History Is an Allard J2X a Hot Rod?? Limeworks thinks so..update 01-11-10

By the way SWi 66 I have got the book you mentioned coming from Amazon , I trust it's a good read , thanks for the tip .

 

Duste01 did not say Allards are kit cars he said there's an 'Allard' kit for sale. It's a replica, not an Allard.

If you think Allards look like kit cars it's 'cause so many kit cars are aiming for that look. Most of them came later. Hand built aluminum body? Hardly the stuff of kit cars.

 

Cruzr wouldnt be involved if it wasnt the real deal !

 

Hi Barb , neither would I .

 

I retract the kit car remark..ok?

 

Nice one Nefareous I guess the point has been made lol .

 

This a great thread and I've enjoyed reading a lot Allard sightings from years past. If you'd like to learn more about Allards, check out www.allardregister.org.

I have an Allard K3...392 Hemi, side pipes, Muncie 4-spd, Ford 9" rear...yeah, I'd say it's a hot rod. Nothings better than going to a hot rod show in a Brittish sports car that sounds like a demon...everyone is just begging me to pop the hood after I park it.

Cheers,
Colin

 

Hi Colin , welcome to the HAMB, thanks for the registry link I just had a quick butchers around it will be a big help in the restoration ofAllard J2X 3062 , as I got it already stripped I'm using common sense to piece it back together so I can ascertain what needs repairing/replacing before the restoration begins.

 

Since when did you get any Common Sense??? Well done so far,cock..keep Kerry away from that Cad , He`d probably try to cram it in one of those Rowboats he`s into now....

 

BTW Colin you need to do an intro about yourself before the admin boys get upset

Cheers Paul , you know me too well

 

Looks like you got the Allard back to California safe and sound. Sorry we missed you!

 

Hooray... More Allards on the HAMB.
My few cents worth.
The Ford trans doesn't fare well behind even a stock 331, (you will know far more about this than I) the period change seems to have been a LaSalle three speed, It's acceptable for British 'Vintage' racing and is a mod which my pal has done to his car chassis 888 (the Prototype J2) it is working well behind a mildly worked 331 (Out to 365 inches, cam, carbs and headers)
Several UK Allard racers are fighting to get the slightly later Borg Warner T10 accepted as a period acceptable box, I have one in my '52 J2X and it works very well behind a (slightly out of period) '59 390.
The other worthwhile (and cheap!) mod is to pack the pivot point for the centres of the front axle/s down to get rid of some of the positive camber from the front wheels. This is a fix suggested by Dudley Hume who was an Allard designer and employee for many years.

It was mooted that the drums were Jaguar, so far as I can recall they are not but Jaguar iron drums will go on with a little machining (they are supposed to expand less) Getting the brakes to work well on mine has been interesting, two years down the line they have gone from dangerous to just about acceptable but they get hot and bothered far too easily and the pedal sinks the the floor as the drums expand.

Looking at the pictures... That's a fine genuine car so far as I can see. Tossing the guy a bone... Perhaps the forum member meant 'kit car' as in it is assembled from parts gleaned from many manufacturers rather than parts entirely made in house.

Keep up the pictures and if you think I can help, yell...

Oh and is it a hot rod? Oh yes indeed!

 

There's a flathead powered Allard that shows up at the English car show every year, it has an Allard dual carb intake with English Zenith carbs, it's a nicely patinaed old girl, not all pristine and over restored.

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement Jerry , yes this is a nice original car, there are some cracks & holes/bad welds in the aluminium body , which has been sand blasted !!! we will see how it fares during welding . I did bring back the original firewall etc which is pretty beat up , we can cut filler from that to see if it welds better than filler rod ,if necessary.The owner is adamant on keeping the original gearbox but I will forward your comments to him, now would be the time to upgrade, rather than on lap 30 with a track full of trans guts ! .

 

I'll echo Jerry's comments on the gearbox...you're going to want to upgrade to at least the LaSalle.

 

Looks like someone is making a high end recreation, repro, replica, tribute, clone, knock-off, fake (pick one): www.allardj2x.com Interesting Jay Leno video on the site. Starting price is spendy at $128,500 but significantly less dear than the real thing.

 

SWI66 I just got the Automobile Quarterly book from Amazon , a mint copy with the whole Allard History, stories on J2X's & a killer cut away drawing of a J2X. Thanks so much for the tip.

