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If you're looking to buy a vintage Allard magazine for your collection, this is definitely one you should consider. The July 1951 issue of Speed Age features not only one of the best Allard photos of all time (the Steyr with four wheels in the air!!!), it also features one of the earliest printed biographies on Sydney Allard. If you're lucky, you can pick one of these up on Ebay for as low as $5.
We're pleased to report that the Allard marque was well represented at this year's Amelia Island Concours weekend. The Rosenblad's brought out both of their Allards to Saturdays "Car's & Coffee" event at the Golf Club at Amelia. This is a cool event that's open to the public and fills a big void in the weekend as people wait for the big event Sunday. The Rosenblads have two unique Allard's...the first is the DeDion/wire wheel K2; one only six or so built. Next up is their Consul engined Palm Beach - of 84 Palm Beach's built, only nine were equipped with the Consul 4-cylinder engine and only four are believed to exist today. Their car looks, in our opinion what Sydney envisioned the "Bridgehampton" would have looked like if his entry to the 1954 Le Mans approved.
Next up was Jim Taylor's recently acquired J2X 3048 that was just recently refreshed. We are big fans of the red on white color scheme which hearkens back to the good ol' days in the 50's where owner's/racer's had no problem with a garish color scheme to help set them and their car apart.
An eagle-eyed reader sent us a link to the photo above from motorbase.com. The caption claims that the car above is a special bodied Allard from 1952. If one squints hard enough, it looks kind of like a K3. Does anyone know what this car is? Does it still exist today?
J2X's don't come up for sale often...and we are pleased to present J2X 2222, the 8th J2X built. This car has quite a history and is prepared to race. Click here to learn more about this car.
Sydney Allard was a survivor and visionary. After his company stopped building cars, they focused on selling performance car parts and...sun roofs. Why sun roofs? Today sun roofs are commonplace on cars, but back in the late 60's and early 70's they were a rarity. Allard was the UK distributor for Golde sun roofs, a German company that was the leader in this emerging industry. Click here to download the Allard Golde catalog. Special thanks to Kerry for sharing!
We just uploaded this excerpt from the movie "Fast and the Furious"...not the Vin Diesel version, but the original "classic" from B-movie legend Roger Corman. In addition lots of great racing footage...there are a bunch of Allard's featured...can you spot them all? We believe most of the footage was shot at Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines. Enjoy!
Things are heating up at Allard Sports Cars, the business endeavor of Sydney’s son Alan and and Grandson Lloyd. In effect, the Allard family name hasn’t left the automotive world since they first started building cars in the late 30’s. The family business has evolved over the years from building cars to manufacturing and selling performance automotive parts. If you haven’t heard already, Alan and Lloyd have started building cars again, with assistance from Allard Engineers Dudley Hume and David Hooper. They got started by buying and restoring the first Palm Beach Mk2, Chassis #72/7000Z. While restoring the Palm Beach, they fabricated another chassis, destined to become a Palm Beach Mk3. This car is an evolution of MK2, and included double wishbone front suspension; a much needed departure from the split axle suspension. They also intend to offer a continuation of the Allard JR sports racing car. Read more below from Lloyd Allard…
The New Allard Palm Beach MK3:
You may wonder, why build an Allard Palm Beach MK3? Well, the answer is simple, during the restoration of the Palm Beach Mk2 we had the opportunity to copy the chassis while it was available, a chassis jig was fabricated following an American design which I knew would be suitable. The new Allard chassis was assembled in only a basic form initially, then put to one side while my father and I pressed on with the restoration project ahead. Once the Mk2 was nearing completion, we started to make progress on the MK3 chassis once more, a Jaguar 3.4 with Moss gearbox was secured, along with a rear axle. All the other parts, which include both rear trailing arms, panhard, front suspension mountings, both front and rear bulk head rails were all fabricated in house. This was the most convenient way to have a prototype rolling chassis available for people to view at any shows we wished to attend. The debut of the new chassis tool place at the NEC Classic in November 2014. The response was very uplifting.
The chassis for the new Allard PB Mk3 is essentially the same as the original apart from the suspension design, the front suspension is now a double wishbone affair, the rear suspension we will offer two formats, either live axle or De Dion, to be honest the De Dion is the preferred as we intend to offer the Palm Beach Mk3 in race trim.
Allard Palm Beach Mk3, a car planned and discussed in 1959 can now be purchased as a 1959 model, authentic Allard with continuation chassis number and built by members of the Allard family once more, offering good investment potential. The car can be built to road or race specification with a Jaguar 6 cylinder engine. There are a few changes from the original which include disc brakes arrangement, improved trimming options and a hinged bonnet design much like the JR model.
