The Rootes Group or Rootes Motors Limited was a British automobile manufacturer and, separately, a major motor distributors and dealers business. Run from London's West End, the manufacturer was based in the Midlands and the distribution and dealers business in the south of England. In the decade beginning 1928 the Rootes brothers, William and Reginald, made prosperous by their very successful distribution and servicing business, were keen to enter manufacturing for closer control of the products they were selling. One brother has been termed the power unit, the other the steering and braking system.
Talbot or Clément-Talbot Limited was an English-French automobile manufacturer founded in 1903. Clément-Talbot's products were named just Talbot from shortly after introduction, but the business remained Clément-Talbot Limited until 1938 when it was renamed Sunbeam-Talbot Limited. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot business during the First World War.
Major Charles Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury, 20th Earl of Waterford, 5th Earl Talbot, KCVO, styled Viscount Ingestre from 1868 to 1877, was a British peer.
Roesch, Georges Henry, born Geneva 15 April 1891: died 7 November 1969, automotive engineer, was the Swiss-born son of a German-born blacksmith turned Geneva garage operator and his French-born wife.
Automobiles Talbot S.A. was a French automobile manufacturer based in Suresnes, Hauts de Seine, outside Paris.
Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited was a British motor car manufacturer with its works at Moorfields in Blakenhall, a suburb of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, now West Midlands. Its Sunbeam name had been registered by John Marston in 1888 for his bicycle manufacturing business. Sunbeam motor car manufacture began in 1901. The motor business was sold to a newly incorporated Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited in 1905 to separate it from Marston's pedal bicycle business; Sunbeam motorcycles were not made until 1912.
Thrupp & Maberly was a British coachbuilding business based in the West End of London, England. Coach-makers to Queen Victoria they operated for more than two centuries until 1967 when they closed while in the ownership of Rootes Group.
Jean Chassagne was a pioneer submariner, aviator and French racecar driver active 1906-1930. Chassagne finished third in the 1913 French Grand Prix; won the 1922 Tourist Trophy and finished second in the 1925 Le Mans Grand Prix d'Endurance - all in Sunbeam motorcars. He was second in the 1921 Italian Grand Prix with a Ballot, and set speed records and won races at Brooklands and hill climbs internationally.
Louis Hervé Coatalen was an automobile engineer and racing driver born in Brittany who spent much of his adult life in Britain and took British nationality. He was a pioneer of the design and development of internal combustion engines for cars and aircraft.
James Young Limited was a top class British coachbuilding business in London Road, Bromley, England.
Sunbeam-Talbot Limited was a British motor manufacturing business. It built upmarket sports-saloon versions of Rootes Group cars from 1935 to 1954. As Clément-Talbot Limited it had made Talbot cars since 1902.
Kenelm Edward Lee Guinness MBE was a London-born racing driver of the 1910s and 1920s mostly associated with Sunbeam racing cars. He set a new Land Speed Record in 1922. Also an automotive engineer, he invented and manufactured the KLG spark plug. A member of the Guinness brewing family, and a director of the company, he lived and died in Putney Vale, London, and was buried at the nearby cemetery, bordering Putney Heath.
The Sunbeam-Talbot Ten is a compact executive car or small sports saloon manufactured by Rootes Group in their Clément-Talbot factory in North Kensington between 1938 and 1939, and then reintroduced after the Second World War and sold between 1945 and 1948. It was at first a two-door then a four-door sports saloon. A drophead coupé version and a sports tourer version were also available.
A Darracq and Company Limited owned a French manufacturer of motor vehicles and aero engines in Suresnes, near Paris. The French enterprise, known at first as A. Darracq et Cie, was founded in 1896 by Alexandre Darracq after he sold his Gladiator Bicycle business. In 1902, it took effect in 1903, he sold his new business to a privately held English company named A Darracq and Company Limited, taking a substantial shareholding and a directorship himself.
Clément-Talbot Limited was a British motor vehicle manufacturer with its works in Ladbroke Grove, North Kensington, London, founded in 1902. Rootes renamed it Sunbeam-Talbot Limited in 1938.
Antonio Franco Lago, known as Anthony Lago or Tony Lago, was an Italian engineer and motor-industry entrepreneur. In 1936 he bought Automobiles Talbot S.A. from his employers, the collapsed Anglo-French S.T.D. Motors combine, and founded the motor-racing marque Talbot-Lago.
The 1921 S.T.D. ‘Works’ Grand Prix chassis was built to the three-litre and minimum weight of 800 kilogrammes formula for that year's Indianapolis 500 and French Grand Prix de l’A.C.F. These team cars were modified by the Sunbeam Experimental department in Wolverhampton for the 1922 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, which was won by one of the cars. A few months later, and with 1916 4.9-litre engines, two of the T.T. cars competed in the Coppa Florio, Sicily and gained second and fourth position.
John Samuel Irving (1880–1953), MIAE, was a British automobile engineer best known for designing the Irving-Napier land speed record breaking car Golden Arrow.
Automobiles Darracq France was a manufacturer of motor vehicles and aero engines in Suresnes, near Paris. The enterprise, known at first as A Darracq et Cie, was founded in 1896 by successful businessman Alexandre Darracq.
Automobiles Talbot France manufactured cars in Suresnes, near Paris, France. The enterprise was founded by Alexandre Darracq in February 1897. In 1902 he sold it into British control. The (subsidiary) company first known as Automobiles Darracq S.A. was formed in 1916 by London company A Darracq and Company (1905) Limited.
