Resurrecting long dead British automotive brands and building continuation cars is hardly a new wheeze, although it's unusual for the descendants of the founders to be involved - typically its faceless investors or an established manufacturer behind the scenes. At the re-established Allard Motor Company, though, the powers-that-be do possess a face - in fact, they have three.
They belong to the son and grandsons of Sydney Allard, the man who started the firm back in 1945. Motorsport was Sydney's passion: he started with trials cars before the war, and more ambitious models after it ended. Notably he produced the J2, a lightweight roadster powered by American V8s which placed third at Le Mans in 1950 and contributed to the formative racing years of both Carroll Shelby and Zora Duntov - the men who would go on to build the AC Cobra and Chevrolet Corvette.
Unfortunately Sydney couldn't make the Anglo-American dream work to his benefit in the long run, and despite producing a string of other cars, by 1958 the Allard Motor Company had ceased trading. It would likely have remained an historical footnote if not for his offspring, who restarted the company this decade and immediately set about the business of building a continuation series.
And by 'building' we don't mean funding a crack team of engineers to bring a previous model to life. No, the car in question - a competition-spec 1953 JR drop-head - was reportedly hand-built by Alan (son), Lloyd (grandson) and Gavin (grandson) from the original drawings using era-specific parts, design bucks and materials. You don't get much more authentic than that.
As you might imagine, Team Allard has been at this for a while. As Allard Sports Cars Ltd, it announced its attention to begin manufacturing whole cars in 2018. Now the first fruits of their labour - chassis 3408 and only the eighth JR ever - is up for sale at RM Sotheby's London auction, with an estimate of £180,000 to £240,000. The car is powered by a re-engineered version of the original 5.4-litre Cadillac V8 with a four-speed gearbox.
Looks rather splendid, no? Naturally it's eligible for a number of historic race events and road rallies. Of course Allard is very keen for its continuation car to become a proper JR series and encourages anyone interested to get in touch. Commenting on the project, Lloyd said: "As a family we have been passionate in reviving and continuing the legacy of what Sydney Allard created over eight decades ago. Since we're all [the current Allard family members involved in the project] passionate drivers, engineers and archivists, it's been important to stay true to our roots and passion. We see this car as a tribute and we'd love to see the JR continuation model car follow in the footsteps of my grandfather's legacy and get back to Le Mans." Best of British, chaps...
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