Modern versions of the Allard J2X cruising American roads
The Allard J2 and J2X, rakish British sports cars stuffed with high-performance American V-8 engines, terrorised racetracks on both sides of the Atlantic from 1949 into the 1950s. Memories of the marque have faded with time, but it was a precursor to the hugely popular AC Cobra designed by Carroll Shelby.
Modern versions of the Allard J2X, made by a man named Roger Allard, are now cruising American roads, but they’re rare sights, because few have been made, and many of their owners don’t drive them often.
This would be a heartwarming story of family perseverance were it not for one fact: Allard, 72, is Canadian, and no relation to Sydney Allard, the British racer who produced the original J2X and other fast cars (and who died in 1966).
In fact, Sydney Allard’s descendants are working to produce their own cars, and they take exception to Roger Allard’s creations.
Roger Allard’s path to building Allard cars is the result of a happy accident. A plan to buy an Austin-Healey 3000 when he was 50 fell through when the owner crashed it on the night before delivery, Allard said.
On a vacation to England in 1995, he visited a car show and started leafing through literature at one stall. He came upon a book titled Allard: The Inside Story.
He’d had no idea that a car had been built bearing his name, so he bought the book. Shortly before he returned home, he saw two original Allards at the National Motor Museum in Hampshire.
“A couple of years went by, and I realised there might be a niche market for a version of the J2X, if it was done properly with a modern chassis,” Allard said. “I contacted the Allard family and the owners club. We built two prototypes and did everything we could to break them.”
Allard is very determined. He located a kit-car builder in San Diego who was going out of business, and bought the jigs and molds for his fibreglass-bodied version of the J2X. He then set upon a 10-year odyssey to make over that car into something that closely resembled the original.
Along the way, Allard prepared the composite-bodied car to accept a range of modern V-8 engines, mated to a Tremec five-speed manual transmission, independent front and rear suspension, and a Ford nine-inch differential to handle the power.
He added inches to the wheelbase to make the cockpit more livable, widened the pedal box to accommodate American feet, installed adjustable bucket seats instead of the original’s fixed bench, and added a trunk.
The company was incorporated in 1999, and the first car was sold to Ted Uihlein of Sedona, Arizona, now 76, in 2009.
It’s not a volume business — only 20 have been built. The owners are enthusiastic, but the future for Roger Allard’s enterprise is clouded by a growing clash with the descendants of Sydney Allard.
Born in London in 1910, Sydney Allard began racing at a young age. In 1929, he raced his Morgan three-wheeler at the Brooklands track and — in a hint of what was to come — converted the car to four wheels. Soon he was installing Ford and Lincoln V-8 engines in “specials” that he sold in limited production.
His racing success after World War II helped sell cars, and the principal market for the J2 and its successor, the J2X, was the United States. Many cars were exported without motors or gearboxes, which were installed on arrival.
Just 94 Allard J2 cars were produced between 1949 and 1952, according to the Allard Register, based in Fresno, California. And 85 J2Xs were produced between 1951
and 1954.
The family business today is Allard Sports Cars, based in Gloucester. There’s apparently no love lost across the Atlantic.
In an email, Lloyd Allard, Sydney’s grandson, described Roger Allard as an “interloper” who “has no right to use our Allard name.”
He described the American entry as “a kit car.”
Lloyd Allard said Allard Sports Cars
would be offering “genuine J2X and J2 models,” as well as a new J3 with modern equipment, and all would be sold with “continuation chassis numbers” to indicate their heritage with the older cars.
He also said the company would appear in the United States next year, and would most likely court the same customers as Roger Allard.
Although there’s no Allard-related litigation, car enthusiasts who see a variety of companies building their own versions of the AC Cobra and other cars may wonder about the legal status of such enterprises.
Allan Gabriel, an intellectual property lawyer with Dykema Gossett in Los Angeles, said in an interview that a trademark could lose its protected status if “complete abandonment” has been proved, something that might be hard to do in this case since the Allard family is still active in the car business.