Under Construction...

We wanted to let you know that we'll be taking a little time off from updating the web site. The only updates you'll see will be in regards to the Sonoma Allard Gathering in May 2015.

Why the hiatus? Well, we've started building our new web site.. If you have any Allard questions, please feel free to contact us anytime.

Phillip Island 2014

An update from our man in Australia...
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We had a fun week of racing at Phillip Island, Graham in his J2, and I was running my 1960 Corvette.

Graham was doing really well all week in the Allard, but broke a rear stub-axle in the final heat race before the main event, and was not able to repair it at the track.  He and his pit crew (pictured below) worked together vigorously, but he ultimately decided to just sit back and enjoy the rest of the races.

I had better luck with the Corvette, finishing the main event race, but possibly I did not have as much fun as Graham did.

We are going for a drive down the Great Ocean Road tomorrow in my J2, one of Graham's friends J2's, and Graham in an older Ferrari, life is good.

Talk with you later, .........................Steve

Check your newsstand!

It's always great to see Allards getting some press in the mainstream automotive magazines. This time we are happy to report that Classic & Sports Car magazine will be featuring Chris Pring's J2 #2120, reg #OZ4444 in their February 2014 issue. OZ4444 was exhibited at the Festival of Britain before being delivered to racing driver Desmond Titterington in Belfast in September 1951. Following 14 podiums in his 24 outings in the Allard – including an outright win in the 1952 Leinster Trohpy – Titterington moved on to the Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar team and the Allard went to Calcutta in India. In the article James Mitchell tells the story of OZ4444's remarkable history and the meticulous restoration following its return home.

Photo by James Lipman.

Save the Brighton Speed Trials!

As an Allard enthusiast, we ask that you take a moment to sign an online petition to help save the Brighton Speed Trials. You may recall that a competitor was tragically killed during the 2012 event. In the wake of the accident, the Brighton city council would like to permanently discontinue this historic event. Yes, the loss of a life is very unfortunate, but all competitors that participate in motorsports realize that it is an inherently dangerous activity. Much has been done to make motor racing safer, so much so that back in the 60's and 70's, death was commonplace, but today thankfully it has become a rarity. However that is no reason to cancel an event that has brought so much joy to competitors and spectators around the world for over 100 years.

Fortunately the Brighton and Hove Motor Club aren't throwing in the towel. They've created a e-petition with the Brighton & Hove City Council to hopefully change some minds on the city council. As of today, the petition has almost 6,100 signatures. Please click here to add your name to the list!

You may be asking why Allard enthusiasts would be concerned with saving this event? Well, Sydney, Eleanor, and many of their friends raced various Allards to great success in the streets from the late 40's through the mid 60's. And today, most notably the Tiller family have raced their beastly J2 to several FTD's at Brighton over the years.

Please help save the Speed Trials.

Allard Motorsports Palm Beach MkII Restoration

We're now in the final stages of assembly regarding the Palm Beach MK2 build of chassis 72/7000Z. It'll be exactly one year at the end of August since we took on this project, and if all goes well we should go to paint in the next few weeks.

The whole project has been an awesome experience as well as sheer hard work, however all worthwhile we feel. We've sought to keep this restoration build as original as possible unless there was no alternative but to replace like for like – i.e. rusted panels, etc.  

We’ve made a copy chassis while we had the original one available to us. This ate up the build time and took longer than expected. The chassis jig had to be precise and also took time to construct, but we felt it was essential. This also provided a chance for me to study fully the construction of such chassis designs.

We're discussing whether the new Palm Beach chassis will be made into a MK2 PB or the MK3 PB, which was proposed by Sydney but never completed in 1958.  The most exciting option is to shelve the new PB chassis just for the time being and press on with the JR build.  The new chassis jig can also be used for the JR chassis build, of course. We already have in place the base JR chassis parts ready for assembly.

I attach photos of the new PB chassis on its jig, which you’re welcome to publish on your site. I've attached photos of the PB MKII build from arrival to this day. I hope your club members will find it interesting. We now have available many new parts for Allards, also photos attached of such parts. In the next few weeks I shall add a parts listing to the Allard Sports Cars www.allardsportscars.co.uk website, along with further PB restoration photos on the blog attached.

