Description

Sydney Allard of London, England began building motorcar “Specials” for racing in 1936. His first car was made using a wrecked Ford V8 saloon mated to a Bugatti GP body, used primarily for time-trials and hill climbs. Sydney began the Allard Motor Company in 1946 and until it closed in 1958 Allard had built roughly 2000 automobiles for the road, race track, hill climbs and drag strips of the world.

The K1 was the first of three Allard “K” series cars built in 1950 and featured this earlier coachwork. All three were the only cars of 1950 made featuring left-hand drive, then imported to the United States. The example pictured here was the second of the three for import and at this time the whereabouts of the other two cars is unknown.

After the first three K1’s were made in 1950, Allard switched to the new bodywork of the K2. There was a scant 119 of these cars made by Sir Sidney Allard between 1950 and 1952.

A notable feature of this beauty is the cut-down doors, art-deco styling including the flip-out turn signals, and “waterfall” grille – which was a take-away from the Pre-War Allard’s and Allard race cars.

The example here is a stunning metallic silver, finished with a dark gray/blue leather interior and black convertible top. It is powered by a 59A Mercury Flathead V8 with manual transmission and highly-machined gear shift lever. The engine set-up and finish is a wonderful surviving example of period Southern California Hot Rod practice.