Correspondence...

We love to hear from our readers, especially those that write us with memories of an Allard their family used to own. We received one of those letters a few days ago from Roger in the UK, he writes...

"I was browsing your site as my father had an Allard P1 saloon in the 1950's.  He bought it second hand sometime after Allard's success at the Monte Carlo Rally.  I know this because my father was rather chuffed when his brother in law saw it (the brother in law was a keen rally enthusiast and saw my father as a stuffy solicitor I think) and was rather envious of the car because of the win.

The car was black with the large grill and had the registration number WMC 515.  The car was always called William by the family because of its number plate.

I remember very little about the car as I was very little when we had it.  I remember my father got the car up to 90 mph on one occasion and was very amused when I piped up from the back saying "A braver man would have done a hundred".

I am pretty sure it was this car that to open the boot you lifted it until the support clicked and to lower it you lifted it and when it clicked you could lower it down again.  If the boot is like that then this is the one that fell on my father's back when he was leaning into the boot, which produced a lot of swearing.  I know, I was standing next to him!

During the 1950's the family holidayed in Pembrokeshire.  As we lived in north London we would set of long before dawn. This is long before the Severn Bridge or motorways and the journey took all day.  We would drive there and back in the Allard.  On one occasion we were well into the journey when my father suddenly realized that when he was cleaning the car the previous day he had forgotten to put the hub caps back on.  So we drove all the way back home to put them on.  On another trip to Pembrokeshire it was discovered that the boot hadn't been closed properly and some Wellington boots had fallen out.  It shows how little traffic there was then that on retracing our steps they were found in the road where they had fallen out.

My father replaced the Allard in the late 50's with a second hand Humber Super Snipe Mk IV.  Four doors, larger, but not as sporty."

Thanks for writing Roger!

Correspondence...

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?