Allard

I photographed these two cars in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

On the left is the 1949 Steyr-Allard with which Sydney Allard won the 1949 British Hill Climb Championship. The car was built round an air-cooled 3,600cc V8 Steyr engine which had it's origins as a lorry engine used in German transport vehicles during the Second World War. The car on the right is an Allard JR, one of seven cars that were built in 1953, two of which competed in the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hour race driven by Sydney Allard/Philip Fotheringham-Parker and Zora Arkus-Duntov/Ray Merrick, but neither car finished the race. The Le Mans cars had 5.4 litre Cadillac V8 engines.

Allard JR

The Donington International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004 organised by the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association included a Gentleman Drivers GT and Sports Endurance race lasting 2¼ hours. The car pictured below is one of those taking part in this race.

It's a 1953 Allard JR and the co-drivers in the race were Martin Walford and Michael Windsor Price. Sydney Allard drove an Allard JR at the 1953 Le Mans 24 hour race and actually led on the first lap of the race, but had to retire on lap 4 with a collapsed rear suspension. The JR and J2R were the final evolution of the J2 and a total of 10 models were built. It appears that arrangements were made recently to start manufacturing continuation models.