 

X 2 This is probably one of the best car stories I have ever read. It helps a lot if you are familiar with the "Beowulf" legend.

(Hint : the cop antagonist in the story is named "Robert Ormsby Wolf"; known to his friends as "B.O".)

 

Use to go to the Vintage races in Palm Springs and also Laguna Seca when I lived in Ca. with my good buddie 320CIAbone there were several Cad powered Allards running and one of my favorirtes with an unmistakable sound to them.

 

In the fifties, in my youth, I worked as a mechanic for Walker Imported Motors in the suburban (yes even then there were suburbs) Minneapolis area.

We were primarily an MG dealer and secondarily a dealer for Allard as well.

Our dealership bought 12 Allards originally, they all came less engines and transmissions, but may have been ordered set-up for particular engines as I seem to remember headers and exhaust pipes hay wired to the chassis or those may just have all come with Flathead Ford headers and pipes.

Engine installations in our case, were basically farmed out to local backyard hot rodders or small garages that did them in spare time or nights.

It took several years in our market to sell and deliver them all. At that time in Minnesota if you had a titled new car and the next year's model had no changes, it could be re-titled as that next year model.

We had bought 75 1952 MG-TD's. Many were sold as retitled '53's. The '52 TD had a vertically rectangular tail lite. The '53 had a round tail lite.

In 1956 negotiations were completed to become a VW dealer. I remember the day the first loads of cars arrived. A VW factory sales guy was there, the shop had been cleaned, painted the obligatory white walls with blue bottom, a unit repair room built which housed work benches for all off car repair work and storage space at night for everyone's rollaway toolbox, floor jacks stands etc. The workshop was for lifts and cars, no workbenches. Probably the same way today.

Cynically we said to the the factory guy, great we have the cars but there are no parts here yet. The reply was "Ach, they never break, you never have to fix them".

One of those early Allards was owned by Eddie Jones who raced it in the original Elkhart Lake Road Circuit on the public roads. Other Allard racers I remember from the area were well known Don Skogmo, Scott Beckett, Jack Baker, Orly Thornsjo, and I believe Jerry Hanson started out in one. Most if not all of them were Cadillacs.

The fastest of the Allards in national competition were running automatic transmissions behind the Cads.

 

After thought...believe the brake drums were the Alfin process from England, Aluminum with an iron wear surface somehow bonded to the finned aluminum.

 

Yes, Welworthy-Alfin with the Alloy cast around the iron lining.
Good but not great... the Alloy can break its bond with the iron then they become very poor. Plus when Alfin drums are hot they expand madly and give a soft pedal.

Great to hear recollections of guys who were there in the day.
Anybody else got Allard Stories?

 

Ok.....Heres the latest. Limeworks has almost completed the basic "mock-up". Steve has a set of Jag wire wheels he is using for "rollers". Good progress has been made since the start of the project. The owner will be over from Hawaii in February to go over all the details of the build.

 

I'm lucky enough to be in touch with some pretty cool Allard chaps & next week I'm off to Santa Monica to see a restored J2X so I can see what goes where on the body to frame attachments in the rear also the front cycle fender braces, all that stuff is missing on the one we are working on. I'd rather duplicate the originals than fab from scratch as we want this to look as original as possible.

 

Looking good Steve

 

Allard equiped 21 stud lump sitting in my A chassis.
Rich

 

Steering wheel...
Correct versions available from Kimble engineering ltd here in the UK in the UK
johnkimble.co.uk
Aero screens....
The Allard used a fabricated mount made from sheet alloy that sandwiched a 'D' shaped lexan screen. No manufacturer so far as I am aware, I think I had mine copied from those on a sister car

 

In about 2001 I was on a road rally in Northern Cal, at one of the stops a father and son arrived in their Cad powered, yellow, Allard, the dad in his 80's told a story about a car show where one of the judges insisted parts were improperly installed on the chassis, to which he replied, "no, thats the way I installed them in 52 when I worked for Allard" as of a few years ago they had a phone in Nipomo Ca. under Sydney Allard, as I recall the son managed the local water district.

 

My J2X just coming off the rollers after carb setting... Sorry about the poor picture quality

Can you tell that this place usually does diesels!!