Le Mans, 1951

We are excited to share these recently unearthed photos from Le Mans in 1951. It's interesting to note the dramatic change between Le Mans in 1951 and what the race has become today. The #2 car of Alfred Hitchings & Peter Reece is featured prominently. The team crashed on lap 22, but managed to make the end of the race, finishing 214 laps. Unfortunately their last lap took more than 30 minutes, which disqualified the team.

Who can you spot in the photos?

Return to Le Mans...

We ere excited to see that Sydney's old J2X Le Mans, chassis 3055 has returned to Le Mans, some 62 years after it originally raced there. We're glad to see this car back on the road as it has been for sale for a number of years. Glad to see the new owner getting her out & about.

Old Magazine Covers, Part 15

This is probably the least flattering magazine cover featuring an Allard. It comes from the August 1951 issue of Autosport Magazine. The photo shows Peter Reece crashing on lap 22 into a sand bank, which surprisingly resulted in just a twisted nose and bent steering arm. The steering was quickly fixed and the car returned to the race. Soon after, the rear end started making ominous sounds, but the car and team perservered. The Hitchings & Reece J2 finished the race, but were disqualified because their last lap took longer than 30 minutes. In all the car finished 214 laps, which would have put the team in 20th place.

The Duntov Memo

We are very pleased to present to you this exclusive document...The 1953 Le Mans Duntov Memo. To our knowledge it has never been seen in public. Back in January, we shared a map of the Le Mans course with Zora Akus Duntov's notes on the speed zones around the track and that it was a part of a larger report that helped set the performance transformation of the Corvette. You may also recall that Zora was almost fired by GM for racing at Le Mans for the Allard team...saved only by the grace of Ed Cole.

The report is fascinating in that he provides an analysis of the competition, along with a scathing review of the Allard JR's handling...while remaining steadfast that the Allard team had the best engines in the field (which happened to be Cadillac V8's...was Zora kissing up to the GM brass?).

Click here or the image below to view the complete memo. Special thanks to Allard owner Steve Schuler and his mole within GM for sharing this important memo.

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.

Allards @ Le Mans Classic

Special thanks to Patrice Cosseau for writing to tell us how the Le Mans Classic went this year…

The Le Mans Classic was very wet this year, which put a small damper on the party. The car (J2 1557), without rain tires - did not like the rainy weather so much, neither did I! In the first race we had two spins : first in Dunlop curve and second at Playstation in the sand. Sunday was sunnier and the car was much easier to drive we were much more comfortable. Patric was joined by Michel Lorielle and Francois Cointreau.

Race 1: 44, Raining
Race 2: 59, Many competitors spun, two laps only behind safety car
Race 3: 32, Sunshine!
Overall: 42 with 97 laps completed

A very good progression indeed ! The car perfectly work in all the races and practices. Very easy to drift on the dry. With more time we could have got a better ranking.

Thanks Patrice and keep racing!

PS: Bob Francis from Canada also competed in J2 1971. Bob and team mate John Thompson finished 40^th overall, also with 97 laps completed.