The Moss Files, Delivery Day.

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...

Mystery Allard...

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.

Zora's Notes

The image below is from Zora Arkus Duntov's technical report on the 1953 Le Mans race. This is the race that almost got Zora fired from GM, which means the Corvette as we know and love today...almost never was.

Reminder: The car that Zora raced to help create this report is up auction this Friday at RM in Scottsdale, lot #115.

Handle with care

As with the previous letter, this one is also addressed to Mr. Cappy of the Britain Motor Co. It dates from June of 1948 and is probably typed on the thinnest paper I have ever handled. This letter is also the oldest Allard letter we have in our archives. Click here or the letter above to view as a pdf.

It's a small world...

Sometimes you get lucky. The other day I won an Ebay auction for an Allard brochure that I didn't have yet. Along with the brochure were a few other brochures and some old letters. The package arrived today and as I sorted through the items I noticed that both letters were dated from 1948. Upon further inspection; one of the letters was from J.B. Ferguson of Fergus Motors in NYC to Allan Cappy of Britain Motor Co. in Rochester, NY. Mr. Ferguson writes about receiving a used K1 that was imported in 1947 and was modified with a Grancor "Hot Rod" engine with over 150 hp. Grancor was of course Andy Granatelli's (STP) shop that also imported a few Allards. What's interesting is that the K1 in question must be chassis 108, that was recently sold on Ebay. Click here or the photo above to view the pdf.

The Allard of the Future

The following is a imaginative look at what an Allard might be like today. This concept is brought to us by none other than famed Allard racer Bill Pollack (seen above winning the 1950 Pebble Beach Road Race). You can imagine the impact that racing these beasts has had on Mr. Pollack...where he still imagines them tearing up the tracks and turning the automotive world inside out. Thank you Bill!

I have often wondered what prompted Sydney Allard, to build a sports car. In the late 30s and 40s he was involved in a sport known as “Trials”. It was very popular in Great Britain. The trials consisted of 2 men, in a small car trying to negotiate deep mud. Often, the participants would find themselves heavily mired in an endless sea of the sticky stuff. Mostly, the cars were Austin 7’s or the like, with tiny engines, low power and little to say for themselves. The enthusiasts, would strip the fenders, lights, windshields etc. to lighten the cars as much as possible. I am sure, that Allard quickly noticed that those cars with the somewhat larger engines probably did better.

Click to read more ...

The Moss Files, Part 6

In this instalment, Al writes to the AMC about his near success at the first Pebble Beach Road Race, which very likely would have resulted in an Allard victory if it weren't for a bit of bad luck! Mr. Moss also provides some constructive criticism while sharing a bit of growing frustration with the build quality of the cars. Click here or the image above to read the 2 page letter.

The Moss Files, Part 5

This letter reveals some of the growing frustration between the AMC and Moss Motors. The AMC would obviously like Mr. Moss to sell more cars and Mr. Moss would like the AMC to advertise more and resolve his territory concerns with Roy Richter (Bell Auto Parts). Click here or the image above to view the full 2-page. Cheers!

The Moss Files, Part 4

Today's post is a pretty rare item...a factory-dealer invoice for K2-2081 stating the features ordered, along with the 25% discount. My favorite part of this invoice? The black box letterhead. Click here or the photo below to view the pdf.

The Moss Files, Part 3

Today's installment features a letter from Mr. Davis confirming Moss Motors as a distributor. It's interesting to note that the J2 was not priced at a premium...in fact it was their most affordable car! This isn't a big surprise since the J2 is such a simple car in comparison to the K2, P, and M-types. As a bonus, page 2 is a brief announcement of Allard's 3rd place finish in Le Mans just a day earlier. Click here or the photo above to view the 2-page pdf.