Sydney Allard built his first eponymous vehicle in March 1936, and then 11 further sports cars before WW2 intervened. The history of these 12 cars has recently been told by Des Sowerby in an excellent book published by the Allard Owners’ Club.
EYO 750 was the sixth built, registered in July 1938, and was to be the works demonstrator. It had some competition outings, such as the 1938 Inter-Varsity Trial, driven by Reggie Tongue. It is thought to have been the car in which Sydney Allard had an accident at Prescott, when he plunged through the hedge during a hillclimb at a spot still known as Allard’s Gap.
In 1946 the car was bought by Ken Thorne, who owned Scottish Sports Cars near Glasgow. He competed in EYO 750 for a couple of years, but during the winter of 1948-’49 the car was remodelled and re-registered as a Mercotto, and given the registration number GGE 523 and the chassis number SC1. Some fairly significant modifications included cutting 11in out of the centre of the chassis, and lowering the bonnet line along with the the rest of the body. It appears, however, that the car was not very successful in its new guise.
In around 1949 it was bought by Sidney Cottrell, a car dealer from Bristol, followed by a fellow Bristolian by the name of Sparkes. By 1979 it was in the hands of another dealer in the area, then in 1983 it was bought by Josh Sadler, the present chairman of the Allard Owners’ Club.
The following year he used it for around 1000 miles, which included the famous Cotswold Clouds Trial, in which he was navigated by Allard historian Tom Lush. “This was very much a tongue-in-cheek attempt to get a better idea of its potential,” recalls Josh. “We retired after 10 sections due to a long list of problems – mainly it jumping out of first gear and dreadful brakes that didn’t work when reversing, which made things very tricky and we failed a section because it had jumped out of gear.”
Josh is determined to return the car to its original configuration; so far the chassis has been put back to its correct length, and the original body, by Whittingham & Mitchell of Fulham, is thought to be restorable. Progress has been slow after Josh was sidetracked by a 1952 Allard J2X. “That has now been sold, so the impetus and pressure to start a huge rebuild is becoming irresistible,” he says. It looks as if the Mercotto will soon be no more.
