Here to Obscurity
What horror is this? An Allegro in Classic American? Ah, but it’s not that sort of Allegro, as Richard Heseltine explains…
The Allegro nameplate tends to elicit a shudder rather than a smile, if only in the UK. However, long before British Leyland used the tag, Ford got there first. What’s more, it was applied to a concept car that, in a roundabout way, foretold the Mustang. The same prototype was later reworked into something even more bold which influenced future models – and not just products made by the Blue Oval. Nevertheless, the Ford Allegro, in its various guises, is nowadays all but forgotten for all its alleged influence. The precise narrative behind the construction of Allegro I is a bit hazy, but it was a product of the Lee Iacocca-instituted Fairlane Committee. In 1960, it was keen to promote a more youthful image for the firm; to tap into the nascent Baby Boomer market. The advanced design studio run under Bob Maguire was tasked with creating a four-seater fastback based on a Falcon platform. The team toiled away from late 1961 and into mid-1962, the year that the finished article broke cover, resplendent in a metallic gold hue. It was a hatchback, too, an unusual feature being the rear-facing seats. These were later changed to front-facing items. As to who actually styled the car, that rather depends on whose estimates you credit. According to Randy Leffingwell’s book Mustang: Forty Years, it was Maguire’s work. Other texts credit Gene Bordinat and Don DeLaRossa, the latter being perhaps better known for his work with the Lincoln sister brand. It should also be pointed out that while the car was dubbed Allegro publicly, it had previously gone by the titles Avventura and Avanti, if only within Ford. A press release from 1963 stated: “[The Allegro symbolises] sleekness, motion and, as its name indicates, brisk and lively performance. The Allegro is distinguished by a long hood, compact passenger compartment and fastback roofline, with grille wastegates in the fender area.” If anything, the rear styling treatment was closer to contemporary Thunderbirds, while some design pseuds have likened the rear three-quarter view to being more akin to a Cortina MkI. Regardless, it offered pointers to the first-generation Mustang, albeit via the Mustang II concept car and umpteen studio mock-ups. What’s more, a second Allegro coupe – this time a glass fibre ‘mule’ painted in a fetching shade of ruby red – appeared in a promotional film that accompanied the Mustang’s launch in 1964. That should have been the end of the story. However, in 1967 the original show car was disinterred and reconfigured into the Allegro II. The fastback roof was sliced off, with a wraparound fly-screen connecting with flying buttresses. The rear-end was also heavily reworked. It too was painted gold, but this time it also boasted green go-faster stripes and oh-so-period mag wheels. This reworking was more custom car than would-be production model, but it was undeniably striking. It’s hard to pinpoint styling futures that subsequently filtered down into other Fords, but the headlight and grille arrangement does look similar to that found on the ‘1970½’ Chevrolet Camaro. As to what happened to the car once its brief show career came to a halt, well, that’s anyone’s guess. If you know more, you know where we are…