Allards & Allard Folks at Monterey 2015

If you are an automotive enthusiast, the Monterey Car Week cannot be missed. If you have the means and have not attended yet, you should make your reservations now. There simply is no other event in the world that brings together such a diverse range of cars. The only disappointment has been the steady decline of Allard’s on the Monterey Peninsula – be it on the track, the show lawn or the roads. However there is never a shortage of Allard enthusiasts on hand. 

Steve Schuler was on track at the wheel of his Allard J2 (3rd place finisher of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1950) bracketing this year’s nine day Monterey Car Week. Steve’s week began with the Monterey Pre-Reunion at Laguna Seca Raceway on August 8 & 9, and concluded on Sunday, August 16 where he raced to a 7th place finish at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion – despite the fact that his brakes went out in the early laps of the race. Steve had a busy weekend as he was also racing his insane IMSA Roush Mustang that keeps trying to destroy itself.

Three Allards were on display at various car shows in the course of the week. David Rossiter showed his immaculately re-restored red K2 at Tuesday’s Concours on the Avenue in Carmel, and on Wednesday Martin Allard’s cream-colored K3 earned the Blessed and the Best of British Cars award at the 3rd Annual Carmel Mission Classic. Jim Taylor’s unique red & white J2X was one 150 vintage sports and racing cars gracing the prestigious field at The Quail – A Motorsports Gathering on Friday.

On Friday we had a nice visit with Jim & Lisa Stec, who came out from Wisconsin to witness the sale of their Allard K3 at the Bonham’s auction. This K3 also happens to be the car that my son and I rebuilt and traded with Lisa’s uncle Paul a couple years ago. Paul passed away a few months ago and the family regretfully decided to divest themselves of much of his eclectic collection of preserved classic cars. We were all on pins and needles when the K3 drove up the ramp. Although the car did not hit the $100,000 estimate, it did sell for a respectable $87,500.

Martin Allard invited me to join him on his annual Thursday morning ‘mini-tour’ toward Big Sur to witness a part of the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance as the tour participants traveled out to Highway 1’s iconic Bixby Creek bridge before returning back to go on display on Carmel’s Ocean Avenue. 

On Sunday morning, three generations of Warnes’ rolled out of bed at 4:30 am, and with credentials in hand, partook in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance ‘Dawn Patrol’. Despite the early hour, it is a special privilege to gather on the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links to witness the Concours entrants make their way onto the show lawn at the picturesque Carmel Bay. 

While there were no Allards in this year’s field, Jim Taylor showed his 1954 Cunningham C-3 Vignale Coupé where he earned 2nd in the Post War Cunningham Class.  We also had a nice visit with Wayne Carini (“Chasing Classic Cars” on Velocity Channel). Wayne was sharing his enthusiasm about the Allard J2X that he recently purchased from long-term owner Bill Bauder. Wayne plans on keeping the car in his personal collection and has big plans to enjoy his new toy.

It may a be a bit premature, but you may want to pencil in the dates for Car Week in 2017…we’ll keep you posted if anything interesting develops!

Monterey Car Week, 2013

For me, the 2013 Monterey ‘Car Week’ commenced on Thursday morning, when I took up my post to watch the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance participants turn into Ocean Avenue in downtown Carmel. There, they take a two hour lunch break, which gives a few thousand ‘folks like us’ a rare chance to get up close and personal with about 200 of the PB Concours entrants.

The Tour presents the chance to witness a broad spectrum of the world’s most elegant and exotic vehicles running on the road. I truly respect the courage of the participants who are willing to expose their prize autos to the rigors of an 88 mile road trip – a mere three days before show time. We were somewhat surprised to see our friend, Martin Allard, at the wheel of his green K3 approaching the corner and get directed into the lineup on Ocean Avenue!

Martin and his family are Carmel residents, and that morning he decided to take a little run down Hwy 1 to watch the Tour. His plan was to turn around at Bixby Bridge and return to Carmel in time to take his wife out for brunch. However, he suddenly found himself as a part of the lineup. Those directing traffic presumed that he was a part of the Tour, and summarily directed him to Ocean Avenue. While Martin and his Allard were not official entrants, it is our opinion that his extremely original K3 could qualify for PB’s Postwar Preservation class.

Two very nice Allards sold Mecum Auctions – an L Type that went for $44K, and an immaculate K2 for $95K. David Rossiter has done considerable work on his ’51 K2 in the ten years that he has owned it, and it gained a fair amount of well deserved attention at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering. The upcoming Ironstone Concours d’Elegance is featuring David’s red K2 on the poster promoting the September 28 event in the California Gold Rush town of Murphys.

On Saturday morning a few Allard folks got together for an impromptu breakfast. They included David Rossiter, Alan & Celia Tiley, Colin & Chuck Warnes, Lindsey Parsons, Mark Moskowitz, Bernard Dervieux, and Martin Allard. Over the weekend we also had a chance to visit with Al & Ursula Reynolds, Bob Weiner, Ron Hale and Alan Patterson.

Alan’s J2X, which he has owned and raced for the past 60 years is currently in Pennsylvania. He shared his excitement about his two most recent acquisitions – one of the two Allard GT’s, and one of the two remaining three-wheeled Allard Clippers. He reports that they have just arrived at the dock in New Jersey, and he is looking forward to commencing their restorations.

2013 saw one Allard entrant at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion races. This was Steve Schuler’s green J2 – the third place overall, first-in-class finisher of the 1950 24 Hours of LeMans. Steve turned the Allard driving duties over to Graham Smith. Graham owns and races a J2 in Australia, and did much of the restoration on Steve’s J2 a few years ago. Graham started race 5B in 29^th place, and in 8 laps worked his way up to a 5^th place finish. Graham’s great drive in Sunday’s race also netted him the prestigious Rolex Award For Excellence in race group 5B.

RMMR’s closing celebration on Sunday includes the Rolex Awards of Excellence presentations (see above) to in

dividual drivers in each race category, and also the event’s ‘Spirit of Monterey’ honor to the driver who excelled in the spirit of the weekend.  This year’s ‘Spirit of Monterey’ award went to John Harden, who drove his 1963 Genie in Group 4A.  John’s first race was in 1953 when he competed in one of the Pebble Beach Road Races. At age 81, Harden has taken his racing helmet off for good, officially retiring after Saturday’s race, where he finished a very respectable eighth out of 33 cars running in his class. 

I first met John at Laguna Seca in 1984, when he was racing his Hilborn injected J2X, and I was a newly hatched Allard owner in search of information and moral support. John, as a part of Vintage Connections in Oklahoma City, has restored and serviced many an Allard over the years, and continues to be a valuable technical resource to Allard owners worldwide. We offer our congratulations to John for this well deserved honor.

Photo: Rolex, Stephan Cooper