Sydney Allard was a ford dealer who began to produce his own 'Allard Specials' based on the 1930s Ford V8 in the years before the second world war. The specials performed 'spectacularly' in rough-road trials. When war broke out Allard turned his attention to Army trucks and he ran an Army workshop in South London. 1945 saw him return to Sports Cars and he offered a range of high-performance Ford V8 based cars as well as taking part in various events himself. In 1949 he won the RAC British Hillclimb Championship in a Steyr-engined Allard Sprint Car. In 1950 he was placed third at LeMans in one of his Sports Cars. In 1952 he won the prestigious Monte Carlo Rally outright driving an Allard sedan. His car production buisness flourished until the advent of heavy taxation on home delivered vehicles stifled demand. The production continued on a 'built to order' basis. The Allard Motor Company moved on to supplying and fitting Shorrocks Superchargers, holding the world concession for the blower, and continued to sell Fords.
1960 Sydney Allard imported a GMC 6-71 blower, complete with Hillborn fuel injection, from the Moon Equipment Company of Los Angeles California. He also began to prepare a Chrysler Hemi motor.
1961 Sydney Allard completed the building of his first dragster. Powered by a 354ci Chrysler with a GMC 6-71 blower, Hillborn Fuel Injection it produced around 750BHP on straight methanol. Allards idea was to use the car to help establish the sport of Drag Racing in the UK and thus generate a market for competition and hot rod equipment. The car had no serious competition as nobody wanted to spend the money required to build another rail. He ran it at the Brighton Speed Trials in this year and by the end of 1962 he had run a best time of 10.48 seconds.
March 1962 Sydney Allards dragster was featured in the March edition of the U.S. magazine Hot Rod.
April 15th 1962 Sydney entered the Allard Dragster in the National Speed Trial held at RAF Debden, Essex. The meeting was organised by the West Essex Car Club.
1963 Sydney Allard formed the British Drag Racing Association (BDRA)
September 1963 The first American dragster and crew arrived in the UK. Dante Duce had challenged Sydney Allard to a transatlantic match race series and had persuaded Dean Moon to lend him his 600bhp Chevrolet Mooneyes dragster for the trip Financial assistance came from Mobil Oils and Revell Model Kits.
Tuesday September 10th 1963 Silverstone. The first round of the Transatlantic challenge. After some adjustment to tyre pressures Duce soloed to a 9.48/166, the fastest run outside the U.S. at that time. The only other results I have so far are that Duce and Allard won one race each.
Saturday September 14th 1963 The Brighton Speed Trials.Sydney Allard and Dante Duce were  joined by Americas Mickey Thompson who brought over his Ford Powered Harvey Aluminuim Special fueller.
Sunday September 22nd 1963 RAF Debden. Essex. In the final round of the transatlantic challenge 5000 spectators lined the strip even though the event was officially closed to the public! Duce ran a best time of 9.99 while Allard had problems with a sheared blower drive and could only manage a 12.85. Tony Densham in his Worden dragster challenged Allard to a match race but was easily beaten.
April 8th Sydney and Alan Allard unveiled their latest dragster to the motoring press at Silverstone. The slingshot design had a 1500cc Cortina motor and a Shorrock supercharger and was called the Dragon. The plan was to make the car available to the public in kit form to help people get started in Drag Racing. The price for the full kit was 600 pounds. At this launch driver John Hume clocked a best of 12.47/105. Electronic equipment mounted on the car recorded a 0-100mph time of 11.1 seconds.
May 17th 1964 Duxford Airfield, Cambridgeshire.  The first "Big Go". The BHRA held a meeting in conjunction with the National Sprint Association & the Allard Owners Club. This meeting saw the debut of the Shorrock blown, Cortina engined Allard Dragon rail in the hands of John Hume. The Dragon ran the low E.T.s of the day with 11.92 & 11.99 seconds.
June 1964 Chelveston, Northamptonshire. Alan Allard took the Allard Dragon to a new international Class F Standing Start Kilo record of 104.04mph, beating the previous record of 91.36mph held by Mickey Thompson. He also established the National standing start quarter mile record at 11.54 seconds.
September 1st 1964 Southampton. The SS United States arrived with a cargo that included Dean Moons 'Moonbeam' and Tony Nancys '22 Junior'. These two cars, along with the Allard Dragon and George Browns 'Super Nero' motorcycle, were then transported to Italy to take part in a demonstration of Drag Racing at the Monza circuit at the request of the Italian Grand Prix organisers. The trip was organised by the BDRA with help from the publicity department of the Ford Motor Company who supplied two Zodiacs to tow the Americans trailers.
