The stuff you find on Ebay...

I've never seen one of these before...it a sports coat with an Allard Owners Club - America patch sown on the breast pocket. The jacket is a size 42.

I must confess that the seller contacted me before posting the Ebay ad. It looks like the previous owner was in the military and the last name might have been "Harper." These assumptions were made because the coat was part of a lot purchased with military items that had the name Harper on them.

Click here to view the auction.

It lives!!!!!!!!!!!

From Brian Taylor...

"OK historians log these details in your book of legends. The date - Sunday July 1st. The place - the workshop at Andy Robinson Race Cars in the UK. The time - 2030 hrs local time. Those present - Andy Robinson, Bob Roberts, Martin Dunks and Brian Taylor. After a long days work and fueled with methanol Sydney Allard's 1961 Allard Chrysler dragster burst into life. The first time since 1964.The sigh...t, sound and smell was amazing. Thanks to all those who have backed us and to an amazing team of people working on the car we have brought drag racing history back to life. There is still plenty of work to do before Brian Golder's original restoration has been complated but nothing that will not wait until after Dragstalgia. We will be able to attend the Cacklefest Ball on the strip on Saturday evening on July 14th and during July 15th and for the first time since 1964 those attending will be able to see and hear the car that started it all in European drag racing terms. Make sure you are there. The start-up was recorded on video and we will release lots more info soon. How did I feel? Relieved, proud and so excited. I didn't sleep much last night just re-running that moment in my mind. Wow."

Congrats to everyone that's working on the restoration...the end is near!

Bill Pollack Presides as Grand Marshal at Sonoma

 

More than 340 historic cars ran in 15 racing groups at the 3^rd annual Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival at Infineon Raceway on the first weekend of June. This year’s theme was “Moments in Time: a Celebration of the History of Motorsports”. Bill Pollack, winner of the 1952 Golden Gate Park Road Races driving a Cadillac-Allard J2, was honored as Grand Marshal.

Click to read more ...

A few walk arounds of old #65

Seeing that video the other day of that poor guy attempting to drive Bob Lylte's J2X inspired me to dig through my Monterey archives. I put together the footage you see here of Bob getting ready to practice at Monterey in 2006...and of Bob's car just before it was auctioned at RM. Seeing this footage was bittersweet and brought back a lot of fond memories. In the next week I'll post a gallery that shows off the guts of J2X 3162...I doubt you've ever seen a J2X like it. Cheers!

How Not To Drive an Allard

Just found this video on YouTube of the late Bob Lytle's J2X being prepped for auction at RM a few years ago. Bob's J2X was equipped with a Buick Nailhead and a Muncie 4-speed...As you can see in the video, the driver couldn't quite get the hang of the 4-speed!

J2X MkII in Shanghai

Roger Allard's Chinese demonstrator has been getting a lot of attention lately. This past weekend, his distributor, Keith Lomason, President of Jimmer's Classic Collectibles was invited to brink the MkII to the Shanghai F1 circuit to play with the Shanghai Super Sports Car Club. The attendees were primarily Lambos, Ferraris, Beemers, Porsches, Benzs, etc...with one orphan - the Allard.

Each car got 10 timed laps per segment. The J2X MkII was approximately 15 seconds behind the Lambos etc. Keith is is not an experienced driver on the track, plus he has a slight weight disadvantage. Not bad for a rookie on skinny tires! Hopefully we can get some in car footage next time...

Click to read more ...

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.

R&T Misc. Ramblings: Allard J2 Cornering

An excerpt from the August 1951 issue of Road & Track...which was an excerpt from  the Jan-Feb 1951 issue of Sports Car magazine...

"In a recent regional news letter, the cornering powers of our 'J.2' are compared with another make and the fact that the 'J.2' holds the road like a leech up to certain speeds when it slides without warning, is mentioned.

Mr. Allard asks me to say that this is well known, but the speed at which this sliding occurs is greatly above the speed at which the other make mentioned starts to break away. At the speed where this breakaway occurs on other makes, the 'J.2' is rock steady and, if it is desired to corner at the maximum speed possible with our car, this must be done in the usual Grand Prix manner, in a four-wheel drift. The required angle of drift being maintained by conjuctive manipulation of steering and throttle.

When this technique is mastered we doubt if there is a faster sports car through corners extant than the 'J.2' Allard"

-H.J. Biggs, Technical Assistant, Allard Motor Co.

P.S. The photo above is from the March '80 issue of the Old Motor with Jim Tiller showing us how to corner his J2 at Goodwood in '69.

In the News...

The July 2012 issue of Classic Motorsports magazine has a large story on Martin Stickley's Ford Cobra engined J2#2121. Cheers.