The Clipper is BACK!
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You might have seen the Clipper in the press lately. Geoffery Hacker of Undiscovered Classics fame has acquired the Allard Clipper project car that was owned by the late Alan Patterson. Geoff is dedicated to resurrecting fiberglass classics from years past. Hopefully he’ll be able to bring the Clipper back to life soon! To read more about Geoff’s Clipper, click here to jump over to a recent story by Hemmings.
In the meantime though, here’s a few unpublished thoughts on the Clipper from Allard insiders, Tom Lush and David Hooper…
Tom Lush writes…
“The total production was probably about five, but the factory had great hopes for these and actually tried to set up a very elaborate production line with not a conveyor belt but a frame where you slid the chassis' along and eventually they slide right out the back door onto a flatbed truck. Joe Jepson was the friend that was brought in who developed them. He was a friend of Sydney’s and a motorcyclist, so he got the job. He and his wife did take one 200 miles North to the Midlands to do so visiting and then got back without breaking down. The production involved driving them 20 miles south to have the fiberglass body put on and then driving them.”
David Hooper writes…
“I believe it is fair to classify the Clipper as one of worlds worst cars, however it did, in my view, have a number of redeeming features of which later. The Allard involvement in the project came through David Gottlieb who had already set up a potential sales outlet (Raymond Way - North London), and from his prototype we were contracted to produce a vehicle which was mechanically reliable and could be produced at a very competitive price.
On the plus side it did have hydraulic brakes (Lockheed), Andre Neighart Trailing arm rubber suspension units, 12 volt electrical system with starter motor and dynamo. The body was fibre glass with coloured gel coat of three basic colours.
The prototype Clipper did require considerable development, one of several items was to replace the bobbin/cable steering arrangement with a Burman steering box. I believe Sydney Allard took on this project because he had been convinced it was a viable production vehicle - this was far from the truth. I cannot remember how the body shape was evolved, but probably from sketches from Gottlieb. Horden & Richmond of Haddenham, a company which manufactured helicopter blades, quoted for the fibre glass bodies requiring a steel shell, rather than an aluminium ’plug’. Difficulties were experienced right from the start because body sections could not be released from their moulds incurring additional costs which the company would not pay. Bearing in mind the build price for the Clipper was a meagre £267 there was no room for increased build costs which prompted the cancellation of the whole project.
On the minus side the single rear wheel drive system was not a practical solution to provide a viable drive system, also the single cylinder two stroke Villiers industrial engine was far from suitable being plagued with high levels of vibration, overheating and noise. A triple V belt drive coupled the engine to the gearbox, which was an attempt to damp out some of the engine vibrations, however that resulted in problems with clutch operation. This was resolved by fitting a clutch stop which work quite well but required constant adjustment. The small tyres were marginal in capacity being more suited to trailer use than for carrying three people - I think a spare wheel was not even supplied with the Clipper, being an extra!
A twin cylinder Anzani was tried and while solving the noise and vibration problems its marine style dynastarter charge rate was inadequate for the electrical loads required for a car, plus power output was barely adequate.
A production/assembly line was set up at Encon Motors Ltd in Estcourt Road Fulham, Encon being part of the Allard group of companies.
The Clipper was tested against the AC Petite and Bond mini car at Ranmore Common. The performance was judged satisfactory against the AC and better than the Bond. I did at least 100 plus miles testing the Clipper without any major problems however for those involved it was always felt it doomed to failure.”
