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It's been a while since we've posted an old magazine cover...and this is a fun one. It comes from the October 1953 issue of Road & Track. The three cars are lined up at Moffett Field with what appears to be a Grumman Cougar fighter jet. Of the OSCA, Jag C-Type, J2X, and Cougar jet...which do you think could accelerate to 60 mph fastest?
Can you tell us who the owner of the J2X is? (We know the answer, but can you find it out?)
An interesting article by John Bentley detailing what makes a Sports Car, as opposed to a Hot Rod. You'll notice the artists rendering on the last page looks a little familiar. Click here or the photo above to download the pdf.
Does this cover shot from the September 1952 issue of Auto Sport Review look familiar to you? If it does, that's because a cropped version of the same photo was used on the January 1956 cover of Sports Cars Illustrated!
If you're looking to buy a vintage Allard magazine for your collection, this is definitely one you should consider. The July 1951 issue of Speed Age features not only one of the best Allard photos of all time (the Steyr with four wheels in the air!!!), it also features one of the earliest printed biographies on Sydney Allard. If you're lucky, you can pick one of these up on Ebay for as low as $5.
This is probably the least flattering magazine cover featuring an Allard. It comes from the August 1951 issue of Autosport Magazine. The photo shows Peter Reece crashing on lap 22 into a sand bank, which surprisingly resulted in just a twisted nose and bent steering arm. The steering was quickly fixed and the car returned to the race. Soon after, the rear end started making ominous sounds, but the car and team perservered. The Hitchings & Reece J2 finished the race, but were disqualified because their last lap took longer than 30 minutes. In all the car finished 214 laps, which would have put the team in 20th place.
with my little eye two...
This cover shot is from the 1950 Motor Racing Annual from the UK. If you look closely, you'll see two interesting cars...what specifically are they? Leave a comment...
It's always great to see Allards getting some press in the mainstream automotive magazines. This time we are happy to report that Classic & Sports Car magazine will be featuring Chris Pring's J2 #2120, reg #OZ4444 in their February 2014 issue. OZ4444 was exhibited at the Festival of Britain before being delivered to racing driver Desmond Titterington in Belfast in September 1951. Following 14 podiums in his 24 outings in the Allard – including an outright win in the 1952 Leinster Trohpy – Titterington moved on to the Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar team and the Allard went to Calcutta in India. In the article James Mitchell tells the story of OZ4444's remarkable history and the meticulous restoration following its return home.
Photo by James Lipman.
The 4th issue of Vintage Motorsport from 1990 is probably the 'Holy Grail' of magazines for Allard enthusiasts. Pretty much the entire issue is devoted the Allard Motor Company. Why would a magazine do you such a thing? Well, Allard was the featured marque at the 1990 Monterey Historics...and by (no) coincidence Allard enthusiast Syd Silverman (our benefactor) also happened to own Vintage Motorsport at the time. If you can find a copy of this one...buy it.
The February 1 issue of Autosport magazine celebrates Sydney's victory in the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally. As you can see, there was a little snow on the route.
Today's cover is from the August, 1938 issue of Motor Sport...and it's probably the oldest magazine featuring an Allard on the cover. The cover caption reads, “The 3-hour sports car race…K. Hutchinson (Allard Special) takes the last curve leading to the finishing straight on the Campbell Circuit.” The Campbell Circuit at Brooklands was first raced in 1937, but the land was soon pressed into war service in 1939. The Lincoln V-12 powered ELX 50 was built for Ken Hutchinson. According to Tom Lush’s book, Hutchinson and Sydney co-drove the car ran “faultlessly” except for a broken fan belt that was fixed within five minutes. The team finished 9th overall, completing 74 laps at an average speed of 56.5 mph. Not bad for the Allards first real road race.
Special thanks to Kerry Horan for sharing this with us.
