American V-8s gave Allard oomph
Postwar sports car from England had prodigious power-to-weight ratio that made up for tricky handling
Installing large American engines in light English cars attracted several small British automakers.
Reid Railton, a famed land speed record engineer, used sixand eight-cylinder Hudson engines in 1930s Railton road cars.
Jensen Motors fitted Ford V-8 and Nash engines before the Second World War, then Chrysler V-8s after the war until the 1970s. The exclusive Bristol used Chrysler engines for many years.
Another Englishman who liked American power was Sydney Allard, and his 1950 to ’54 Allard J2 and J2Xs represented the epitome of Anglo-American hot rods until the arrival of the Ford V-8 powered AC Cobra in the 1960s.
Sydney Allard began as a mechanic and Ford dealer in London in the 1930s. He participated in races, rallies and hill climbs and was a devotee of English “trials,” where good-natured competitors raced each other up slimy, mud-covered hillsides.
Allard soon discovered the advantage of the American Ford V-8 introduced by Henry Ford in 1932.
Allard built a racing special using a Ford V-8 from a wreck, and to the horror of purists, installed a Bugatti body. Its competition success spawned the production of some 12 more made-toorder Ford-powered Allard Specials in his garage.
With his experience in racing and car building, after the Second World War Allard established Allard Motor Co. in Clapham, London, in 1946 to build cars on a commercial basis.
Anticipating a better market for touring cars than his prewar specials and his J1 sports car, his main products were two and four passenger models such as the K, L and M.
Noting the success of other English manufacturers, Allard was anxious to export to North America. A scouting trip convinced him his current cars wouldn’t be popular, but a true sports car like his prewar specials might be.
His new design, the Allard J2, was ready by late 1949.
The J2 was a basic, sturdy roadster with a minimal aluminum body, cycle fenders and engine, suspension and body mounted on a ladder type frame. Wheelbase was 2,540 millimetres and tracks were 1,372 mm front and 1,270 rear.
The unusual front suspension was like his pre-war cars: a Ford beam axle cut in half in the middle with the halves pivoted to provide independent swing axles suspended by coil springs.
The J2’s de Dion rear axle kept the wheels parallel to each other for consistent camber and tire adhesion.
Power went to the rear wheels through a three-speed Ford transmission, quick-change differential and universal-jointed halfshafts. It had coil springs, and unsprung weight was decreased by mounting the drum brakes in-board next to the differential.
Allard again looked to America for power. The flathead Ford V-8’s design was getting obsolete but it could be given new life by fitting Ardun overhead valve aluminum cylinder heads developed by Belgian-born engineer Zora ArkusDuntov, who would later became known as the Father of the Corvette.
He used some Ardun-Fords, but a better choice was Cadillac’s new short-stroke, overhead valve V-8, although Chrysler Hemi V-8s and others were occasionally fitted. The Allards were usually shipped to North America without engines where buyers arranged to have them installed.
As would be expected of a light roadster weighing about 953 kilogram with a powerful engine, the Cadillac Allard was quite fast, particularly in acceleration. Estimates put its zero to 97 km/h time at seven seconds or less and zero to 161 in 23 seconds.
Although the J2’s shape wasn’t aerodynamically efficient, top speed was at least 193 km/h, depending on gearing.
But it took a skilled pilot to drive it extremely fast and well because the unusual front suspension could be erratic under acceleration and deceleration and over uneven road surfaces.
In spite of tricky handling, the prodigious power-to-weight ratio made up for a lot and Allard J2s were quite successful in competition for a few years.
Its first American race was the 1949 Watkins Glen Gran Prix, and it won many major American road races. It finished third at the 1950 Le Mans, France, 24-hour race codriven by Sydney Allard himself.
In 1952 the J2 was succeeded by the J2X (X for extended) with an improved front suspension, extended frame and radius arms moved ahead of the axle. The engine was moved forward for better balance and more leg room.
By 1953, however, more sophisticated Ferraris, Jaguars and their ilk were starting to achieve road race superiority and leaving the crude Allard behind. Production of the J2X ended in 1954 after about 90 J2s and 83 J2Xs had been built.
Allard Motor Co. lasted until 1959 and Sydney Allard turned to other projects. But none would etch his name quite so deeply in automotive history as those 1950 to ’54 Anglo-American hot rods.