Allard’s reinvention as a coupé defies the vandals
With the help of fellow Allard Owners’ Club members, novice restorer Ben Stevens from Somerset has taken on the rebuild of a 1950 Allard P1 saloon that was started by his father-in-law more than 30 years ago. The car was first supplied to Burnley, Lancashire, where it was registered EBA 666. It was originally blue, later a two-tone grey, and appears to have had many owners before it went through its last-recorded MOT test in 1985.
Stevens’s father-in-law Nick, then living in London, bought the Allard a year later as a non-runner. Soon after, it was set on fire by vandals, who stuffed newspapers into the boot and then lit them, destroying all of the rear bodywork and badly damaging much of the wiring and the interior.
“My father-in-law then set about transforming the Allard from the original P1 saloon design into a more sporty-looking fastback coupé,” says Stevens. “He chopped the windscreen and built a new roof for the car from glassfibre, then lowered the front springs and reprofiled the nose cone.”
“It was a huge undertaking,” he continues, “essentially remodelling an entire car from scratch, and I think he did an amazing job.”
The most recent person to have got the car running, some 25 years ago, was Stevens’ late brother-inlaw. “I want to retain the look and feel of the car when I got it, which also gives me the luxury of not really needing to adhere to strict guidelines regarding originality,” says Stevens. This includes raising the roof to accommodate his 6ft frame, and he hopes to have the car completed and ready to show his father-in-law within the year.