The now legendary South London motor trader Sydney Allard based his famous rugged sports cars on Ford V8 power. His pre war special cut its teeth in mud lugging trials and kicked off the successful Allard racing heritage. It wasn’t until later however, after the Second World War, that Sydney Allard decided to launch himself and his vehicle into the world of production motor cars. The K1 and J1 of 1946-48 were spare and primitive, but very fast especially when fitted with the bigger 3.9 liter Mercury version of the tired and tested flathead Ford V8. Production blossomed with the more civilized versions such as The four seater L Type and the Monte Carlo Rally winning and best selling, P1 saloon with up to 4.4 liters of engine. The most exciting and coveted vehicle of the breed though was the J2/J2X of 1949, a stark four wheeled motorbike of a car which, with the more modern type of overhead value Cadillac V8, could accelerate faster than the Jaguar XK120. It was Jaguar, however, that meant the beginning of the end for Allard and many other excellent cars of its ilk.
The nature of the company was such that their cars were produced in very small numbers, and this meant they couldn’t compete with the mass market Jaguars on a value for money basis. Sales fell sharply after 1953, and the company produced its last car, the Palm Beach, in 1958, an unfortunately belated bid for a market then dominated by Austin Healey.
