While the conventional Hardy Spicer sliding coupling was capable of movement under load, there was sufficient friction to upset the rear suspension performance under heavy cornering. The front suspension was based on shortened Ford 105E front suspension units and initially had drum brakes and pressed steel wheels. A pair of Lotus wheels were purchased, so I had to juggle with Timken bearings so they would fit the Ford stub axle and the Lotus wheel. An adapter plate was then made to mount the Girling disc brake calliper and to line up with the purpose made disc brakes.
After some brief testing, the car was entered for the Herts County Automobile and Aero Club, Westbrook Hay Hill Climb. The car was powered by a 4.5 litre Steyr engine, running on petrol, rather than the usual Methanol. No special ducting was made for cooling and it ran without any major overheating problems.
As far as ‘Sports Car’ regulations were concerned it met these in spirit, however the top competitors like Phillip Scragg, with his HWM Jaguar, were not entirely amused. Sydney put up I believe second fastest in his class, however on his final run the Layrub mounting through the brake drum failed, so no second run time was recorded.
A re-design of the Layrub mounting flanges was made which did not require any loads to be taken through the brake drum. The new drive flanges were made of Dural and gave no further trouble throughout the cars life.
While the axle was stripped down a ZF differential unit was fitted, being one of six units which had been made way back in 1951/2. The ZF roller cam design had been copied from some pre-war confiscated ZF drawings. However when they were initially tested they failed to produce the expected limited slip performance and were considered to be “no better than a normal differential”. Of the six sets, four sets had languished with numerous Allard spare parts at Clapham High Street and were not considered to be serviceable. We had started to use Jack Knight, a Clapham based machinist for various turning jobs which could not be done in house at our own machine shop at Upper Richmond Road.