19th September 1964 Blackbushe Drag Fest, Hampshire. First visit of the U.S. team to the UK for a series of six meetings. Organised by BDRA Chairman Sidney Allard and the legendary Wally Parks of the NHRA, the American drivers and the best of the Brits battled it out in front of a 20,000+ crowd. Alan Allard ran 11.42/125 in his Dragon but only managed 17.46 in his Chrysler slingshot.
20th September 1964 RAF Chelveston. Dragfest meeting. Alan Allard beat Doug Church with 11.26 to the Porsche rails 11.35.
26th September 1964 RAF Woodvale. Dragfest. Alan Allard ran 11.11/127 to win the 'up to 3000cc' class in the Dragon and managed to squeeze an 11.25/141 out of his Chrysler rail to take the  'over 3000cc' class.
4th October 1964 Blackbushe Dragfest.  A crowd of 30,000 were in attendance to see Doug Church beat Alan Allards Dragon in an 11 second match race. Allan took the Chrysler rail to a strong 10.28 win over Dante Duce in the Moonbeam Chevy sportscar.
In the final results for the 1964 Drag Festivals Alan Allard in the Dragon won the trophies for the best aggregate performance by a British Dragster, the best aggregate performance by a Dragster under two litres, and the best time for a British car at the first Blackbushe meeting. He also ran the best times for a British car at Church Fenton, Kemble and the final Blackbushe meeting in the Allard Dragster.
March 1965 Pomona, California. NHRA Winternationals. With sponsorship from the Ford Motor Company the Allard Dragon was shipped to the States and became the first British Dragster to run on American soil. Due to the inclement weather the entire meeting was held in one day. From America the car was shipped straight to Stockholm for the leading Swedish Auto Show before returning to the Clapham works of the Allard Motor Company.
Thursday May 20th 1965 A Committee from the BDRA visited South Marston Airfield near Swindon, at the invitation of owners Vickers Supermarine, to vet the main runway for a BDRA Meeting to take place in July as part of the Vickers Gala Day. BDRA President Sydney Allard was present to view the strip and try out the newly completed BHRA christmas tree while Alan Allard and Gerry Belton made trail runs in their Allard Dragon dragsters.
1965 This year also saw the building of a new Allard dragster. The new car used the 354ci Hemi motor from Sydney Allards original dragster with a front mounted GMC blower. The slingshot frame was constructed from stainless steel tube and in the interests of engine longevity all its runs were on 100% methanol. With Alan Allard at the helm the car ran throughout the 65/66 season with best times in the 9.3s.
July 3rd 1965 South Marston nr. Swindon. BDRA Vickers Drag Meet. Over 10,000 people attended this 'Vickers Supermarine Sports and Social Club Gala Day' with the drag race being the main part of an event which also featured many flying displays. The car entries included Alan Allards dragster.
April 12th 1966 Sydney Allard died. Allard was one of the founding fathers of British Drag Racing and worked hard to try and get the sport off the ground in the early sixties. He built the Allard Dragster that match raced Americas Dante Duce in 1963 and formed, and was President of, the British Drag Racing Association.
May 28th/29th 1966 Whitsun. SPR Big Go. Alan Allard competed in his Dragon Anglia which he debuted at this meeting. The car was powered by a Shorrocks-blown 1500cc  Ford Cortina motor producing 220bhp as used in the Allard Dragon rail. Fuel starvation to the blower prevented any successful runs.
June 26th 1966 Santa Pod Raceway. BDRA Meeting. Alan Allards blown 1500cc Anglia produced its first good runs with rubber-burning sideways launches and rapid gearchanges. A 13.99 was followed by a 13.54 in qualifying.
August 14th 1966 SPR. Alan Allard took his Ford powered Anglia Altered to new records of 13.126/105.93 in D/CA
1968 The Allard dragster was re-named the 'Allard-Skilton' dragster after Clive Skilton acquired a share in the car. Business commitments meant that Allard had been unable to run the car as much as he would have liked so Clive took over the driving duties.
May 5th 1968 SPR. Car meeting. Alan Allard set both ends of the D class Competition Altered record at 13.513/102.04.

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