David Watson's Allora

I purchased this car in January 1999, but at the time of purchase the vendor was unable to tell me whether it was based on a Hawk Transformer kit or a CAE Corse kit. However, it seemed in good condition with only a few minor problems that could easily be sorted out, so I went ahead and bought it.

Further investigations have revealed that this car was based on an Allora kit, produced by Handmade Cars, which was the forerunner to the CAE Corse, which is now produced by Carson Automotive Engineering of Skipton.

The heritage of the CAE Corse is that Handmade Cars went into receivership, and the project was then taken on by Litton Cars. When they finally stopped production, the project was taken over by Hugh Carson of CAE, who has continued to develop and refine the car into it's present format.

When researching the history of the car, I discovered that it was originally built to be used in stage rallies by David Jones from Wales. The car was initially fitted with a rebuilt 2litre Lancia Twin Cam running on twin 40 DCOE webers. When it was completed and on the road, it was the first customer built car, and David Jones took the car to the National Component Car Show at Sandown Park in 1987, where it was the star of the Handmade Cars stand.

The car was featured in the November 1988 issue of Which Kit from which I obtained much of this information.

Since its completion by David Jones, the car has passed through various owners, and at one stage returned to Hugh Carson for modifications to the rear suspension. The original Allora's had a strange setup for controlling the movement of the rear struts. This was removed and the more effective, fully adjustable system from the more up-to-date Corse S was grafted into place, making the rear suspension much more stable and efficient.

Since obtaining the car, I have fitted additional door bars, plumbed in Fire Extinguisher, and various other modifications to bring it up to an adequate standard for use in current tarmac stage rallies.

The first event for the car was the Longcross Stages in May 1999. Unfortunately a pipe leading from the rear-mounted engine to the front-mounted radiator split on the first stage, causing a complete loss of cooling fluid, which caused engine damage, and so the car retired from the event on the very first stage.

A replacement engine was obtained and fitted in time for the TTL Stages in June 1999, but again the car failed to finish. A blown head gasket on the third stage caused the retirement this time.

The car is currently being fitted with yet another engine, and should be competing again on the Bomb-Along Stages at Wroughton, near Swindon on Sept 5, 1999.

Since this date, the car has been fitted with an Alfa V6, and rallied extensively. It is currently awaiting a rebuild following a major shunt on an event at Avon Park in September 2003.

Details of my rallying exploits with the car are detailed elsewhere on this site, and with the Stratos discussion forum