This is another one of our favorite Allard covers. It features Editor John Bond (doing his best Fidel Castro impression) at the wheel of a J2X in the dirt. Additionally, this issue features a 2-page spread on the Allard company. As usual, you can find these issues on Ebay for $5-10.
Correction: The driver was actually Richard Losee. A correction that R&T published 15 years later!
An excerpt from the August 1951 issue of Road & Track...which was an excerpt from the Jan-Feb 1951 issue of Sports Car magazine...
"In a recent regional news letter, the cornering powers of our 'J.2' are compared with another make and the fact that the 'J.2' holds the road like a leech up to certain speeds when it slides without warning, is mentioned.
Mr. Allard asks me to say that this is well known, but the speed at which this sliding occurs is greatly above the speed at which the other make mentioned starts to break away. At the speed where this breakaway occurs on other makes, the 'J.2' is rock steady and, if it is desired to corner at the maximum speed possible with our car, this must be done in the usual Grand Prix manner, in a four-wheel drift. The required angle of drift being maintained by conjuctive manipulation of steering and throttle.
When this technique is mastered we doubt if there is a faster sports car through corners extant than the 'J.2' Allard"
-H.J. Biggs, Technical Assistant, Allard Motor Co.
P.S. The photo above is from the March '80 issue of the Old Motor with Jim Tiller showing us how to corner his J2 at Goodwood in '69.
From the December 1952 issue of Road & Track, a cover photo by famed automotive photographer Louis Klemantaski. The note below says it all...
In response to Erwin Goldschmidts letter and the feedback received, Motor Sport magazine Editor Bill Boddy put together a detailed analysis of US racing results from 1950 to determine the best sports car. Allard (Cadillac) vs. Allard (Ford) vs. Jaguar vs. Ferrari vs. Frazer-Nash. The article is very interesting and informative. However we must take issue with Mr. Boddy. After reviewing the handi-capped results, one could state that the Ferrari and Jaguar are better sports cars. BUT, if you add the Allard Cadillac & Ford results together, Allard is by far the best chassis in both the scratch and handicapped analysis. Click here or the photo above to view the full story.
A great cover shot of A. E. Goldschmidt having some fun in the dirt with his J2. This is from the January 1956, issue of Sports Cars Illustrated. By this time, the photo was likely five years old, but it's a fun shot nonetheless. There is no Allard content inside the magazine.
Beautiful exhibit at the 5th annual Hot Rod and Motor Sports Show is the new ALLARD, owned by Reg Fudge, Jr., Los Angeles. Sports car will be equipped with 160HP Lincoln overhead valve V-8 engine. Waving from the car is 18-year-old model Earlyne Taylor, contendor for the title of Hot Rod Show queen.
Do you know what car this is?
This issue of "Car Collector and Car Classics" magazine was published in January of 1984 and features two stories on Allards. The first story is about the J2X, using photos of the cover car. The second story is about the Palm Beach MkI, but unfortunately all of their photos are of a K3! To the untrained eye, it's an easy mistake to make, but an error like that shouldn't have made it past the Editors desk.
MYSTERY CAR: If you, or you know who owns this J2X, please click here to email us!
The October 1962 issue of AUTOSPORT features a great action shot of Jim Tiller and his J2. For those of you not familiar with Jim and his wife Sheila, they have actively raced their J2 for over 50 years, achieving several FTOD at the Brighton Speed Trials along with an attempt at breaking the 200 mph barrier at Bonneville in 2000. Sadly Jim was only able to achieve 197.3 mph...definately a record for an Allard!! To read more about his run at Bonneville, click here.
Why can't modern magazine covers look this good? In the age of Photoshop and digital cameras, it's doubtful we'll ever see another painting/illustration on a magazine cover. This cover comes from the April 1952 issue of Auto Speed & Sport Magazine. As usual, there's no dedicated Allard content inside.
This cover is from the February 1952 issue of Motorsport Magazine. As with most Motorsport issues, the cover car had very little to do with the actual contents. Do you know what J2 this is?