Allard Palm Beach Mk3 Specifications:
Allard JR continuation HTP FIA Specifications:
We love to hear from our readers, especially those that write us with memories of an Allard their family used to own. We received one of those letters a few days ago from Roger in the UK, he writes...
"I was browsing your site as my father had an Allard P1 saloon in the 1950's. He bought it second hand sometime after Allard's success at the Monte Carlo Rally. I know this because my father was rather chuffed when his brother in law saw it (the brother in law was a keen rally enthusiast and saw my father as a stuffy solicitor I think) and was rather envious of the car because of the win.
The car was black with the large grill and had the registration number WMC 515. The car was always called William by the family because of its number plate.
I remember very little about the car as I was very little when we had it. I remember my father got the car up to 90 mph on one occasion and was very amused when I piped up from the back saying "A braver man would have done a hundred".
I am pretty sure it was this car that to open the boot you lifted it until the support clicked and to lower it you lifted it and when it clicked you could lower it down again. If the boot is like that then this is the one that fell on my father's back when he was leaning into the boot, which produced a lot of swearing. I know, I was standing next to him!
During the 1950's the family holidayed in Pembrokeshire. As we lived in north London we would set of long before dawn. This is long before the Severn Bridge or motorways and the journey took all day. We would drive there and back in the Allard. On one occasion we were well into the journey when my father suddenly realized that when he was cleaning the car the previous day he had forgotten to put the hub caps back on. So we drove all the way back home to put them on. On another trip to Pembrokeshire it was discovered that the boot hadn't been closed properly and some Wellington boots had fallen out. It shows how little traffic there was then that on retracing our steps they were found in the road where they had fallen out.
My father replaced the Allard in the late 50's with a second hand Humber Super Snipe Mk IV. Four doors, larger, but not as sporty."
Thanks for writing Roger!
If you've been here before, you probably noticed that things look a little different around here. We're excited to announce that we've finally completed the transition to our new web site! The new web site is fully scaleable to whatever device you're viewing our site one...whether it's a computer, tablet, or cell phone. So what else is different? The photos are a lot bigger now and we have really cool photo galleries. We've also made a bunch of changes to the Car pages. There's still some work to do, but the big stuff is complete. Please take a look around and let us know what you think especially if you find any problems...we hope you like it!
You could say it's been a few years since we've hosted an Allard gathering, but we are happy to announce that we're partnering with Steve Earle and the SVRA to have an Allard gathering at the 2015 Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival! Unfortunately there are aren't too many details at this time, but they'll be firmed up in the next few weeks (things have been a bit crazy at General Racing with the recent SVRA merger). What we can confirm are the dates...the gathering will take place on May 29-31 (the weekend after Memorial Day). The gathering won't be just for racers, we'll have a special car show, Allard paddock, dinners, wine tastings, and even a poker run! If you are interested in coming, please click here to email us. We hope you can make it!
The premier showing of RACING THROUGH THE FOREST took place at Pebble Beach’s Spanish Bay resort as a part of the Monterey Peninsula’s 2014 ‘Car Week’.
The focus of this 80-minute film documentary is the Pebble Beach Road races that were run just a few miles from this pristine golf resort. This film gives a succinct portrayal of this historic venue – beginning with the inaugural 1950 running, through the events in 1956 that set the stage for the purpose-built Laguna Seca Raceway some 20 miles to the east.
By means of a well-paced balance of narration, historic race footage and interviews with key players, it effectively presents the Pebble Beach Road Races as a microcosm of the post WWII sports car racing scene in the US. The Pebble Beach racecourse comprised of a series of hay bale-lined two lane streets and some unpaved roads winding through the towering Monterey pines of Del Monte Forest. Most of the cars in the 1950 race were an array of British imports and California home-built specials, and the drivers were all amateurs – some with strong track records, but many with little or no training or experience.
While the Pebble Beach course itself saw little development in the seven years of its operation, the story clearly reflects how both cars and drivers became more sophisticated – and faster – with each passing year. It all came to a head in 1956 when Ernie McAfee and his Ferrari went out of control on the downhill home stretch, became airborne and flew sideways into one of the aforementioned Monterey pines.
The timing of this production was most fitting, as it includes a blend of familiar, and also never-before-seen race footage – along with current day interviews with several race veterans reflecting on their experiences from 60+ years ago. They included Bill Pollack, winner of the prestigious Del Monte Trophy in ‘51 and ’52; and Derek Hill, son of Bill’s close friend Phil Hill, who won the main event in ’50, ’53 and ’55.
