I saw one somewhereof his ALLARD- and was really taken back by the hot rod similarities....I mainly wanted to take another look at the front suspension. It had an early Ford undropped axle with wishbones-BUT-it had coil springs on each side instead of a leaf.....Didn't he develop these cars?------any pics/info on these cars are welcomed-THANKS!
Not familiar with Zora Duntov's. Is it an Allard J2X? these are popular for vintage road racing. There real downfall was there brakes. Drums don't work well in a high horsepower rocket like the Allard were. Alot of them got Cad motors and hemi's put into them. The cars came sans drive train.
Zora's car was really the same cosmetically as the rest of the J2X's. He just new how to make everything work a little better, ya know, thats how racing is. The J2X was made from '51 to '54. Less than 100 were made. Built in England. I've seen many of these at the race track. Hard cars to drive on the edge.
I'm not aware that Duntov had anything to do with developing the Allard -- As far as I know it was Sydney Allard's company and design. Duntov may have owned one personally, but I've never heard that he was involved in its design. To answer Choprod's question about the front suspension: Allards used a Ford beam axle cut in half and pivoted from the frame at the inboard end -- It was basically a swing-axle design, kinda like the rear of a VW. They had pretty weird handling because the front wheels' camber changed with accleration, braking, and cornering. They were successful in early '50s road racing because they had lots more power than anything else, particularly when Cadillac powered. The were also equipped with Chrysler, Lincoln, Olds and flathead Ford engines by various people. Compared with the neutral camber in the pictures above, note this one under hard acceleration:
Duntov worked for Allard at one point,before he went to work for Chevy. There was one on Barret-Jackson last month,British racing Green It had been raced in South America. Bigger,later,Caddy motor with 2 4 bbls. Modified to accept finned Buick drums,still wouldn't stop.
...and this one cornering. These may all be different cars, but this is typical of the way they look in action.
The pic I was thinking of was in the post abve with the ch***is drawings it was Silver-.It [ZORA'S]HAD THE COIL SPRINGS UNCOVERED AND WAS EITHER FENDERLESS -OR TINY ONES I MISSED! thanks........
RPW, Thanks for that link - it was a very interesting read. I didn't realize that there was such a long history behind the Allards. I also remember reading in the early 60's of the top drag racers going over to England and racing the local "heavy" - never realized it was the same Sydney Allard. One of those really car crazy guys like Shelby or DeTomaso. Dennis
The Duntov-Allard connection was news to me. The existence of an Allard formerly owned by Duntov, powered by an Ardun-Ford, is doubly interesting. It also makes a certain kind of sense for it to be exhibited in the Corvette museum, although I suspect that the average visitor there would be completely clueless about Mr. D's earlier contributions to the world of performance cars.
Where I became aware of the Duntov connection ,was a close friend of ours Here has a cousin in Chicago [I believe]found the remains of the car. He then was restoring it and discovered that it waz the car that had belonged to Zora. He made contact and sure enough it was verified by Zora that it was his old Allard. it was totally restored to its condition when it was His. He and our friend were then Invited to the celebration at the Corvette hall of Fame By Zora as guests of honor. he has pics of him and Zora at the celebration.And yes it was Ardun/Flathead Ford powered.Yes that particular Allard is still around!It was and is Silver in color.........I wasnt aware of the "twin I beam style mounting of the front axle-One has to wonder if the Ford pickup twin I beam wasn't derived from that first exercise of his...Zora did work with Ford did he not?
Choprods, the split front axle was used a lot on English Roadrace Specials, and developed into the twin I beam similar to the setup on Ford Trucks you talked about. The reason it was so popular is that although it has its limitations, it is very effective, cheap to build out of ( then available ) junkyard parts and it is a lot easyer to get rid of the bumpsteer and rollsteer a lot of the early IFS suspensions had. Arthur Mallock from Mallock Racing was one of the last to keep using this system, but finally switched to a double A arm setup in about '68 with the Mk7, my Mk6 is the last type to use the modified Ford parts. Arthur told me that the reason for the switch was that when the tyres got fatter and better, the Kingpin holes in the axles ovaled out, so the had to be reforged and redrilled from time to time. He also told me that the Mk7 was not as fast as the Mk6. " we changed that for all the wrong reasons..."
Choprods, heres a very lousy pic of some pics, these are the pics of the Dontov car and of Zora and our friend at the celebration you spoke of,I believe it was Zora's birthday.Sorry for the poor quality pics.
Don't know if there's a statute of limitations on how old of a post you can respond to...but here's another photo of Duntov's actual Allard at NHIS two years ago: And here are a few of a car Zora built, supposedly in Florida, that was for sale at Hershey this year:
Cris, Thanks for bring back this thread, I missed it the first time around. The best source of Duntov/Allard information is the book Zora Argus-Duntov The Ledgend Behind The Corvette. It traces his early years working on some high end European race cars, developing the Ardun and racing it in his Allard. His restored Ardun/Allard is here in Connecticut and runs in vintage races.
Wasn't a company selling a Allard type suspension for Hot Rod ch***is a couple of years ago? I thought it was a pretty tidy way to make an independent front suspension, while still kepping the traditional look. Found it, Fatman Fabrications Vintage IFS is basically a kit to split the axle and make an Allard type front suspension on your hot rod. Woody
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