Sydney Herbert Allard (19 June 1910 – 12 April 1966) was the founder of the Allard car company and a successful racing motorist. He was remarkable in that he achieved sporting success in cars of his own manufacture.
[edit] Trials, hillclimbs, rallies, and road racing
Born in London, England, he was educated at Ardingly College in Sussex. Sydney Allard was competing in trials by 1933, retiring from the London-Exeter Trial that year in his Allard special.[1] In April 1936 he won a 50-mile handicap race on the sand at Southport in his Allard V8.[2] The Allard Special was put into limited production with Ford V8 and Lincoln V12 motors. Allard won the last event to be held in England prior to World War Two. Having set the fastest time at the Horndean Speed Trials, his car overturned past the finish line. Both he and his passenger, Bill Boddy, were thrown clear and uninjured.[3]
Allard won the 1949 British Hill Climb Championship at the wheel of the self-built Steyr-Allard, fitted with a war surplus air-cooled V8 engine. In 1950 he finished eighth in the Monte Carlo Rally, then raced in the Targa Florio in Sicily where his Allard car crashed and burned. He bounced back with a third place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year, partnered with Tom Cole Jr.[4]
An advertisement from 1950 for the Allard J2 stated: "Some overseas purchasers have preferred to fit the more powerful engines suitable for this chassis such as American Ford, Mercury, Cadillac, Ardun, Grancor etc."[5] Sydney Allard raced an Allard J2 Chrysler in the Tourist Trophy at Dundrod Circuit in 1951. Allards were exported to the United States as rolling chassis to be fitted with a motor on arrival.
Sydney Allard achieved international recognition by winning the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally in an Allard P1, with co-driver Guy Warburton and navigator Tom Lush.[6] Starting from Glasgow he narrowly defeated Stirling Moss, in a Sunbeam-Talbot 90, who finished second overall while competing in his first rally. The P1 was powered by a 4,375 c.c. Ford V8 side-valve motor. Mrs. Eleanor Allard, Sydney's wife, also competed in this event, accompanied by her sisters Edna and Hilda, but retired.
Allard also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1951, 1952 and 1953 but did not finish. In 1953 he shared a Cadillac-engined Allard J2R with Philip Fotheringham-Parker, leading the race at the end of the first lap, but on lap four he was the first to retire with collapsed rear suspension and a severed brake pipe.[7] In 1952 and 1953 a sister car was driven at Le Mans by Zora Arkus-Duntov. Carroll Shelby also raced an Allard-Cadillac J2 in the United States early in his driving career. Thus the successful Allard formula of an American V8 engine in a light chassis inspired the development of the Chevrolet Corvette and the A.C. Shelby Cobra.
An article on page 140 of the book Eagle Special Investigator by Macdonald Hastings, features Sydney Allard in "Special Investigator Drives a Racing Car", published by Michael Joseph in 1953.
In 1958 Allard built a Steyr-engined sports car for sprints and hillclimbs.[8] It was not particularly successful and was believed to be broken up, with the Steyr engine used in a twin-engined four-wheel-drive prototype which was never successfully run and soon abandoned.
[edit] Drag racing
Allard slingshot dragster
In 1961 Sydney Allard built the Allard dragster, a supercharged Chrysler-powered slingshot, in an effort to promote the sport of drag racing in the UK.[9] The car made an unsuccessful appearance at the Brighton Speed Trials that year. Allard founded the British Drag Racing Association and served as its President. He was instrumental in bringing Dante Duce and Mickey Thompson to England in 1963 to demonstrate their dragsters. He followed this with the International Drag Festivals held in England in 1964 and 1965, featuring US dragsters and drivers.
In 1964 Sydney Allard launched the Dragstar Dragon, a low-cost dragster powered by a Shorrock-supercharged 1,500 c.c. Ford engine.[10] Several cars of this type were produced. Among the drivers were his son Alan Allard, Gerry Belton and Denis Jenkinson.
In 1991 Sydney Allard was posthumously inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.[11]
[edit] References
- ^ See: Motor Sport, February 1933, Page 160.
- ^ See: Motor Sport, May 1936, Page 241.
- ^ See: Motor Sport, Nov 1946, Page 247.
- ^ See: The Times, April 13, 1966, Obituary.
- ^ See: Motor Sport, February, 1950.
- ^ See: Allard, the inside story by Tom Lush, foreword by Bill Boddy, pub 1977, Motor Racing Publications (Croydon), 207 pages, ISBN 10: 0900549300
- ^ See: Motor Sport, July, 1953, Pages 340/341.
- ^ See: Motor Sport, Nov 1958, Page 741.
- ^ Note: The Allard dragster is in the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, Hampshire, England. An effort is underway in 2009 to restore it mechanically so that it can take part in "cacklefests."
- ^ See: The Times, Jan 4, 1964.
- ^ See: http://www.garlits.com/hof-list.html
[edit] External links
Steyr-Allard, later run by Aussie Kerry Horan: http://www.ferrariownersclub.co.uk/happenings/2006/august/silverstone_postcard/popup/12.asp
The Allard dragster at the Brighton Speed Trials, 1963: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom-margie/1564957593/
