The first 2 paragraphs are courtesy of hagerty…. A barebones racer, it had an aluminum two-seater body and Ford or Chrysler V-8 engines, ranging up to Cadillac’s 220-bhp, 331-cid OHV V-8 – in a car that weighed 2,150 pounds. The rear axle was a De Dion setup and the front axle was a Leslie Bellamy design, split, with a transverse spring. Given the power-to-weight ratio, handling could be a handful and required an attentive driver. Allard quoted performance figures of 0-50 mph in 6.8 seconds, with a 16.7 second quarter-mile time and top speed around 120 mph, but tuned versions were certainly much faster, and dominated West Coast racing until the arrival of the Ferrari 340MM and 375MM in the mid-1950s. Full “Le Mans” options were offered, including windshield, top, wipers and headlights with stone guards, but most cars remained minimal competition racers. Here’s a 1954 Allard J2X from yesterdays gathering. Its 1 of 83 built and it was the owner’s first visit to Hunt Valley Horsepower. I look forward to hearing more about his ownership experience on his future visits. Beautiful racing history... [Photos courtesy of Rich Williams]
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 14:47:31 +0000