Allard Clipper

The Allard Motor Company of south London built big sports cars with Ford, Mercury, Jaguar and American V8 engines, and in 1952 Sydney Allard won the Monte Carlo Rally in one of his own cars. But sales of the big cars were sliding, and the Clipper was his attempt at a cheap family car.source 1source 2source 3 It was not his idea. David Gottlieb of Power Drive Ltd conceived it, and Allard was contracted to build two prototype chassis with a self-coloured glass-fibre body; a separate Allard Clipper Company Ltd was formed, and the engineer Gilbert Jepson built the prototype chassis.source 4source 5 Gottlieb went on to design the Powerdrive.source 6

The car was a three-wheeler on 8-inch wheels, the single one at the front, built on a steel chassis.source 1source 3 JAP and British Anzani engines were tried and rejected in favour of the Villiers 24B, a 346 cc single-cylinder two-stroke of 8 bhp, mounted at the back just ahead of the left rear wheel.source 1source 7 It drove that wheel and no other, through a triple V-belt to a Burman gearbox and then a chain.source 4source 1source 7 The suspension used trailing arms on rubber mountings.source 7 Inside was a bench for three adults, and when the boot lid was opened two optional dickey seats for children appeared; the one door was on the nearside.source 5source 7 The 1954 brochure had a slogan for families.source 3

A body from the propeller makers

The bodies came from Hordern-Richmond Ltd of Haddenham, on Thame airfield, an aircraft-propeller and aeronautical firm (more in aircraft makers).source 1source 5 Margaret Woolsey, just out of the WRAF, laid up the moulds and panels for the prototype. She believed the firm was chosen because it was the only one in Britain then working glass fibre on a large scale. The moulds were made panel by panel rather than taken from a full-size buck, and were revised again and again.source 5

The glass fibre was coloured through, usually an ivory roof over ivory, red or blue.source 1 That makes the Clipper, by 3wheelers.com’s account as English Wikipedia gives it, the first car with a colour-impregnated glass-fibre body, and among the first British cars with a production glass-fibre body of any kind.source 5source 7source 3 The bolder claim on 3wheelers.com, that it was the first car with a plastic body at all,source 2 goes too far: Bond was already trying glass-fibre panels on its Minicar in 1953.source 8

About twenty, and the end

The prototype was tested against a Bond and an AC Petite, and production was then agreed, at the Encon Motors workshop in Fulham.source 4source 7 The first bodyshell arrived on 19 March 1954 and the first car was registered on 15 April.source 5 The bodies were the trouble. New moulds were needed; David Hooper of the Allard Register blames an inadequate understanding of the release agent and a lack of draw angles on the steel pattern. Hordern-Richmond wanted more money for new moulds and bodies, and that could not be agreed.source 4source 5 On the road, cooling was inadequate and the driveshafts weak.source 2source 7 With only the left rear wheel driven and the driver sitting on the right, traction on left-hand bends was poor when the driver was alone.source 1source 3 By Chapman’s account, as German Wikipedia retells it, suspension parts broke under a full load of five, and the press thought the open dickey seats fit only for parents with a sadistic streak.source 3

Of a planned first run of 100, only 22 were completed, by one detailed account; others say about 20, or fewer than 20.source 5source 1source 7source 4 Sydney Allard judged the fixes too costly and dropped the project.source 3 When is disputed: in 1954, says English Wikipedia; in 1955, says 3wheelers.com, and Forgotten Fiberglass records a body that failed to arrive on 24 June 1955 as hastening the end.source 7source 2source 5 Chapman later put the Clipper at number one in The Worst Cars Ever Sold.source 7source 3 The Allard Register, for its part, says the Clipper is often treated as a joke by Allard enthusiasts, but was an earnest attempt by a small firm doing all it could to stay open and keep its staff employed.source 4

Two or three Clippers survive, by different counts.source 1source 2source 5source 7source 3 One is in a museum in Germany, which the sources do not name.source 1source 2source 5source 3 In England, 906 CMT, still to its original specification, is on the Register of Unusual Microcars.source 1 In the United States, chassis number 118 was restored by its owner, Tom Chandler, with Geoff Hacker of Undiscovered Classics; its restorer says it can easily seat five adults.source 4 3wheelers.com placed a Clipper in the Hammond Microcar Collection in Kent; when that collection closed in 2022, a Clipper, described as one of three survivors, was among the 47 or so cars auctioned on 27 October.source 2source 9 No price has been found. The Allard Register and the Allard Owners Club keep the marque’s history.source 4