre-war cars after WWII, getting back into the business of making fast, expensive racing and sports cars. These cars used a 4.5-liter straight-six and, like a number of manufacturers of that era and before, the cars had bodies made by coachbuilders, so there’s a wide variety of looks for the 29 chassis Talbot-Lago delivered.

This particular one was bodied by Figoni et Falaschi, a pair of Italian partners who started a coachbuilding concern in Paris in 1935. They were known for extravagant, flamboyant, and flowing designs, as you can tell from this example.

This one was built for Monsieur Fayolle, a man who made his money selling zippers, and you can see a hint of that in the nose of the car, those chrome strips above the cyclopean headlight that are meant to suggest a zipper.

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What I love about this car is how it somehow feels like a car designed by a wealthy, perhaps mullosk-based being instead of a human. There’s something dazzlingly alien about it, but it’s still stunning and looks like almost nothing else I’ve ever seen. The lines are simultaneously ornate and sleek, flowing and bulbous and aquatic and lithe, but also with bulk. It’s contradictory and surprising and yet it all just works, so very well.

We shot a great little scene with this car that’ll be part of a video coming up as soon as we can get it edited. Along with a lot more. So, stay tuned, because I can’t wait to show you everything.

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Zorn Zornelius
Zorn Zornelius
2 years ago

Hey little boy
What you got there?
Kind sir
It’s a mollusk I found

RC Mil
RC Mil
2 years ago

Beautiful pic.
Weather? Caused by those ICEs

Frankencamry
Frankencamry
2 years ago

On behalf of the triops, which is a real creature with a face very evocative of this, you are bad at judging what a cyclops looks like.

Dave Edgar
Dave Edgar
2 years ago
Reply to  Frankencamry

Triops are fucking terrifying! They are tiny little killer monsters. If they were, say, the size of your average house cat, I would never go anywhere near any water anywhere.

Óscar Morales Vivó
Óscar Morales Vivó
2 years ago

Managed to drop around Monterey a couple times but missed the chance to tower over you properly. Better luck next year!

Paul B
Paul B
2 years ago

The French coach makers have made many stunners over the years.

DysLexus
DysLexus
2 years ago

First impression!
Lightning McQueen’s girlfriend Sally Carrera had a love child with Thomas the Tank Engine

Mr.Asa
Mr.Asa
2 years ago

I love the look of this, but at the same time I’m just thinking of Doc Hudson from Cars.
Maybe its the windows and the color.

Steve Wille
Steve Wille
2 years ago

I didn’t know that caviar shat.

Scottingham
Scottingham
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Wille

True story, one year on Christmas eve all I ate was caviar, deviled eggs, and whiskey.

The fact I wasn’t hungover Christmas morning is known as the Christmas Miracle of 2014.

Dave Edgar
Dave Edgar
2 years ago
Reply to  Scottingham

Similar, and it might have even been the same year. In our case, it was foie gras and brie, but the fact I woke up feeling great the next day was a little scary. I have never drunk that much whisky in one night before or since.

JaredTheGeek
JaredTheGeek
2 years ago

It’s Monterey Car Week, not Pebble Beach Car Week. The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is one of the events like the Concours Italiano, Exotics on Broadway, Concours d’Lemons and all of the auctions. Pebble Beach is THE show and it closes Monterey Car Week.

https://whatsupmonterey.com/article/activities/monterey-car-week-overview

Steve Wille
Steve Wille
2 years ago
Reply to  JaredTheGeek

… maybe Jason attending the wrong thing.

JaredTheGeek
JaredTheGeek
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Wille

An event in a parallel universe, that would not be surprising.

Hugh Crawford
Hugh Crawford
2 years ago
Reply to  JaredTheGeek

I went to Monterey car week for a dozen or so years but all I ever went to was the Historics at Laguna Seca.

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
2 years ago

Interesting that it’s right hand drive.

Shooting Brake
Shooting Brake
2 years ago

I can’t wait to see the car owned by the inventor of the Mansier! 🙂

Thomas Ogle
Thomas Ogle
2 years ago
Reply to  Shooting Brake

I think you meant to say Bro?

Shooting Brake
Shooting Brake
2 years ago
Reply to  Thomas Ogle

(‾◡◝ )و

TOSSABL
TOSSABL
2 years ago
Reply to  Shooting Brake

So, the reference went over my head, but I had to thumb you just for your pic there!
All sorts of jealous-but more so glad an Autoper has one. And I hope it gets miles at least monthly if not daily.
Good on ya!

Barry
Barry
2 years ago

Me: most modern cars are so wasteful, look at how much you can fit into an original Mini, or even a new Golf
Also me: why can’t cars look like art deco sculptures?

Doctor Nine
Doctor Nine
2 years ago
Reply to  Barry

Well, it’s a conspiracy between our transdimensional reptilian overlords, the NTSA and the IIHS.

In case you forget what mom said the first time you blew something up with gasoline, fun is absolutely verboten.

Barry
Barry
2 years ago
Reply to  Doctor Nine

Yeah, I’m aware of the safety standards issue (see the current Mini with its ridiculous looking long nose to meet pedestrian impact standards). But have you seen the back seat space on the Talbot Figoni Sport Back?

Dave Horchak
Dave Horchak
2 years ago
Reply to  Barry

Well I am pretty sure if they did you would get a 1 of 1.

Man With A Reliable Jeep
Man With A Reliable Jeep
2 years ago

There’s good money in zippers, I see.

~=Daaan
~=Daaan
2 years ago

I’m more of a banana stand guy myself.

Nlpnt
Nlpnt
2 years ago
Reply to  ~=Daaan

Monterey is one airport-surplus auction away from someone showing up at the Concours d’Lemons in the Bluth Company staircar. Well, that and a low bridge or two.

Vetatur Fumare
Vetatur Fumare
2 years ago

I met a man who made many many millions working with YKK – his shtick was to always say that “he made good with slide fasteners.” Absolutely refused to take the word “zipper” in his mouth.

Flyingstitch
Flyingstitch
2 years ago

Decades after the debut of the Talbot-Lago Grand Sport Figoni Fastback Coupé, a Talbot descendant was named Executive Vice President of Vehicular Nomenclature at BMW.

Nlpnt
Nlpnt
2 years ago
Reply to  Flyingstitch

He arrived for his first day of work driving a 1989 Ford LTD Crown Victoria Country Squire Wagon.

DubblewhopperInDubblejeopardy
DubblewhopperInDubblejeopardy
2 years ago

Well, unfortunately it looks like the Talbot got his willy stuck in the zipper……

David Kieras
David Kieras
2 years ago

At least it didn’t get the beans above the frank.

TOSSABL
TOSSABL
2 years ago

The Zipper King sounds to me like a ‘70s porn movie.
The car itself I find beautifully sleek & swoopy even if visibility looks to be like a modern Camaro

Doctor Nine
Doctor Nine
2 years ago
Reply to  TOSSABL

There actually IS a video of that name, about Tadao Yoshida, the guy who made YKK zippers into an international phenomenon. Although it’s not adult content, it’s a really good case study in how to run a company, any company, and make it a success. Worth watching.

Rad Barchetta
Rad Barchetta
2 years ago
Reply to  Doctor Nine

I like how you qualified that last statement. As if most case studies on business management are adult in nature.
Actually, that might explain why the most successful businesses seem to eventually fuck everyone over.

Doctor Nine
Doctor Nine
2 years ago
Reply to  Rad Barchetta

Fact. Unfettered capitalism has much in common with your run-of-the-mill STD.

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