The Allard Dragster is Complete!

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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

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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!

New Allards: An Introduction

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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.

Site Updates...

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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!

Santa's got a new sled...

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Special thanks to Kerry Horan for sending us an image of Santa blasting around in his Steyr somewhere up ini the North Pole. Additional thanks go out to Mick Walsh from Classic & Sports Car magazine. for working with the artist to allow us to repost this. Speaking of the artist, this painting was created by Klaus Wagger of Austria. Please visit his web site at www.klauswagger.at; there you can learn more about Klaus and his beatiful car paintings.

Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year to all of you!

Cheers,
The Allard Register

 

 

John Fitch, The Last Checkered Flag

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On Wednesday October 31, automotive legend John Fitch took his last checkered flag. John was born on August 4, 1917 in Indianapolis, Indiana. John was a renaissance man when it came to automobiles...he not only raced them, he was a mechanic, built succesful specials, invented new technologies, track proprieter, and safety pioneer. John was perhaps best known for his racing career where he raced MG's, Cunninghams, Maserati's, Jaguar's, Corvette's, Formula 1, and an Allard.

In 1951, John was invited to race in the inaugural General Peron Grand Prix in Buenos Aires. There was only one problem...he didn't have a suitable car. John talked his friend Tommy Cole into selling him his wrecked J2 (#1514) for cheap. John straightened the chassis, pounded out the body, bled the brakes, and then kissed his very pregnant wife goodbye as he left for Argentina. Two other Allard owners were entered, Fred Wacker and good friend Tommy Cole in his new J2. John led the race from the start with his only serious competition coming from Wacker who finished a lap down in second. It was John's first win and it earned him a seat at Le Mans with the Cunningham team later that year.

To learn more about the life of John Fitch, click here to visit his Wikipedia page. The photo above was taken of John at the 2002 Monterey Historics where Corvette was the featured maque.

Al Moss Remembered

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When you say “Moss” to motorsports aficionados, the name, “Stirling,” or “Sir Stirling” comes to mind. But for those who collect, restore or refurbish classic cars, it’s just as probably “Moss Motors.” Al Moss established and developed the company that became the largest supplier of classic and sports car parts. When many older cars would have had to be scrapped because repairs were possible without parts, Moss came to the rescue.
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Ted Turner, The Last Checkered Flag

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Ted Turner, son of Tom and Yvonne Turner, passed away unexpectedly on June 6, 2012. Longtime Allard owners will remember Ted’s father, Dr. Tom Turner, who was the major Allard cheerleader in the US until he passed away 20 years ago. Ted accompanied his father to racing events and assisted him in the restoration and maintenance of his many cars. Ted was actively involved in working with his father in the collection, restoration and racing of Allards throughout the late 1980’s and early ‘90’s.

Ted’s interest and enthusiasm for Allards continued after Dr. Tom Turner’s sudden passing in 1994, as he supported and assisted his mother, Yvonne as she continued to campaign Tom’s beautiful and infamous flathead powered J2. Other Allard owners have since come to appreciate Ted’s assistance as he has continued to share items from his father’s extensive Allard archives and parts bins.

Ted graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ted was an Adjunct Professor of Biology for Dallas County Community College District at El Centro College and Brookhaven College.

Ted is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner; 2 sons, Jerry Turner and J.T. Turner; a sister, Anne Turner Rhodes and a brother, Bob Turner.

Al Moss, The Last Checkered Flag

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We just received news that Allard distributor Alan 'Al' Moss just passed away at the age of 80. Al was a legend in the West Coast sports car scene...ever heard of Moss Motors? It's tough to even start describing Al's amazing life. Not only was he an entrepenuer, but he was an absolute character and jokester. I am honored to have had the brief chance to get to know the man...enjoying several long phone calls reminicing about Allard's and the people that raced them. We'll come back soon with a more fitting tribute to this legend.

The photo above is of Al Moss sitting in Hastings Harcout's J2X in front of Ak Miller's shop.

God speed Al.

PS: The Allard Register was honored when Al passed on all of his Allard correspondence to us. To read some of it, just type 'Moss' into our search bar.

Let's go for a drive...

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My dad and a friend took the K3 for a nice drive the other day. They drove from Fresno, CA to the end of HWY 180, which happens to be in Cedar Grove, part of Kings Canyon National Park. The total drive was 200 miles and the car averaged almost 14 mpg…not bad for a 392 Hemi. The photo above is taken from the ridge above Cedar Grove (approximately 6,000 feet).

Have you done anything fun with your Allard this summer? If you have...click here to send us a photo!

Red Wheels and White Sidewalls - Reviewed

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In honor of the reprinting of Bill Pollacks racing memoirs, Red Wheels and White Sidewalls, we are reprinting our review of the book from issue #40 (Spring 2004). To buy a copy of the book, you can go to Amazon or to Bill's publisher, Brown Fox Books. Enjoy!

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Many Allard enthusiasts got their initial inspiration from Tom Carsten’s immaculate white-walled, Cad-powered J2. Bill Pollack had the honor of piloting that imposing mass of adrenalin, testosterone, and charisma to outright victories in each of its five outings in 1951 and 1952. Bill continued his amateur racing activities for another 5 years after that car was destroyed in a post-race accident at Pebble Beach in 1953. During those years, he earned 18 more “podium” (in F1 parlance) finishes in 44 races.

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An Allard Sunroof?

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Most people think that the Allard Motor Company closed up shop after they built their last Palm Beach MkII in 1958. Not so. The Allard name was synonymous with speed in the UK and they built a thriving after market business. They had a partnership with Shorrock superchargers, built custom Ford Anglias, tuned suspensoins...they would even install a sunroof in your car! As you can imagine, very few Allard sunroofs have survived the elements, but we got a tip today from Scotty Bevis that one had shown up on Ebay! It's nothing fancy, but it's a testament to how ingrained cars were in the life of Sydney Allard. He could have easily closed up shop and joined the family construction business, but no, he kept on playing with and racing cars...thanks Syd!

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

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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!

J2X MkII in Shanghai

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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...

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