Both Bill and Derek, along with other Pebble Beach Race veterans, were present at this premier showing. They all did a great job of sharing their insight and experiences after the screening. The show’s poster is focused on Tom Carsten’s iconic black Allard J2 that was Bill Pollack’s primary mount, a car that gets considerable footage throughout the movie.
This is a very well done professional production, a ‘must see’ film for all vintage racing enthusiasts. The producers are currently concentrating on film festivals and other private screenings, with a showing at the Blackhawk Museum on Sept. 19, and the Peterson Museum in LA in October. After that they are preparing for Sundance Film Festival in January. We’ll share more when information about distribution comes available.
-Chuck Warnes
Early autumn in the high peaks of the Adirondacks is about as perfect a time as one can imagine for a wee motoring adventure. Thus we accepted the invitation to take the J2 Allard north for the 7th annual Keene Mountain Hillclimb reunion in Keene, New York. Keene is just a long stone's throw from Lake Placid. In the early days of the event, which ran from 1950 to 1966, Allards and Allard personalities figured large. More on that later.
We motored up on Friday the 19th in beautiful sunny weather. While only late September, the high peaks were already sporting the first blush of autumn's colors. It was lovely.
Meeting at Marcy Field in Keene, a tiny grass airstrip snuggled within the mountains, we had the warmest of greetings from the organizers, Mike and Ann Hartson, who could not have been more welcoming. They created this reunion seven years ago and are credited with keeping it and the memory of the hillclimb alive.
The Keene Hillclimbs were a fixture in the early days of postwar sports car competitions in the northeast of the USA but, perhaps oddly enough, they didn't actually begin with the SCCA. In those days around New York there were several clubs that vied for prominence. The SCCA was one of them and it ultimately succeeded. Another was the Motor Sports Club of America (MSCA). Also founded and centered in New York, it is said that the Motor Sports Club may have been for folks who either weren't welcome in the SCCA or at least didn't feel welcome. There's a fair bit of controversy there to this day so we'll leave that discussion alone for now. Suffice to say that Keene was first a fixture of the Motor Sports Club.
By the early fifties the Motor Sports Club was well established with its signature event, the "Great American Mountain Rally." It started in Manhattan or in Poughkeepsie, NY, and ran up into the Adirondacks or into the Green Mountains of Vermont. One of the usual stops was the Mountain House at Keene and a hillclimb took place there. Later the hillclimb became a standalone event.
Nowadays the hillclimb reunion is a gathering of enthusiasts with appropriate cars from the entire span of the event. Some of the original drivers come as well, though their number is dwindling. There are three or four runs up the hill, but it is no longer a speed event. For one thing, one might meet traffic coming down. That experience could prove interesting, but not too pleasant for the soccer mom motoring down the hill. That being the case, we took out the rollover bar and popped on the head rest fairing. Instead of full face Bell helmet we took along a period cork-lined leather one. Nomex was forsaken in favor of an old leather flying jacket and a pair of old fashioned driving gloves. The Allard and yrs trly looked the part.
The hill at Keene is one and one half miles long with eight twisting turns and a "thank-you-m'am" bridge. The grade ranges from almost nil to as steep as 18 percent and rises 800 feet from the starting line to finish. The bridge has since been replaced with something more driver friendly. Otherwise, the course is as it was fifty years ago.
In the 1954 event Erwin Goldschmidt won handily in his 4.5 liter Ferrari. He may have driven an Allard in an earlier event but hadn't won.
In 1952 the only Allards competing were a K2 driven by one John Bye of Montclair, New Jersey and a J2 driven by Fred Nemith of Troy, New York. Nemith finished fifth overall. As one would expect, there were a number of J2's and J2X's figuring in the results over the years, but, at Keene, the most successful Allard driver of them all was the late Bob Bucher in his ex-Goldschmidt JR, known as "Big Jake." Big Jake was caddie powered and was likely the most successful of all of the JRs when they were new. (Yes, a case can and should be made for the one Sidney used in the UK for hillclimbs and some circuit races.) When Bucher drove it the paint was still what I believe it had been for Goldschmidt, dark red with a white and blue band around the grill opening. Near the end of its career it had a fairly low full width rollover bar and may have been repainted a brighter red. Bucher turned in FTDs in '56, '57 and '58, setting new course records every year. He was quite a driver.
By '66 the event was finished due to the town finally getting tired of the noise and the folks who lived along the road complaining that they couldn't get in and out of their driveways while it was going on.
The organizers would seem to have unlimited enthusiasm so the 8th reunion taking place next autumn must be considered a forgone conclusion. We rather expect to be there. Even more Allards would be a pleasant addition.
jimdonick
Very cool color racing footage from the 1954 Andrews AFB races. You'll see a number of Allards including Fred Wacker and his 8 Ball.
