Review: Allard The Complete Story

-Charles Warnes

My automotive library, as such, includes the two previous Allard books – ALLARD the INSIDE story by Tom Lush, and ALLARD by David Kinsella. Both authors do an excellent job of portraying the history of the Allard marque, and I have found them to be invaluable references over my 37 years of Allard ownership. Both books were published in 1977, and both are out of print.

As one might expect, Alan Allard’s (with co-author Lance Cole) newly published ALLARD – THE COMPLETE STORY details his father Sydney Allard’s motorsports passion, endeavors, and successes. The authors also provide detailed descriptions of the array of Allard models – ranging from the home-built ‘prototypes’ of the early 1930’s, up through Allard’s dragsters in the 1960’s.

This book shares insight from Alan’s intimate perspective of being born and raised in the Allard family. It provides more insight into how Sydney, with his strong automotive interests, was able to get his father Arthur Allard to support his pursuit in the automotive field, rather than in the family’s thriving construction business. This included Arthur’s financial and managerial support to the Adlard Motor Company, a conveniently named Ford dealership the family purchased in 1930.

The close Allard/Adlard affiliation provided a degree of financial security during the Great Depression that supported Sydney’s motorsport interests and endeavors, and played a foundational role that morphed into the Allard marque over the next 20 years. This affiliation helped Allard establish the Ford truck repair facility for the duration of World War II. This, in turn, provided Sydney Allard and his associates with practical experience in setting up a successful auto manufacturing operation in the post war years.

By the early 1950’s, Allard found themselves facing and dealing with the reality that limited capital and obsolescent shop facilities were not compatible with the need to develop and mass produce cars in that new era. As a result, Sydney Allard made a practical business decision to withdraw from automobile production. However, his role with the thriving Adlards Ford dealership still provided him with the resources to continue pursuing his ‘first love’ of developing and competing race cars in hill climbs and rallies – and to begin exploring the intriguing world of dragsters.

Tom Lush’s and David Kinsella’s books stop some 45 years ago, so Alan Allard’s book does a good job of bringing Allard enthusiasts up to date with chapter’s devoted to Allards in the USA, the Allard Owner’s Club, Allard diversification and Allard sports cars.

When two authors work on a collaboration it is not unusual for some minor typos and editorial issues ‘slip through the cracks’, and that is the case with this book. Despite that, I found ALLARD – THE COMPLETE STORY, to be an interesting and insightful work that will be an integral part of my automotive library.