LETTER OF THE WEEK
By any means necessary
In your Slideshow of 21 June, entitled ‘Great European cars powered by American engines’, Allard was highlighted as one of Europe’s first car makers to use American V8s.
Sydney Allard’s problem was getting them. He could have bought crate engines from the US, but that would have been very expensive and very slow, so he devised a plan to get them locally. A relative of a friend of mine worked for Allard in London after the war, and I was sometimes able to chat to him over a pint. He told me that he and his colleagues were asked by Allard to keep an eye out for American V8 cars driven by US servicemen stationed around London whose cars had been shipped over, pursue them and insist that they sell their cars to Allard. Enough of them obliged to enable Allard to begin production.
The early Allard sports racers were so successful that some other competitors complained and wanted them banned. Allard’s response was: “If you want one, I’ll build you one.”
Stuart Underwood Weston-super-Mare, Somerset
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