(first posted 3/31/2013. Updated 4/15/2018) Passing by the Sports Car Shop always requires a brief stop to see what’s currently on display. I’d seen this splendid Allard K2 through the garage windows for months, but when it finally made it out front I had to take a closer look. I knew that Allards had a certain cobbled-together quality, despite their handsome bodies. But when I poked my head into the passenger compartment, I almost couldn’t believe it: Prepare yourself for the world’s most contorted shift stick:
So which way is first? It’s hard to believe there wasn’t a better solution, like Volvo used in their cars with forward mounted stick shifts. But here it is, in a world-class restoration.
Sidney Allard built an ever-changing array of cars, mostly sporting ones, from 1936 to 1966. The big years for Allard were the post-war era, when the combination of big American V8 engines stuffed into a small English roadster created the proto-Cobra.
The Allard J2 had a superb racing career, including a third place at LeMans in 1950, and a win at the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally, with Sidney himself at the wheel. Allards were the terror of the West Coast sports racing scene well into the fifties.
The K2 was a bit more civilized then the J2, and came with your choice of any Yank V8. This one sports a big Lincoln 317 cu. in. OHV unit with some 160 hp, and a highly primitive solution to fitting the gear shift under the dash.
The suspension is a pretty primitive affair as well: the front has swing axles. It is what it appears to be: a Ford forged front beam axle cut in two and the two inner ends mounted on pivots. The closest thing is Ford’s twin-beam truck suspension, but it minimized camber change by overlapping the two long beam halves. Not so here; just two axle halves pivoting in the middle.
It’s quite rare to see that with a front suspension. And it led to…a number of vintage pictures of Allards with wild front camber, like this one. Must have been fun to drive.
The rear is a solid axle with a transverse spring, and is undoubtedly a Ford product too. At least it wasn’t cut in half and turned into swing axles. I’m half surprised that wasn’t the case. The whole car has the air of a classic American hot rod, albeit with some nice English touches. That bent-over-a-stump stick shift definitely falls into the Yankee shade-tree category.
The front suspension is exactly what it looks like. Sydney managed a truck repair depot during WW2 and was well versed in Ford mechanicals. For his IFS he took a Ford axle and cut it in half.
The handling qualities of an Allard were well described by BS Levy in The Last Open Road, which all of us should own. There are great photos online of hard corning Allards with their front wheels pointed all over the place.
Nice find, I’m impressed.
Ford sold cars with transverse leaf springs and beam front axles until 1959 in the UK, and the swing-axle conversion was common – I fitted it to my own saloon, though it was intended for folk building specials around Ford components.
For the Lotus 6 , Chapman kept the split beam, but replaced the leaf spring with coils.
I think Allard had stopped building cars by 1960 – after that he was just tuning Ford saloons.
Neat car, and I love the red-and-white color combination. Although it is a road-going version, I think it would look better without those chrome bumpers. Maybe because my favorite Allards are the cycle-fendered racing versions with the tiny driver-side windshield–like this one (from tamsoldracecarsite.net)!
That has to be the craziest shifter I’ve seen. Nice to have a little break from this mornings Brougham-A-Thon 🙂
I think the car you have shown Tom is a new replica Allard, rather than an old one – the wheels give it away. Very nice but not cheap. I think they are still badged as Allards.
It’s got a beat up blue California plate that says 1953 J2X. The newest that plate could be is 1982. While it’s possible (custom plates can be moved to different vehicles) that it came from some other car, it’s more plausible that it’s been on that car the full time.
After enlarging the picture I agree with you. The new “Montreal” version has a smaller steering wheel, different rear bumper, lower seating position.
I am almost ashamed to say that I have never read any of Burt’s books. This reminds me to remedy that situation.
I raced against Burt regularly in the early 80s in Midwest Council races, mostly at Blackhawk Farms and Road America, in Showroom A class. He drove an Alfa Spider and, along with a group of BMW 2002s and my Mazda RX-2, it was a tough class. Burt more often than not won. He is quite a character.
Sweet Allard.
Allards were made in Putney Heath London,I went looking for the site of the old factory when I lived there without success and later found out it was burned down along with all records.It looks a beast of a car,they were a winner in the right hands.
At first I thought it was your traditional April Fool’s Day joke, then I realized it’s only March 31.
Good heavens! In 1954, they could have had a Cadillac V8, the Chrysler Firepower Hemi, or the Oldsmobile Rocket, and they picked a Lincoln 317 Y block? I would love to have been in the room when engine choices were discussed.
