New Allards: Allard Motor Cars

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Bacak in 2011, Jason Wharton created Allard Motor Cars in the UK with desire to build a continuation series of Allard J2X-Le Mans cars. However, after listening to feedback from prospective customers, Jason has changed his plans and now intends to develope a modern interpretation of the J2X Le Mans...which is shown here. From Jason...

"It will be called the ‘Allard™ Le Mans’ and it will have a modern chassis, suspension or brakes, the chief designer & chief engineer are both British but their identity is confidential, we will of course use 2D, 3D & CAD and other technology to produce a authentic, durable and very high quality car, but which at the same time will give the driver a retro design, experiential delight, simple but powerful dynamics. We do have funding and the price of the car will be announced in due course, but it will be in the range $150,000 – 250,000.

We are keen to receive any feedback from all Allard enthusiasts as to the merits of this project in any respect, but especially any thoughts or views on the concept designs, the preferred choice of engine, transmission, whether they might want to buy one, indeed any views at all, above all, what they consider to be the essential ‘DNA’ of an ALLARD, what is special for them about the brand, the heritage, the cars, that sort of thing, as much feedback would really help in the next few months prior to Start of Production (SOP) in 2014."

If you'd like to give Jason your feedback, please click here to send him an email.

New Allards: An Introduction

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There's been a lot of interest in building new Allard's lately...you may call them replica's, continuation cars, reproductions, recreations, or even kit cars (they are NOT kits!). As we all know, there's a fairly limited number of real Allard's to go around and they keep getting more expensive. As you can imagine, there are a few brave entrepenuers out there that would like to meet the demand for "new" Allards. Over the next few posts, we'll feature a few of the current projects that are in the works. Please note, we have no preferance for, or interest in one group or another...we are just posting what they are doing. It's a brave task to do what these folks are attempting and we wish them all the best of luck and we hope to see (and test) your creations on the road soon.

The Moss Files, Engine Installation

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Here's a few more photos from the Moss files. The car in question is K3-3169, which was actually sold by Noel Kirk Motors to a Mr. William Valentine. What's it doing Al Moss' shop you might ask? Well, this was likely the first Allard sold by Noel Kirk and his shop didn't know how to install the engine (a Cadillac in this case), so they called up Al and asked if he would do it. Conveniently, Noel sent along a helper to assist with the project...and that was the last time Al did an engine installation for Noel. This second owner car is currently owned by Dr. Martin Allard (no relation).

Immediate Delivery of Allard Chassis!

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In the past we've highlighted a few "mystery cars" that were built on Allard chassis, but they featured a bespoke body on the rear. We knew very little about these cars until we came across this Allard advertisement the other day. It describes exactly what you received when your ordered your Allard chassis.

“Here is an exceptional opportunity. Immediate delivery can be given of a limited number of fully road tested Allard chassis, either left- or right-hand drive. Chassis specification includes: independent front wheel suspension, Ford V8 engine, Lockheed brakes, Dunlop tyres, front wings, cowl, grille, bumpers, spare wheel, full Lucas electrical equipment including lamps, horns, indicators, wind-screen wiper, instrument panel with all instruments and smith’s Side Jacking system. Coupe chassis wheel base 9’ 4” -£670.

In addition to the above two-seater 8’10” chassis and open four-seater 9’4” chassis at £670 include bonnet, bonnet sides and fittings, not mounted.

As the number of chassis available is limited, immediate application is advised either to the Allard Motor Company or your local accredited Agent.”

Old Magazine Covers, Part 12

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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.

The Moss Files, Delivery Day.

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Along with the paper records that the late Al Moss donated to our archives, he also shared with us a number of rare color slides. The first batch of slides presented today give us a look at what it was like to take delivery of a new Allard in the US. These are the "skeleton" crates that all exported Allard cars were shipped in. Additionally, we get to see the joy of a new owner, in this case Basil Panzer receiving his new car. What an exciting day it must have been! The cars were delivered to Al's first shop, which he shared with Jack Gilchrist on 3200 W Olympic Blvd. Both cars were shipped from the Allard factory in late April of 1950. The black J2 of Bazil Panzer is chassis #1571 and the silver/grey L-type is chassis #1701 was ordered by Morgan Sinclair. We should note that the J2 was soon raced by young Phil Hill up Pikes Peak, more on that coming soon...

Site Updates...

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We're pleased to announce that we've updated our Web Links with two new buttons on the top tool bar. The first button, 'Allard Links' is for interesting Allard links. The second button, 'Allard Technical Links' is for everything tech related...parts, manuals, suppliers, etc. If you'd like to recommend a site that we missed, please click here to let us know. We hope you find them useful!

Mystery Allard...

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The photos you see here were sent to us by Bryan who owned this car back in the late 50's. He'd love to find out what happened to it...and we'd love to find out what chassis it is. 

Bryan writes, "Here's a couple of photos of the old dear, known (naturally!) as Sabrina, although these days she could just as well be known as Dolly! She had a 3.5 litre flathead Ford V8, the weight of which made her a bit lazy where cornering was concerned but one didn’t worry too much. Acceleration out of corners, helped by the Ballamy front suspension, was scorching as you can imagine. In any case she had colossal braking power.

