2 With the outbreak of the Second World War, Sydney and his company did their part with a variety of War Office contracts that saw them repairing and modifying military vehicles, sometimes installing American Mercury-spec Ford V8 engines in them; designing and building a fourwheel-drive prototype British Jeep; and making thousands of headlamp blinds. The Adlard Motors company grew to a staff of several hundred and the expanded manufacturing facility that wartime contracts required provided invaluable experience for the postwar automobile production Sydney began envisioning. Throughout the war wars, Sydney sketched ideas for postwar passenger cars. His and his cars’ racing success had made him a national figure, and he planned on using his reputation to establish a proper automobile manufacturing company that built cars of his design and engineering. In January of 1946, Sydney and his partner Reg Canham announced to the press that the recently formed Allard Motor Company would soon be going into production with a range of Allard road cars. A small factory workshop was opened in the Clapham district of London to assemble cars. Chassis were built in Wolverhampton under contract by the Thompsons Ltd. company and engines, gearboxes, and axels were supplied by Ford. Material supplies in postwar England, much like the rest of Europe, were extremely limited. Aluminum, steel, and rubber were controlled by a quota system, and gasoline was strictly rationed. It was a difficult time to start a car company from the ground up. Sydney wanted to offer a variety of body styles with a range of engines right from the start, an ambitious undertaking even in the best of times. Despite everything working against them, Allard production was fully operational by 1947 with 200 cars leaving the factory that first full year of manufacture, an astonishing achievement which was aided by the publicity of Sydney’s racing triumphs as a driver. Four different Allard models were on sale and new Allard race cars began racking up victories across Europe in relaunched competition series. Sales figures were up and down in the first few years ranging from 260 cars in 1949 to over 500 in 1950. Manufacturing averaged between ten and twenty cars per month. A new passion for sports cars in America opened up a very important export market in the early 1950s and Allard was selling enough cars to stay in business. But growing the company was going to be difficult if Allard couldn’t find a way to increase volume.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjA0NTk=