Remember that Bill Stroppe Lincolns had established quite a reputation by winning the Carrera Panamericana twice in 1952 and ’53 (top three both times), something that no Cadillac, Olds or Chrysler had done, or would ever do.
Good point. Still, I have always wondered it it was more about the relatively lightweight car with its ball joint suspension, more than the engine. My guess is that with either Cadillac or Chrysler power, those 1952-53 Lincolns would have done even better.
I don’t think you would say that there was a standard engine fitment for Allards, Cadillacs are probably as common as any, together with flathead Fords
Ford or Cadillac V8 was on offer new but US export cars were shipped engineless and an engine was fitted before sale so customer choice.
Deviating from the Allard formula of big-engines-in-light-bodies was the 1953-54 Allard Clipper, an early (and hilariously unsuccessful) attempt at a microcar. No barnstorming V8 here; just a 346cc two-stroke. “Seating for five” (yeah right) cozily enveloped by an “indestructible plastic body” so wacky and cartoonish it’s hard to believe you’re looking at a photo and not an animation cel drawn by Tex Avery or Bob Clampett.
Five what? Cats?
According to Wiki, the Clipper* “seated three adults on a bench seat and two children in optional ‘dickey seats’ revealed when the rear boot was opened.” But yes, I’d say that for this piece of justifiably forgotten fiberglass your capacity estimate of five felines would be more accurate.
I believe it was Jeremy Clarkson who said that much of the British auto industry really consisted of “just five guys in a shed.” I’m guessing Allard was one of the marques he had in mind.
* Not to be confused with the contemporary Packard of the same name.
I love that ad. The guy in the Clipper must be four foot five (compare with the man in your picture of the real one).
You’re right, it really does look like something Tex Avery would have drawn 🙂
I think Avery also designed the K2’s stick shift.
Do you think you could screw a chrome skull shift knob onto that upside-down stick? Or would that make all the blood rush to his head?
Nice find quite rare cars here, Sidney Allard used mostly Ford components including the sawn thru front axle Cadillac and other engines werec available but the underpinnings remained prehistoric Ford.
Upon seeing that phenomenally-shaped gear lever, I immediately checked out the 1951 P1 Allard for sale here on trademe. Sadly it has a conventional column shift – although the level is slightly strangely bent, the K2 puts it too shame. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/other/allard/auction-577892279.htm
Wasn’ t that the sticck shift used by the Ford of England Pilot model?
As if Allards weren’t difficult enough to drive fast…
That suspension is quite something, to say the least. Looks an extreme Beetle or Herald moment in reverse.
And the Allard K2 has a K6 phone kiosk in the background…!
World class restoration with wire hanging under the dash? That sounds more like a Ryan (me) class restoration.
You’d need to grab the gearshift knob from below or behind. Why in the world not just run the lever up, back, and then up?
Exactly what I thought when I saw the picture!
My guess is you’d grip the knob from above somewhat normally, but with the lever rod sticking up between your fingers — notice the shiny bit just above the knob that’s likely become polished from use with this grip.
As for the shift pattern, reckon that’s fairly conventional if you focus just on how the knob itself moves in a horizontal plane, ignoring that the lever is sticking out the wrong end.
An S-shaped rod would have been more intuitive, coming up from the trans, dipping down and back, then up again to the bottom of the knob, but mechanically works the same either way.
As was said, you hold it normally but with the shaft sticking up between your fingers, and the pattern is normal as well.
I believe the lever was designed this way rather than simply going straight back in order to provide more room for legs or packages or ?? on the floor. In case, perhaps, you wanted to sit very close to your passenger as you were cruising the backroads? Still the ball seems unnaturally low. Maybe lever is all the way to the rear of its travel in this picture.
Poor stickshift is suffering from performance anxiety.
The Allard showroom was on Clapham High Street , SW London, apart from building those beautiful sports/racing cars (which mostly had ex War Dept Ford V8 3622cc engines along with a few larger Mercury versions), he also started drag racing in England, inviting Dante Duce, Mickey Thompson and others to come over in 1963 to race his Chrysler engined Dragon dragster which was no competition in looks or power to those real fire breathing monsters but it was a good start. They competed at Silverstone and the Brighton speed trials in ’63. I went to the 1964 session at Blackbushe aerodrome where Don Garlitz also appeared, quite an eye opener fro a 20 year old Londoner. There’s great footage on youtube – Drag Racing Blackbushe Airport UK 1963 – 65 and the book Allard Inside Story by Tom Lush, Motorbooks International is an interesting read if you can find a copy.