Jay Leno rides Talbot Lago, which has been missing for nearly 60 years.

Some collectors like to show off their favorite cars, while others hide them away. The Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport featured in a recent episode of Jay Leno's Garage program is of the latter type of collector, having sat in a Los Angeles area warehouse for decades.

Leno acquired the car last year after the owner died. The owner had purchased the car in France in 1965 and shipped it to the United States. According to Leno, a tremendous amount of work had to be done to get it in running condition. For example, the car was stored with a full tank of gasoline, so when it was taken out of storage, there was almost nothing left in the fuel tank.

The T26 Grand Sport was the last stronghold of Talbot-Lago, one of the legendary pre-war French automakers. The chassis was shortened from the previous model, and the 4.5 liter inline six-cylinder engine was carried over and refined to 220 hp.

The car is missing from most Talbot-Lago documents and has several mysterious details, Leno noted. It is believed that all Grand Sports used a preselector gearbox, which allowed the driver to change gears by pressing the pedal while driving. However, this car has a conventional manual transmission (with a shift knob that matches the interior trim). It also has a non-standard "Competition" nameplate and a Weber carburetor.

Talbot-Lago continued to produce cars independently until 1959, when it was acquired by French automobile manufacturer Simca. The Talbot brand was briefly revived in the 1980s, but has remained unclaimed ever since. It is theoretically still under the control of Chrysler's successor Sterantis.

For more on the car and its restoration, and how it finally got a run after a decade of being sealed up, see the full video story.