Imagine the scene: the early hours of 1st January, 1948. The new year's celebrations have begun to subside, and the focus has turned to a game of cards. Perhaps suffering the effects of a little too much festive spirit, one player makes a high bet – the ownership of his Vintage motor car, a 1929 Talbot Darracq. Of course, he loses his hand. The winner thinks nothing more of it until several hours later, when the car appears outside his house. He insists the bet had been made in jest, and in any case he doesn't want the car, but the high-stakes loser is determined, and ownership is transferred.
It sounds like something from a cheap novel, but it really happened to Roger Tanner, and the Talbot-Darracq became the first in his collection of high-quality pre-war cars, which later included marques such as Hispano-Suiza, Isotta Fraschini, Rolls-Royce and Bentley. In the latest issue of The Automobile, John Warburton speaks to Roger Tanner about his love of Vintage cars and the enviable collection he built up over six decades. Incidentally, although Tanner claimed not to want the Darracq at first, he went on to use the car for the next 10 years, and only parted with it in 2007, when it was auctioned along with other cars from the collection. Does anyone know what became of it?