I bought her from a friend in about 1957 for £50 and ran her happily for about eighteen months until coming past Newmarket towards Six Mile Bottom the revs suddenly went sky high, without a noticeable increase in speed. Not surprising this. My co-driver told me we were doing fractionally over one ton at the time. I had her towed to my uncle’s farm at Hemingford. About three months later he told me he had sold her, minus any drive from the busted half-shaft, to an American airman from Basingbourne. This man was eager for her and paid me £150 for the privilege. I would surely say she didn’t owe me a penny then, but what would she be worth now?

Apart from this note I have no information about her. She was surely the strangest design of bodywork I have ever seen, almost but not quite an estate car and you could stuff an extra ordinary amount of luggage in through the tailgates. As her driving her, she was a joy and filled in the blank in my life just after I had had a bust at Paddock Bend and decided I wasn’t as good as Stirling and had better quit while I could.

As for her rudimentary silencers – what a lovely noise. I still adore the sound of a V-8!"

If you know anything about the car, please send us a note. This was likely one of the many M types that was sold without a body. It's like a hatchback shooting brake with a roll-top roof. Nice.

Old Magazine Covers, Part 11

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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!

Allard Art

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We received a nice thank you note the other day from an Allard enthusiast with the image above on the front. We thought it was pretty cool so we decided the share it with you. The card was printed in 1994 by the Helmet Goggle and Company in PA....no word on the artist though. The caption on the back reads, "1950 Allard J2, This British sports car, powered by either Ford, Chrylser, Cadillac V-8 engines, gained much success throughout Europe and the United States." It looks a bit more like a J2X to us though.

Scottsdale RM Preview: JR-3403

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This is probably one of my most favorite Allards, JR-3403...just one of 7 built. The car was raced at Le Mans in 1953 by Zora Arkus Duntov and Ray Merrick for 65 laps before retiring. After Le Mans, the car was sold to Col. Reade Tilley of the Strategic Air Command. This JR (also called a J2R) is ready to race and it will likely gain the new owner entry into the most premier vintage race & rally events around the world. To learn more about the car, click here to view the RM post. The car will be sold as lot #115 on Friday January 18. The estimated selling price is $350-450,000, which I believe to be fairly modest. With the right bidders, this car could double that estimate and be worth every penny.

Photos by Scott Miller, courtesy RM Auctions

Here's a video of the car prepping for Le Mans, courtesy of Cadillac Engineer Frank Burrell:

Scottsdale Barrett-Jackson Preview: J2X-3076

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Barrett-Jackson will be auctioning off J2X-3076 on Saturday January 19. This particular car was exported to Shawnee Motor Co, in Kansas City on September 30, 1952. The car was red with red interior but restored with tan interior. The car was originally configured for DeSoto-Chrysler power, but the engine was later changed to a 365cid Cadillac V8. Fuel is delivered by an ultra rare Horne four carburetor intake manifold with four twin choke Stromberg carbs. 3076 was recently restored/refreshed by Mike Fennel just before he passed away. This J2X is being offered as lot 5016.1 with no reserve...what do you think it will go for?

For Sale: Palm Beach Basket Case

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The car above is an Allard Palm Beach, chassis 21Z-5155 – the ‘Z’ meaning that it was powered by a 6-cylinder Ford Zephyr engine. This car was the second to last Allard exported to the United States, shipping out on April 16, 1955 to the Allard Motor Company offices in New York. The car was originally painted red with blue interior. The current owner purchased the car in 1981, but none of the previous ownership history is known.

The car is essentially a basket case, but it includes all of the major bits: chassis, suspension, body, and doors...plus a bunch of other bits and pieces. Other than that, the car is a blank slate. The purist could return it to its stock configuration, or one could drop in the drive train from a Nissan Z car, install disc brakes, strip the paint down to the bare aluminum and have quite the sleeper hot rod. Warning: stock Palm Beach chassis are not strong enough to handle the weight and power of a V8.

The car is located in Turlock, CA and is being offered for $5,000 OBO. Interested parties should contact the seller at mrjba2@surewest.net.

Santa's got a new sled...

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Special thanks to Kerry Horan for sending us an image of Santa blasting around in his Steyr somewhere up ini the North Pole. Additional thanks go out to Mick Walsh from Classic & Sports Car magazine. for working with the artist to allow us to repost this. Speaking of the artist, this painting was created by Klaus Wagger of Austria. Please visit his web site at www.klauswagger.at; there you can learn more about Klaus and his beatiful car paintings.

Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year to all of you!

Cheers,
The Allard Register

 

 

The greatest story ever told...

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Sorry, but Grendel from the Anglo-Saxon epic 'Beowulf' is a wimp compared to the epic villain in this short story from a different time. Writer Dick O'Kane brings us this epic poem set on the epic streets of LA, with illustrations from the amazing Stan Mott. Special thanks to the folks at Automobile Quarterly for granting us permission to share this story of an Allard from the depths of hell. If you'd like to pick up a hard copy, you can the AQ Volume 8, #4 (the Allard issue) on Ebay from time to. Enjoy!

Click here to download the pdf.

Found on Ebay: M2X2001

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A real rarity popped up on Ebay in the UK the other day...an M2X, aka "the Whale." 32 of these beasts were built, but only 2 are known to survive today in restored condition. This car, chassis 2001 was shipped to the US on June 4, 1951. It was originally painted green with natural leather interior. It features a Cadlillac V8 and was once a part of the late Brian Sharp's Allard collection. You can buy it now for 34,000 GBP ($55k).