For Sale: Allard Safari

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This Allard is quite unique. It’s an Allard Safari, essentially it’s an Estate (wagon) version of the P2. The P2 Safari, Monte Carlo, and K3 all carried essentially the same style of tube frame chassis with a J2X style split axle front suspension and DeDion rear end. The tube frame chassis was considerably stiffer than the formed channel chassis of the J2X. The car also features a left hand drive setup (the only Safari so configured) and an automatic transmission. Coupled with the 5.4 Liter Lincoln 368 V8, this was likely one of the most potent 50’s era wagons on the planet.

This car is chassis 4513, the thirteenth and last of the Safari’s built. This car was displayed at the 1955 Earl’s Court. The original owner, Dr. Elkingpon purchased the car some 2 years after it was built. He had it delivered to Vancouver Canada; and soon decided that he didn’t like how the front clip tilted up. This led him to commission a regular front end so he could have a bonnet…which really makes this Safari a one of a kind. The Car was sold after 10 years to the Wells family. Norman Scott purchased the car in 1989, followed by the current owner Doug Quantz.

The car was brought to the Monterey Historics in 1990 (Allard was the featured marque), where it was presumed a fake due to the front end. That’s when Allard engineer; Dudley Hume remembered transporting the car from the factory to Liverpool for shipment to Vancouver.

The asking price for this very rare and unique Allard is a reasonable $52,000 (US). If interested, please click here to contact the owner. 

Click here or the photo above to view the extensive photo gallery.

PS: Did we mention it's a woodie?

Old Magazine Covers, Part 15

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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.

Allards in Scale

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As Allard enthusiasts, one of our pet peeves is that is that there are so few scale models of our beloved cars. Sure there are a few models from Kenna (K1 & K2) and Bizarre (J2), but nothing that's really unique. Recently we were contacted by a scale model enthusiast Niek van der Mark from the Netherlands about the paint colors of the Abbott Special (a special coupe based on the Palm Beach). After some digging (and help from David Hooper), we were able to confirm the lower body was light green with a cream roof.

We were pleased to check our email the other day when we found an email from Niek with photos of his latest creation. Also included were photos of a number of Niek's other Allard creations including a GT, JR, K1, K2, K3, P1, and L-type. If you're wondering where you might pick one of these up...they might be kind of hard to come by. The Abbott and GT were made by a small company TW, who made small batches (5-6) of cast metal (body in white) 1:43 classic sports cars back in the 80's. As you can see Niek has an impressive eye for detail.

Hopefully with the advent of 3D printing, we'll start to see more Allard scale models. 

Allard K2-1969

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One of the nice things about putting this site together are the interesting emails we receive from our readers and members. The other day we received the note below from one of our members describing the unique history of his K2. We thought you might enjoy it...
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A few years I purchased an Allard K2, chassis #1969; purchased from the family of the previous owner, Bernard Berman, who passed away many years ago. Mr. Berman extracted this car from a barn in 1992. The car was sold new locally in August 1951 and Mr. Berman purchased it from the family of the original owner. It had just over 5,000 miles at that time but the barn storage had taken a toll on the cosmetics. Mr. B had the car fully restored cosmetically being careful to save the original parts and correctness of the car. No major rust repair or engine rebuild was required. The color was changed from the original sky blue with red wheels and red interior to red with black interior. Today the car has a shade over 6200 miles on it. I had to do a major engine and fuel system service when I got the car because it had been sitting for a long time and I did a fairly thorough detailing of the car. I am planning on adding seat belts to it, but otherwise I'm loathed to touch anything for fear of losing what remains of the originality.

There's an interesting story as to how the car was originally sold here. There was a major department store in Allentown, PA owned by an eccentric and by the 1950's very wealthy business man named Max Hess. Hess loved cars. He would buy new and exotic cars and drive them for a day or two and give them away to employees. He was also known to buy the latest sports, passenger, or exotic car and not even drive them, but put them right in the name of a friend or employee. That’s what happened with this car. His manager of store facilities was a man named Luckenbach. Luckenbach is the original owner of this car, although we know Hess paid for it – confirmed by the original owners card. Over the years Luckenbach received several cars from Hess including a 1954 Corvette, 1961 Jaguar XKE coupe and roadster. All of these cars were purchased by Mr. Berman, but and now have been scattered to the wind. 
-Jed
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If you'd like to tell us about your Allard, click here to send us an email. 