Click here or the image above to download the latest issue of the Allard Register. We hope you enjoy it!
This year's event saw only one Allard racing...Bob Francis in his ex-Mille Miglia J2. Bob started out on the 10th row in 25th position. By the end of the 90 minute Freddie March Memorial Race, Bob and his co-driver worked their way up to 12th place. Congrats!
Click the below to watch a brief recap of the race along a with a graceful spin by Bob.
We’ve always been fans of automotive art, specifically Allard related art. One of our favorite artists is Stefan Marjoram (www.stefanmarjoram.com/art.htm) and we commissioned him to create an Allard sketch, which is shown above. We’ll be printing a limited number of t-shirts, note cards, and maybe a few prints – all available for reasonable prices. We’ll let you know on the web site when they are available.
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?
Finishing 2nd and 3rd behind a single-seat Lotus 18 Formula Junior, the Whimsey Racing Team of Allard K2 and J2 proved the fastest two-seat sports cars on the slopes of the fabled Mount Equinox in 2014. Run on the 9th and 10th of the August, the annual jewel in the crown of the VSCCA calendar had 39 entries this year ranging from E-Type Jaguar, Aston Martin and Maserati to MGs of all shapes up through the MGA, a pair of SAAB Quantums (highly strange, even for an Allard guy), God-knows-how-many Lotuses (Lotii?) several prewar specials, and a Hillman Minx of all things.
Allards have always done pretty well at Equinox from the earliest days. For a number of years, the event was chaired by Bob Girvin who always managed a spectacular climb in his Chrysler-powered Allard GT. Back in '51 or '52 the large engine class was won by an Allard K2 and lately yrs trly has done pretty well in the K2, and then in the J2.
For 2014 the road surface was as bad as anyone had ever seen it. Remember, this is a road in the mountains of Vermont with logging trucks rolling up and down it through the ice and snows of the winter. For those of a certain age, it's not unlike the Ho Chi Minh Trail after the B-52s were done. Over the years I've suffered stress cracks to the body as well as broken gearboxes, engine mounts and such. The road is about 5.3 miles long with over 3000 ft of elevation change. There are eleven or more hairpins and countless turns and curves of lesser radius. It's a tough challenge.
Even with that all taken into account, this weekend was special. Mike Donick at the wheel of the K2 managed to break the magic five minute mark with a 4:59.18, and beat my best time (set a few years ago) in that car by nearly a second. He was second overall behind a magnificently driven Lotus 18. The K2 has proven a great vintage racer for over thirty years. A couple of seasons ago I beat a pretty serious Aston DB3S in a road race at Lime Rock Park
Yrs trly took a while to get dialed in this year (he's not getting any younger), but by end of weekend was third behind Mike and a second and a half ahead of the next car, a Lotus VII. The next car was a pretty impressive E-Type.
This is being written a couple of days after the event and the two of us are still smiling.
jim donick
Click here or on any of the photos to view the gallery
The Allard Register records show that 46 of the 63 Allard K3’s produced still exist. Chassis 3192 is one of the most original preserved Allard K3’s.
This car was delivered to Noel Kirk Motors on Los Angeles on July 9, 1953 where it was fitted with the 331 Cadillac engine and three-speed transmission that it still retains – along with left hand remote shifter located in the door well. 3192 was ordered with green paint and green interior and it still carries that original color combination (most K3 interiors have been redone in black or tan). The car was repainted and the original seats were re-done in 1990 prior to the Monterey Reunion. Also included are the original tool kit, Smith’s side jack, and chrome Noel Kirk badge.
The car’s original owner, Dan Schacht of LA, put 23,000 miles on it before knee problems forced him to park it in 1962. The current owner, Dr. Martin Allard (no relation to the UK Allard family), purchased the car in 1979. Despite the 17-year hibernation, the only work required was some minor tweaking to free up the stuck Lincoln Zephyr gearbox.
Martin has driven the car on a regular basis, putting about 26,000 miles on it over the past 35 years. In 2012 Martin and his K3 completed every mile of the North American Tribute Mille Miglia. This unrestored K3 was featured on the 1980 Allard Owners Club Christmas card, and looks just as handsome today as it did 34 years ago.
Martin has decided it is now time to part with 3192. This 2-owner car is located in Carmel, CA and is being offered for $165,000. Interested parties should the consignor Mohr Imports...please click here to contact the seller.
We love it when Allard owners tell us what they are doing with their cars...the other day we found a letter from Alain Rueede showing us his latest exploits...here's his email...
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