Darracq and Company London

STD Motors

Formerly	Darracq & Company
Industry	Automotive
Founded	1896
Key people	Alexandre Darracq, managing director
Products	Automotive, cars and racing cars and components
Brands	Darracq Sunbeam Talbot
Subsidiaries	Paris 1902 A Darracq et Cie / 1916 Société Anonyme Automobiles Darracq / 1920 Société Anonyme Automobiles Talbot-Darracq / 1922 Société Anonyme Automobiles Talbot London 1916 Darracq Motor Engineering Company 1919 Clément-Talbot 1920 W & G Du Cros Wolverhampton 1920 Sunbeam Motor Car Company Worcester 1919 Heenan & Froude Leeds 1920 Jonas Woodhead

STD Motors, formerly Darracq & Company, was a French manufacturer of motor vehicles and aero engines based 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 1903 Darracq sold the business to A Darracq and Company Limited of England, taking a substantial shareholding himself.

Darracq continued to run the business from Paris until retiring to the Côte d'Azur in 1913 following years of financial difficulties. He had introduced an unproven unorthodox engine in 1911 which proved a complete failure yet he neglected Suresnes' popular conventional products.

In 1920, A Darracq & Co was rebranded as STD Motors. In 1922 the Darracq name was dropped from all products, the Suresnes business was renamed Automobiles Talbot and the Suresnes products were branded just Talbot. The Suresnes business continued, still under British control, under the name Talbot until 1935 when it was acquired by investors led by the Suresnes factory's managing director, Antonio Lago.