1947 Allard Racer Special

This 1947 Steyr-Allard is Sydney Allard's personal British Hill Climb Championship-winning special. It was Allard's personal, unique, and famous one-off special, the most well-known of all the different Allard vehicles. Built in six weeks in 1947, Sydney Allard competed in the British Hill Climb Championship with the car for five years, finishing 3rd in 1947, 3rd in 1948, 1st in 1949, 2nd in 1950, and 3rd in 1951. The car held class and outright records at all of the various hill climb courses and sprint events that it competed in at different times over this period. After being sold in 1952, the car continued to successfully compete in numerous events until the early 1960s with a succession of owners before being reacquired by the Allard family. It was sold again and placed in a museum for a number of years. It was acquired by the current owner in 1994. It was fully restored to active competitive levels in 2001.

This is Sydney Allard's personal, unique, and famous one-off car, the 1947 Steyr-Allard, and is the most well-known of all of the Allard vehicles. Built in 1947, Sydney Allard competed in the British Hill Climb Championship with this car for 5 years finishing 3rd in 1947, 3rd in 1948, 1st in 1949, 2nd in 1950, and 3rd in 1951. The car held records at various hill climb courses and sprint events that it competed in. After being sold in 1952, the car continued to successfully compete in numerous events until the early 1960s before being acquired by the current owner in 1994 and then fully restored to active competition levels in 2001. This car has been fully documented in hundreds of books and magazine articles over the years. The car was built using a set of altered production Allard J1 chassis rails fitted with tube and channel cross-members. The front suspension was the standard Allard Bellamy split axle but with the radius rods behind the axle and pivoting in line with the front axle pivot points. Initially, a standard Allard rear axle was used mounted on coil springs and standard Allard 12' brakes were fitted all round. An alloy body was fabricated by Woodward of Putney together with a shortened Allard K1 radiator grille. As the choice of engines in the late 1940s was limited, Sydney decided to use a lightweight air-cooled V8 engine. This unique engine was an Austrian air-cooled Steyr V8 that was used in WWII armored cars and as stationary engines. To convert it for competition use, the Allard team removed the cooling fan and cowlings, the cast iron barrels were replaced with alloy versions, the compression ratio was increased to 12:1 to run on methanol, a Scintilla Vertex magneto replaced the distributor and 8 motorcycle carburetors were fitted. In this guise, the engine developed 150 bhp at 4,000rpm and the finished car weighed about 1,600 lbs. The car was first run at the Prescott hill climb on May 11, 1947, and established the fastest time of the day and a new record for un-Supercharged cars. In 1994, the car was fully dismantled and a long, 6-year restoration process was completed. The original chassis was straightened and repaired. The alloy body was restored and a new grille was formed. All of the suspension components, differential, brakes, steering box, shock absorbers, and steering components were reconditioned. New exhaust headers and pipes were made and coated. The magneto was reconditioned and a new crankshaft, connecting rods, and pistons were made. The car was restored to its 1949 Hill Climb championship-winning configuration. The restoration was completed in August 2001 and since then it has regularly competed at numerous hill climb events. This famous car, complete with documentation, spares, and a unique 'Allard' battery cart, is fully maintained and competition-ready.

Source - Barrett-Jackson