An Interesting Palm Beach...

The recent Bring A Trailer ad for Palm Beach 21Z-5155, created a lot of interesting comments about Palm Beach's. One in particular from Wayne Goldman caught our eye. Wayne bought a Palm Beach in the late sixties and threw the Ford Zodiac engine and gearbox away. In its place, he installed a 170 cubic inch Ford six with a three carb manifold, H & M cam, etc. and a 4 speed gear box. Wayne notes that the car, "went like a bat out of hell, but the 4:1 rear axle was too high for highway use so I narrowed a Ford axle which had the same bolt pattern as the original wire wheels and the car was great. I had a friend who was the top SCCA Corvette driver in New England and he could only beat me by 50 feet in a 1/4 drag race. The Ford 170 six was popular with midget racers and it would wind up to over 8,000 RPM…"

Sadly Wayne lost track  of the car and we haven't been able to decipher the chassis plate which was reattached to the dash. If you know anything about the car, please leave a comment or send us a note.

Incidentally, Wayne also has a bunch of interesting (and good) racing photos that he took back in the 50's. Click here to visit his site.

Allards in the movies

Bernard Dervieux sent us the screen shot above from the 1953 movie, "Paris Model" starring Eva Gabor, Marilyn Maxwell, Paulette Goddard, and Tom Conway (Maharajah of Kim-Kepore) who we assume is driving the car. If you look closely, the car is a light colored J2X with two fuel fillers and disc wheels....we're guessing it's chassis 3144 that was also featured in "Written in the Wind." The car appears within the first twenty minutes of the movie for 2 to 3 minutes. Thanks Bernard!

Keels & Wheels, 2013

The Keels and Wheels show was great and it's probably the most laid back show around so it is very enjoyable. After 6 years going to Keels & Wheels the "Bitch" finally won a "Best of Class" trophy in the Vintage Race Car Class. Bob Weiner took the Silver Trophy. Finally met Roger Allard who had a J2X MKII at the show. I really enjoyed meeting him and seeing the car for the first time. Everyone had a great time but I was getting sick the second day of the show which really sapped my strength and I had to have help standing to accept the trophy. Don't like getting old but it beats the alternate.

The "Yellow Jacket" boats were the featured class for the boat part of the show. I had to go to their site and tell the Owners about the boat as I had designed several item for the Yellow Jacket boats back in the 1950s and had also done exploded drawings for every type boat they manufactured.

-Bill Bauder

Fun Stuff...

"You can always tell a happy Allard owner - by the dead flies on his teeth..."

Page Updates: M2 & M2X

We've finally created pages for the M2 and M2X. Believe it or not, but we had to a fair amount of research to confirm which was which since the documentation we had was both poor and inconsistent. Special thanks to David Hooper for helping us sort through the details. Finally, we'd like to extend a special thank you to Don Milligan who supplied us with the M2X scanned photos (and kept after us to create the page). Don, now it's our turn to pester you to restore that M2X! Click the photo above to view the M2 page. Click the photo below to view the M2X page. Enjoy!

Allard For Sale: Palm Beach 21Z-5155

21Z-5155 is back up for sale. The new owner picked up the car a few months ago and after putting all of the pieces back together again...was surprised to find that pretty much everything was there except for the engine and trans. The only other thing he didn't have was time. Too many projects mean this car is going back on the market. We issued the car a replacement chassis plate (many Allards have lost their original chassis plates over time). The car is being listed for $17,500, which is a bit steeper than the original price of $5,000 a few months ago. This situation is different now though, since the car is known to be mostly complete. We're not sure if it's $12,500 more complete, but interested parties can always make an offer. Click here to view the ad on www.Bringatrailer.com and contact the seller. The car is in Turlock, CA (same town, different owner).

19 Cadillac Engine Tuning Tips

1. The stock Cadillac ignition is NOT good enough for a tuned engine – or even hard use with a standard engine. You have to change to a high performance points/coil ignition, solid state ignition or use a magneto. Magnetos are period and pass muster for historic racing. This is the first thing you have to do.
2.  One of the weak points in the Cadillac 331/365/390 series the fact that the outer ends of the fronts of the rocker shafts are not supported and tend to break under even moderately hard use. The solution is to fabricate stands for the ends of the rocker shafts, especially for the front. Better still; go to a larger diameter rocker shaft. We use 1950’s Chrysler shafts and after-market rocker arms. Even these shafts, fully supported, tend to fracture under racing conditions.

Click to read more ...

Old Magazine Covers, Part 13

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.

Allard K3 For Sale

We came across this K3 project car the other day on www.Hemmings.com. We contacted the seller to find out more about the car, but he’s chosen to withhold the vehicles history for serious buyers only. He did confirm that the K3 is one of the first 10 K3’s built. It includes a 331 Cadillac engine and 3-speed LaSalle gearbox. The car is local to the NY/NJ area and it has been off the road for 30+ years. Interested buyers should contact the seller by phone at 631-924-8863 or email gjlymber@hotmail.com. Asking price is $45,000.

ED: After having some experience restoring a basket case K3, the car appears to be very complete (much more complete than ours!). Sure it needs a lot of work, but it’s all there, including the gauges.

Page Update: M Coupe

We've updated the M Coupe' page, click here or the photo above to check it out.