The "Bitch" wins at the Concours d'Elegance of Texas

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Attached are pictures from our latest Concours. We came away with Best In Class and Best Sport Car. It was a large turnout. We drove in the 50 mile tour on Friday, May 2nd and with exception of trying to overheat it was enjoyable to get the Bitch out and driving again after the winter time of trailer storage. We had a great time, but had to tow the car back home - we blew the radiator about 10 miles past Brenham, Texas and had to have two tow trucks, one to haul the car and another to haul the trailer. Came back Monday to pick up our tow car, which had just been repaired and was test driven only to find out it still had problems and parts must be ordered from Houston so----we spent the rest of the day and night in Brenham and on Tuesday drove back to the farm. Needless to say it was quite an expensive trip. Take care----Bill

Allard Art

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Richard Saunders, a lifelong Allard enthusiast and owner is also a bit of an artist. Recently, he sent us a few prints of his Allard paintings. We were very impressed with them and thought you might like to see them as well. If you are interested in purchasing one of them, please click here to email us.

Monte Carlo, 1952

Le Mans, 1953

Bill Pollack, 1951

Fred Wacker, 1951

Bob Lytle

Allard Auction: J2X-2138

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Sorry for the short notice, but we just found out that J2X 2138 will be sold this coming weekend at Coys at Ascot auction (April 26). J2X 2138 is unique in that it was the first J2X. On top of that, the car has received FIA HTP certification, which makes it eligible for just about any vintage event in the world. To learn more about the car, please visit the Coys web site by clicking here. The car is listed as Lot 125 and no estimate is noted. From what we know, the car is an exceptional find and should bring the new owner a lot of joy as well as being a great investment.

The British Pathe Archives

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We were excited to learn today that the British Pathe, who has been archiving world history on film since the 1890's...has posted their archives on YouTube. What does that mean for Allard fans? We get to enjoy at least a dozen or so Allard related films that we likely never seen before. Our favorite so far is this clip of the one-off Allard Dolphin. A car built on a L-type chassis that featured one of the earliest retractable hard top roofs. Loyal readers of the Register will recall that we published a story on the Dolphin back in 2009. Click here to learn more.

From the desk of...

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Erwin Goldschmidt was probably one of our favorite Allard racers. Not only was he an outspoken supporter of the Allard marque, but he was extremely competitive. As early as June of 1951, Erwin realized that his 331 Cadillac powered J2 would soon lose out to Chrysler's new 331 Hemi. Desperate for more speed, Erwin wrote the following letter to the Cadillac Engineering Department in order to persuade them to share their latest speed secrets. Click the image below to view the complete letter and the response.

Special thanks again to Barry Burrel for sharing another great find from his father Frank's archives.

Phillip Island 2014

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An update from our man in Australia...
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We had a fun week of racing at Phillip Island, Graham in his J2, and I was running my 1960 Corvette.

Graham was doing really well all week in the Allard, but broke a rear stub-axle in the final heat race before the main event, and was not able to repair it at the track.  He and his pit crew (pictured below) worked together vigorously, but he ultimately decided to just sit back and enjoy the rest of the races.
I had better luck with the Corvette, finishing the main event race, but possibly I did not have as much fun as Graham did.
We are going for a drive down the Great Ocean Road tomorrow in my J2, one of Graham's friends J2's, and Graham in an older Ferrari, life is good.
Talk with you later, .........................Steve

Big Money...

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Wow...Normally we don't report on auction prices, but we were shocked to see the results for the two Allards at RM's Amelia Island Auction this past Saturday. Both the K1 and K3 set what we believe are world record prices for each model. K1-249 sold for an impressive $176,000 and the K3 went for $220,000.

We must admit that we're a bit conflicted with the results. On one hand, we're excited to see Allard's finally getting their due, for a long time we've believed that Allard's have been undervalued due to their uniqe design, competition history, and rarity. On the other hand, it will likely mean fewer cars will be driven and enjoyed as Sydney intended. However, we firmly believe that for cars to gain in value, they need to be seen in public...at vintage races, ralleys, car shows, magazines, and the internet. 

