WELCOME!
Below are excerpts of the latest Allard news - just click a headline to read the whole story. If you own an Allard and would like to know more about it, please click here to contact us. We hope you enjoy the site!

Entries in Allard (348)

Monday
Apr012013

Allard Patches

Over the years we've collected a few Allard patches...old and new. If you know the history of the more "vintage" patches, please click here to let us know. Enjoy!

Vintage embroidered patch. 3 5/8" wide x 1 3/4" tall

Vintage Allard Owners Club patch, likely for a dress jacket. 3 3/4" wide x 4  5/16" tall

Vintage screen printed patch. 3 1/2" wide x 1 3/4" tall

Embroidered Allard Owners Club patch. 3" round

Vintage embroidered Allard Owners of America patch. 4 1/16" round

Emroidered Allard Register patch, early 1990's. 2 1/2" wide x 3" tall. We have around 12 of these patches remaining, $5/each.

Embroidered Allard patch, early 90's. 4 1/2" wide x 2 1/4" tall

Vinitage embroidered Allard patch on red felt. 3 1/2" wide x 1 5/8" tall

Small embroidered Allard patch, by Bob Lucurell. 2 9/16" wide x 1 1/4" tall

Large embroidered Allard patch by Bob Lucurell, 9 3/8" wide x 4 1/2" tall

Friday
Mar292013

Sydney's Specials: JGP 473

Around the same time that Sydney started work on the Steyr race car, he also started a new sports special that was registered as JGP 473. Although the Steyr took priority, JGP 473 was finished in June of 1947. Tom Lush writes about the special in his book, saying...

"Based on the J frame, with the same wheelbase and track, it was made much lighter by omiting much of the chassis-boxing and cross-bracing, and was lowered considerably by the use of flattened springs. The two-seater body consisted of an aluminum shell mounted over a light tubular framework, and as first constructed without doors, these being added later when regulations governing sports car racing made them compulsory.

Following Sydney's usual weight-savnig formula, the car was fitted with two lightweight seats and remained untrimmed and while in his possesion. The engine* which had been removed from HLF 601 when Leslie took it over had been stripped and rebuilt ready for installation in the new car as Sydney reckoned teh extra power obtained, even for a short time, amply compensated for the work involved in replacing the head gaskets."

The car was very succesful breaking the sports car record at Prescott in 1948. Later, the car passed on to Leslie who continued to race the car with good results. At some point, the front end of the car must must have been damaged badly, because for For Sale photos of the car (via Chiltern Cars) show it with a completely different nose. The car was also fitted with a more liveable Mercury engine. We're not exactly sure what happened to the car, but it's thought to have been destroyed in a fire.

*The engine featured a crude set of cast-iron overhead valve heads from America that predated the Ardun head conversion. These heads were prone to blowing head gaskets on a weely basis. Does anyone know where these heads may have come from?

Wednesday
Mar272013

Back in time...

Our good friend Kerry Horan sent in the clipping above from the July 1967 issue of Road & Track. By digging through our chassis database, we believe the P1 is chassis 1720. Basically it's the only RHD P1 with black paint and a maroon interior that ever made it to America...that we know of at least. The JR is chassis #3407 that resides in the Mallya Collection. Our records indicate that the car shipped to the US in September 1962 after leaving the car of long time Allard enthusiast Rupert de Larrinaga.

Saturday
Mar162013

New Allards: Allard Motor Cars

Bacak in 2011, Jason Wharton created Allard Motor Cars in the UK with desire to build a continuation series of Allard J2X-Le Mans cars. However, after listening to feedback from prospective customers, Jason has changed his plans and now intends to develope a modern interpretation of the J2X Le Mans...which is shown here. From Jason...

"It will be called the ‘Allard™ Le Mans’ and it will have a modern chassis, suspension or brakes, the chief designer & chief engineer are both British but their identity is confidential, we will of course use 2D, 3D & CAD and other technology to produce a authentic, durable and very high quality car, but which at the same time will give the driver a retro design, experiential delight, simple but powerful dynamics. We do have funding and the price of the car will be announced in due course, but it will be in the range $150,000 – 250,000.

We are keen to receive any feedback from all Allard enthusiasts as to the merits of this project in any respect, but especially any thoughts or views on the concept designs, the preferred choice of engine, transmission, whether they might want to buy one, indeed any views at all, above all, what they consider to be the essential ‘DNA’ of an ALLARD, what is special for them about the brand, the heritage, the cars, that sort of thing, as much feedback would really help in the next few months prior to Start of Production (SOP) in 2014."

If you'd like to give Jason your feedback, please click here to send him an email.

Saturday
Mar162013

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.

Sunday
Feb172013

The Moss Files, Engine Installation

Here's a few more photos from the Moss files. The car in question is K3-3169, which was actually sold by Noel Kirk Motors to a Mr. William Valentine. What's it doing Al Moss' shop you might ask? Well, this was likely the first Allard sold by Noel Kirk and his shop didn't know how to install the engine (a Cadillac in this case), so they called up Al and asked if he would do it. Conveniently, Noel sent along a helper to assist with the project...and that was the last time Al did an engine installation for Noel. This second owner car is currently owned by Dr. Martin Allard (no relation).

Sunday
Feb032013

Immediate Delivery of Allard Chassis!

In the past we've highlighted a few "mystery cars" that were built on Allard chassis, but they featured a bespoke body on the rear. We knew very little about these cars until we came across this Allard advertisement the other day. It describes exactly what you received when your ordered your Allard chassis.

“Here is an exceptional opportunity. Immediate delivery can be given of a limited number of fully road tested Allard chassis, either left- or right-hand drive. Chassis specification includes: independent front wheel suspension, Ford V8 engine, Lockheed brakes, Dunlop tyres, front wings, cowl, grille, bumpers, spare wheel, full Lucas electrical equipment including lamps, horns, indicators, wind-screen wiper, instrument panel with all instruments and smith’s Side Jacking system. Coupe chassis wheel base 9’ 4” -£670.

In addition to the above two-seater 8’10” chassis and open four-seater 9’4” chassis at £670 include bonnet, bonnet sides and fittings, not mounted.

As the number of chassis available is limited, immediate application is advised either to the Allard Motor Company or your local accredited Agent.”

Friday
Feb012013

Old Magazine Covers, Part 12

Today's cover is from the August, 1938 issue of Motor Sport...and it's probably the oldest magazine featuring an Allard on the cover. The cover caption reads, “The 3-hour sports car race…K. Hutchinson (Allard Special) takes the last curve leading to the finishing straight on the Campbell Circuit.” The Campbell Circuit at Brooklands was first raced in 1937, but the land was soon pressed into war service in 1939. The Lincoln V-12 powered ELX 50 was built for Ken Hutchinson. According to Tom Lush’s book, Hutchinson and Sydney co-drove the car ran “faultlessly” except for a broken fan belt that was fixed within five minutes. The team finished 9th overall, completing 74 laps at an average speed of 56.5 mph. Not bad for the Allards first real road race.

Special thanks to Kerry Horan for sharing this with us.

Saturday
Jan262013

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...

Thursday
Jan242013

Site Updates...

We're pleased to announce that we've updated our Web Links with two new buttons on the top tool bar. The first button, 'Allard Links' is for interesting Allard links. The second button, 'Allard Technical Links' is for everything tech related...parts, manuals, suppliers, etc. If you'd like to recommend a site that we missed, please click here to let us know. We hope you find them useful!