We've talked about Sidney Allard before. He was an England based hot rodder with an absolute knack for creating speed, power, and performance. He first proved himself in the mid-1930s by building and campaigning a series of successful trial machines... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
My Dad still talks fondly of the Cad Allards. Apparently they were the shit back in those days. As Ryan stated, to win first in class and third overall at LeMans is huge when competing against Europe's finest marques.
Love those cars. I passed a red one on my way home from work last year. The music in the video makes me want to chant "Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!"
Somehow I don't think the music captures what that day must've sounded like. I much more imagine that those cars were issuing fire-breathing rip-snorting sounds out of their exhaust pipes. Cool video though!
I was just reading a magazine article about John Fitch winning the Argentina GP in an Allard-Cadillac J2 in 1951.I've been interested in Allards for a long time.Now,get out of my head!!
An acquaintance of mine in Indianapolis (north side) restores Allards. He bought a well-used (actually stuck) 394 Olds engine from me probably 12 or 13 years ago to restore an Allard that he had purchased.
I used to love watching the Allards race in SoCal when I was a kid, especially with that crazy swing-arm front suspension made out a Ford beam axle! Thanks for a great feature.
Dad claims to have ridden shotgun in a big block GT40 that was taken out on the streets of Memphis, TN in about 1966. There was an import car place in Memphis that dealt with all of the cool toys of the day (Ferrari, Jaguar, Porsche, Mercedes, etc...). Dad messed with XK120-150 jags at the time and knew a lot of the guys in the shop. The GT40 was there getting the carbs rebuilt/synchronized/loved on. One of dad's friends asked if he wanted to go on the test drive and had said "hell yeah". He was told they got up to 185 mph on Winchester (brand new 4 lane road going out to the middle of nowhere with no traffic, at the time). Dad had been 140 in his cars and said it was way faster than his jags had ever gone.
Fun looking car to drive! I saw an Allard in an underground water tank somewhere near Okaloma City a few years back. It was an interesting little project car without a drive train. The guy who owned it totally lit up when a friend of mine started talking about its history and rarity.
It's a shame there is no sound in the films. There is a J2 (I believe) owned by Virginia International Raceway VIR that shows up for our annual car show. Open pipes and loud as hell! I can just hear this thing blasting down those little quaint streets with bicyclists and delivery vans.
Those Allards are crazy-wild cars. The old joke I grew up with was that in any given race a J2 would most assuredly be the first car to cross the finish line. But, it wouldn't count unless it did so front end first. Few cars make my heart melt like a race prepared, Cad powered, Allard J2.
Just met a man here in town says he has one body hanging upside down in his garage,"To keep it from warping" I plan to ck it out soon. I keep everyone up to date .I`m sure all will be waiting with baited breath.
There is a great, cheesy 1954 movie called "The Fast and the Furious" (not the Paul Walker / Vin Diesel softcore gay porno) that featured a bunch of Allards, J2s and J2Xs as well as Healy 100/4's, Jag, Bandinis and Kurtis Krafts being driven in anger. The plot is pretty weak but it's great to see these vintage racecars being flung around back when they were just cheap sportscars and not babied museum pieces like they are now. It's more than worth the $4.99 I spent in the cheap DVD bin. Shawn
There's alot of work beeing done on the first U.K dragster originally built and driven by Allard. Check it out. http://www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk/acag/acag.html
Yeah, I caught that part, I realize it couldn't possibly be competing. But it was just odd that it was race car, race car, race car, race car and then family car with luggage rack. You think they would have edited that out since they wouldn't have thought it notable at that time. Now, obviously it would be considered extremely odd for race cars to be warming up on open streets along with family cars but I guess back then it was perfectly fine. Just part of the fun.
The Jalopy Journal