Auction Preview - K1-249

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On March 8, RM will auction off K1-249 at their Amelia Auction sale. 249 was originally sold by Dagenham motors to a Mr. Sandos on June 27, 1947. The car was originally painted green with black wings (fenders) and a red interior. The car is beiing offered as lot 177 and it has estimated value of $125,000 to $145,000 (no reserve). Please click here to learn more about the car.

Auction Preview - K3-3189

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On March 8, RM will auction off K3-3189 at their Amelia Auction sale. 3189 was shipped on March 18, 1953 to Allards delership in NYC. The car was originally painted silver with a green interior. The chassis was set up for a Chrysler engine, 3.78 diff, and disk wheels. The car is beiing offered as lot 144 and it has estimated value of $160,000 to $200,000. Please click here to learn more about the car.

The Allard Manifold

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We were fortunate enough to recently receive the donation of an alloy Allard Intake Manifold (thank you!) and we thought you might like to know the back story behind these unique manifolds…

In the late 40’s, Allard was struggling to make their Ford flatheads more powerful. The stock single carb intake manifold was pathetic and Sydney knew there were several alternatives available in the US. Unfortunately Post War England was very protectionist as it tried to rebound from the war. Basically nothing could be imported into the country, which meant no American speed parts could be sold in the UK.

If you’ve read the Tom Lush’s definitive Allard book, you may recall that in 1948, Reg Canham took an Allard M type to the US and went on a cross country tour towing a caravan to promote the Allard Motor Company (a pre-cursor to GM’s motor-rama). Not much is known about this trip, but we do know that Reg stopped in Los Angeles, where he met a number of hot rodders. One of the people he met was Eddie Meyer who operated a speed shop dedicated to extracting more power out of the flat head. Eddie Meyer Engineering made arguably one of the hottest dual carb manifolds on the market, with several cars using his equipment to achieve several records at Bonneville.

Fortunately post war airports didn’t have metal detectors and Reg was able to sneak one of Eddie’s manifolds back into the UK. The Allard boys soon appreciated the performance gain from the manifold and made quick work of making replicas for use on their performance Mercury 24-stud flatheads.

I must admit that it was a bit disappointing to learn that that Sydney basically ripped off someone else’s design (without even giving Meyer credit!). However, I don’t think it’s that big of a issue. Eddie Meyer couldn’t sell his manifolds in the UK and the odds of Allard selling a bunch of their knock-off manifolds in the US were pretty slim. Fortunately Eddie Meyer wrote a letter to Road & Track magazine (June, 1950), explaining the situation…although it was tough to tell whether he was proud or insulted that Allard had copied his design.

P.S.: If you know anything about or have any photos of Reg Canham’s USA M-type caravan trip, please click here to contact us!

Correspondence...

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We always love getting mail...and it was a pleasure to receive this message from Roger Murray-Evans this morning...

"Didn't know if you had this picture of TGT703 (P2-4512). Taken in the car park of Dralla House, offices, I believe of Adlard Builders. If I'm wrong I'm sure I'll be corrected pdq!

The car was registered for road use 12th October 1956 and used by Sydney until it  was sold on to Eric Alexander on 15th January 1958. Still painted Allard mid blue at that time, so this photo was obviously taken later, perhaps having been returned to Allards for re painting before going to the next owner,
John Williams on 11th September1962. John did the odd competitive event in the car and the AOC newsletter of May 1963 reports John having competed at a Pembrey sprint over the standing quarter mile recording 17.12secs, good enough for second place behind a MK2 Jaguar in the saloon class. The car was laid up with water pump failure in 1966, and was sold by his widow after he passed away in 1978.

Having passed through 3-4 subsequent owners it never found it's way back to the road.Currently still in the middle of a protracted restoration by me, realistically another 3-4 years will see the car back in good health."

Thanks for writing Roger, We look forward to hearing how the restoration goes. Perhaps you'll be racing in the Goodwood saloon class in a few years?