Sidney H. Allard, born in 1910, was a real car guy who just happened to be English. In school he would read the latest “Motor” magazine or a motorcycle mag hidden behind his text books. It would appear to his teacher that he was reading his studies.
I remember “ Hop Up” magazine in the States that was purposely made small enough to enable car guys to do the same trick. I, of course, never did such a thing!
Mr. Allard was given his older brother’s Morgan three wheeler in 1929 and could not leave well enough alone, so he added a fourth wheel to the car to improve its handling.
He drove the Morgan at the famous Brooklyns race track with some success.
After school Allard’s father purchased a garage for his son that eventually became a Ford dealership.
Operating the garage/dealership was not enough of a challenge for Allard so he bought a 1933 Ford coupe that Ford had entered and raced at the “Tourist Trophy” event. He drove it in competition, and soon had removed the Ford body and
installed a Bugatti body on the Ford chassis.
Known as CLK-5 this car turned out to be a really successful ‘”Trails Car”.
Allard had many requests from friends wanting to buy winning trails cars. This led to Allard building eleven Allard Specials before World War II.
Two of the cars were fitted with Lincoln Zephyr V-12 engines and were used as sports cars.
Pre-War Allard in competition.
Photo courtesy of John Aibel from his private collection.
One of the cars Allard built for his father. It was registered as EXO-455 and carried a coach built body that had the look of a Jaguar SS-100. It was beautiful. It utilized the Ford V-8 as did all the pre-war cars except for the two V-12 cars mentioned.
It was this car that turned up for sale in a Hemmings Motor News years after Allard’s death in 1966.
Being a devoted fan of all things Allard, and having just sold a lot of silver coin, thank you Hunt brothers, I was able to buy this beauty.
Pre War Allard
Photo courtesy of John Aibel from his private collection
I owned AM-8 for many happy years. I even raced it a lot in VSCCA competition with a fair amount of success.
Pre War Allard racing at Lime Rock Park in the BMW Vintage Fall Festival
September 1987
Photo courtesy of John Aibel from his private collection
It was completely reliable and fast.
But it was not a J-2 or J-2X.
I eventually sold it to a good friend of mine, and then it was resold and went back to England where it remains to this day.
Owning this Allard was a huge thrill, but once I let it go I still lusted for that J-2. Thus my hunt began…