57 Alan and Anne Masson—Owners of Allard Clipper 527 DMF: 2016 We’ve received many comments from enthusiasts who’ve read our story about Margaret Woolsey and the first Allard Clipper since we posted it on our Undiscovered website back in 2009 (click here to review the story on our website). Another fortunate story we received in October 2016 was from Alan and Anne Masson who shared their story on buying, repairing and driving an Allard Clipper back in 1959. What’s even more interesting is that five years later, we ended up buying the very Allard Clipper—Alan and Anne’s Allard Clipper—that he wrote about in the story below. So without delay, let’s begin share Alan & Anne Masson’s story. Alan and Anne Masson: “Sabrina” Their 1954 Allard Clipper Geoff… While I was in the army serving in Feltham England I saw this thing in the parking lot of our trailer park. It was covered with leaves, inside and out, and obviously long abandoned and I got it for a song. I had just married and was living on British Army pay (almost nothing). The challenge then was to get it running and useful. I was horrified to find the 350cc Villiers two cycle engine had almost no compression - the cylinder bore was scored, burnt and bruised (I guess the last guy saved his money and did not mix oil with the petrol!) so I had to get it re-bored and new oversize piston fitted before anything else. “Ah!” I though, “more power!” We drove it to my folks home on the other side of the north downs in Surrey. This meant we had to climb some pretty steady hills - in 1st gear – and in the very far gutter - to let even bicycles pass us. Very humbling. This vehicle was not built to go up hills—in fact, it just plain seemed scared of them. Building up speed prior to the incline did not work as the darn thing was so light it didn’t store kinetic energy. Once you nursed it up to 40-45 mph - if you drove wisely, you could maintain that speed – unless of course, you were going against the wind. Frankly, I liked it - the steering and brakes were good, it had a "boot" and it was light enough to lift into and out of small parking spaces. We had fun driving it, it was unique, and we got lots of funny looks and big grins from frightened folks. We named it “Sabrina” (remember the pop star of the same name?) We painted it British Racing Green with fiberglass marine paint. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE Alan Masson: Fall 1959
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjA0NTk=