Goodwood Revival 2009

 

By Mel Herman

Everyone I had spoken to about the Goodwood Revival says what a great event it is. I have been to many Classic race meetings and expected just another of the same. Wasn't I wrong.

The sheer volume of great cars, the enthusiasm of those attending in period costume, the sideshows and events put on by the organizers all, in my mind, add up to a fantastic, not to be missed spectacle with something for all the family. The Henly and Ascot for Classic Cars.

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Time Machine

 

By Bill Pollack 

A thousand years ago I was racing a very crude but powerful machine called an Allard. Mr. Allard had the crazy notion that he could sell a car without an engine. This may be the answer for Detroit. It would certainly drop the cost of an Escalade and qualify it as a ”No Emissions” vehicle.

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2009 Monterey Historics - Review

 

This year marked the 36th running of the Monterey Historic Auto Races, and the 3rd time that Porsche was honored as the featured marque. The ‘Monterey Historics’ www.montereyhistoric.com are a special part of many of our lives.

In our case, we just ‘stumbled upon’ them during a 1979 visit to the Monterey Peninsula – the year when Bentley was the featured marque. The image of Phil Hill kicking the tail out on his three-liter blower Bentley as he drifted that behemoth around [what is now] Turn 10 is forever imbedded in my mind. I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven, and this vintage motorsports ‘happening’ has been a focal point of the Warnes family calendar ever since.

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The Pebble Beach Tour, 2009

For a number of years, the organizers of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance have forced their entrants to drive their beautiful cars 70 miles along the Central California Coast so they can be ogled at for free by the general public as they are parked along Ocean Avenue in Carmel. Not only is this event a test of every entrants cooling system (there are a number of traffic jams), but is also a test of every owners ability to trust Joe Six-Pack not to scratch their million dollar Bugatti's.

Click here to view the Pebble Beach Tour Photo Gallery

Cheers,
Colin

Monterey Auction Preview

For 2009, no less than six Allards will cross the various auction blocks setup throughout Monterey this August. Of the six Allards, two are most notable in my opinion.

First is the Allard J2 at Mecum (their first Monterey auction). This is one of two Allards that was raced by Carroll Shelby and it should command big numbers, although it did not reach its reserve price at a previous Mecum auction.

The second car is the M Coupe at RM (shown above). This is a very unique car as only three M Coupes were made out of 500 produced. The car is very attractive and unique…hopefully it will bring more than the estimate.

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Silverstone Classic 2009, A Driver's Perspective

 

(Click here or the photo above to view the Silverstone Classic Photo Gallery)

I have trouble keeping my core (freeze) plugs in and sure enough, hammering down the M1 at 7.45am last Thursday, en route to Silverstone racing circuit, that familiar "Turkish Bath" moment struck again, and I pulled up onto the hard shoulder. Two bits of luck, I had my good friend and co-driver for the weekend behind in his Honda Civic, and I still had my core-plug bodgers repair kit in my tool box. Co-driver went off to look for water while I started mixing the epoxy metal. I wont bore you with the details, but I spent the rest of the week-end running with the radiator cap undone because the bodge had to stay bodged.

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Allards at Pickering

 

Click here or the photo above to view the photo gallery

For those not familiar with the UK geography, Pickering, in Yorkshire is an area to the north of England with wonderful scenery and has been a gathering place for northern Allards for a few years now.

Several Allards gather for a tour of the North of England and the Pickering weekend becomes the focal point for others to join them and enjoy a social get together and dinner at a great country Inn where several stay over. This year eleven Allard’s were able to get together for the weekend.

The gathering is very well organized by Peter Wright with help from Barry Ogden. The Saturday night dinner is held at The New Inn, a typical country Inn with its own micro brewery making really good ale that we tend to do justice to over the few days.

More news to follow...

Cheers,

Mel Herman

A Love Story, Part 5 of 5

The cowl was painted first then the nose, tail and other parts. After cleaning the aluminum with an aircraft cleaner, the aluminum was primed with PPG epoxy primer followed by a sanding primer. I used an enamel for the finish coat so I could polish out any defects. At this point I discovered my spray gun was totally worn out and causing problems in the paint. I could not stop, and hoped that the defects could be polished out. Some could not. I installed the nose section first so I could install the lights – then the tail, fenders and doors.

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A Love Story, Part 4 of 5

 I had been working on the car for about 12 hours when I quit for the this June day, went to the house, had supper and went to bed. About midnight I woke up with chills and a fever of 104. Early the next morning I headed for the emergency room where they admitted me to the hospital with pneumonia. A week later I came home but was too weak to work on the car. This set me back a whole month. At this point I was not sure that I could complete the restoration by the October deadline. (A word of caution for those of you who spray paint: even though I used a proper mask and filters I think the cause of my pneumonia was due to paint fumes. My recommendation – get a respirator with an outside air supply). During this month I did do some machine work and fabricated new door latches from brass, then had them chrome plated.

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A Love Story, Part 3 of 5

 THE SECOND RESTORATION

The Texas World Speedway at Bryan, Texas was chosen as the site for the 2004 ‘Gathering of the Clan’ reunion for Allard owners. In 1969 I had opened the then-named Texas International Speedway with my Allard, the only one there. So I felt it imperative that I attend this Gathering. The car was not in shape for show, so in December 2003 I started a clean up that grew into another frame-off restoration. The completion date had to be no later than October 31, 2004.

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