I hope that your members will find it an exciting time for Allard.  My father and I have been discussing these ideas for many years now and it seems with the help of both the Allard Owners Club and the Allard Register we can achieve our goals. As for me, I've been behind the scenes for many years, watching and learning. 

I'm still learning each year that passes, but for me the time has come to go out on a limb and ring my bell so to speak. I've fifteen years experience in the automotive fabrication & design industry and feel quite confident that the construction of chassis and, even the build of complete turn-key Allards, is truly possible with the vast majority of work being carried out in house.              

We propose only to construct a few cars for exclusive enthusiastic customers, true followers of the marque.  The sole idea behind the JR project is an easy one to understand. The JR does not necessarily have to be road registered thus avoiding all IVA processes, which in turn means a much quicker build process. However the JR will still be constructed to HTP FIA level in order to be accepted to race in high profile events such as the Lemans classic in which I intend to do as soon as possible. We simply need to find an investor who wants to achieve the same.

My father has worked tirelessly on this project, and I wish his efforts will be recognized, as he's one of a kind. He brings much experience to the table. I'll keep you updated upon further developments as and when. As soon as the PB has it's paint we shall organize an open day, and perhaps all attendees can come to the workshop and then over to our local racing circuit for some photos.

Regards,

Lloyd Allard

Click here to view a gallery of the unrestored PB MKII

Click here to view a gallery of the restoration process

Click here to view a gallery of the chassis

A Nice Summer...

K2 owner David Rossiter wrote us the other day...

"Just wanted to give you an update on the Allard (K2-2022) after taking first in class and best in show at the 2012 Annual All British Motor Vehicle show she Went to the Ironstone Concurs d'Ellegance in Murphys (fantastic show) and took first in class European Sports & Grand Touring (my Porsche also won its class see attached photo).  The next show we did for 2012 was the British fall Classic, in Morgan Hill again first in class. 

 
So far for 2013 we were asked to return to the 2013 Annual All British Motor Vehicle show where we were not allowed to compete in our class because as we were past winner but they have a Winner Circle Class where you compete against every class winner from last year and the Allard won that.  We next did the Hillsborough Concurs d'Ellegance and they stuck us in there race car class (wrong class for us and a frighteningly strong field to include a car from the Mozart Collection) but we took a second.  Next up we got the great news that the Allard will be appearing at the Annual, The Quail a Motorsports Gathering Event during Monterey car week.  And the last cool thing is that the Ironstone Concurs d'Ellegance requested to use the Allard on there 2013 poster, draft attached.  All in all a pretty exciting year for the old Allard!!"

Congrats to you David and we look forward to hearing how the Quail and Ironstone shows go for you and 2022.

...click here to drop us a note to tell us what you're up to this summer.

The Allard Dragster is Complete!

Congrats to the Allard Dragster Team who handed over the keys of the now restored Allard Dragster to the staff at the Beaulieu Motor Museum this past weekend at the Custom & Hot Rod Festival. We've been really impressed by the progress of the team over the past few years and its been a joy to see it all come together.

To the untrained observer, this was just another car restoration. However, the Dragster is owned by the Beaulieu Trust, a wonderful organization, but one that didn't have the resources to restore this historic car. Then a few enthusiast/volunteers (with no money) approached the Trust with a desire to restore the Dragster. Over the process of a few short years, they raised money, scrounged for parts, and spent countless hours working on "Ally."

We'd like to extend our appreciation to the Allard Dragster team of volunteers and donors for making this restoration a reality and for doing such a great job. However, we'd like to extend a special thank you to Brian Taylor who spearheaded the project and never lost the faith. Without Brian, the Dragster likely would have never have been restored.

What's next for Ally? She'll be seen around the UK and Europe at "cackle-fests" where you'll get to hear that glorious supercharged Chrysler Hemi roar to life. Perhaps she'll even make it to the USA? They still need to raise more money, so if you want to help, please click here to visit their site. You can also click here to read their latest newsletter.

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!

Page Update: M Coupe

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

New Allards: An Introduction

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.