The Allard Motor Company was an English car manufacturer founded in 1936 by Sydney Allard. The company, based in Putney, London until 1945 and then in Clapham, London, produced approximately 1900 cars until its closure in 1966.
The driving force and founder of the Allard Motor Company was Sydney Allard. Sydney was very successful in diverse forms of motorsport driving Allard cars. This included winning the Monte Carlo Rally in a P1 Saloon in 1952 – the 1949 British Hill Climb Championship in the Steyr engined Allard racing car and coming third in the 1950 Le Mans 24 hour race – again driving a car built by himself, the Allard J2 with Cadillac V8 engine. Achievements which are unlikely to be repeated again.
Sydney Allard also introduced the sport of Drag Racing to the U.K. and Europe, building the first dragster outside the U.S.A. in 1960 and then staging the spectacular Drag Festivals in 1963 and 1964. At the same time Sydney built up Adlards Motors, a Ford Dealership, in South West London, which ran alongside the Allard Motor Company for many years and became one of the largest dealerships in the U.K.
Allard ceased production of road going cars in 1957 with the Allard Palm Beach GT this was displayed at the 1956 London Motor Show.
