Photo: Retropower
If you're an American and you remember the Austin Allegro at all, it's probably because Jeremy Clarkson once famously decreed that it was marginally better than the Morris Marina. That's despite the fact that both cars were built by British Leyland, yet inexplicably, they competed primarily with each other. But to Great Britain's less hyper-critical classic car enthusiasts, the Allegro is a car well remembered and somewhat well celebrated despite its faults. It's to the point where one group of Brits decided to build the ultimate Allegro on a tasty Japanese chassis.
Say hello to Project Lucky Strike; it's a heavily modified early-70s Austin Allegro body with nearly all of its internals removed, including the chassis, and replaced with the chassis and the drivetrain from a DC2-series, third-generation Honda (Acura) Integra Type R to make a machine that would've blown the pants off Alex Moulton, the man who designed the Allegro's innovative hydrogas suspension. With the Allegro's 50th anniversary passing this year, it was the Retropower shop in Leicestershire that decided to mark the occasion by building what the world at large would call the ultimate Allegro.
In its day, the Austin Allegro left the factory in Longbridge, Birmingham, England, sporting a number of different anemic four-cylinder engines ranging in size from just one liter up to 1.7 liters. Well, it goes without saying that the 1.8-liter Honda B18C inline-four engine with VTEC kicks blows all those old engines out of the water. Of course, it took gutting almost everything out of this old Jalopy before it was ready to take the new drivetrain and all the new internals Retropower intends to shove in this classic body shell. With both rear quarter panels removed and mostly empty space existing in-between, it's almost easy to forget this particular Allegro was a two-door model.
In any case, it's not easy adapting late 90's Japanese drivetrain components to work in a body shell straight out of the West Midlands in the 1970s. But with Retropower's crack team of technicians at the helm of the operation, they've managed to make the job seem easy, almost routine in its execution. With the drivetrain installation close to completion and a wicked set of powder-coated white alloy wheels mounted, you can start to understand the direction the Retropower team intends to take this build. With just enough of that classic English styling remaining but with a big power-punch of Japanese tech under the hood, we get the sense this will be a phenomenal car to drive when the finishing touches are added.
Best of luck to the Retropower team on finishing this one-of-a-kind build. We can't wait to see what the results look like. One thing's for sure, it'll be a heck of a lot faster than it was bone stock.
In its day, the Austin Allegro left the factory in Longbridge, Birmingham, England, sporting a number of different anemic four-cylinder engines ranging in size from just one liter up to 1.7 liters. Well, it goes without saying that the 1.8-liter Honda B18C inline-four engine with VTEC kicks blows all those old engines out of the water. Of course, it took gutting almost everything out of this old Jalopy before it was ready to take the new drivetrain and all the new internals Retropower intends to shove in this classic body shell. With both rear quarter panels removed and mostly empty space existing in-between, it's almost easy to forget this particular Allegro was a two-door model.
In any case, it's not easy adapting late 90's Japanese drivetrain components to work in a body shell straight out of the West Midlands in the 1970s. But with Retropower's crack team of technicians at the helm of the operation, they've managed to make the job seem easy, almost routine in its execution. With the drivetrain installation close to completion and a wicked set of powder-coated white alloy wheels mounted, you can start to understand the direction the Retropower team intends to take this build. With just enough of that classic English styling remaining but with a big power-punch of Japanese tech under the hood, we get the sense this will be a phenomenal car to drive when the finishing touches are added.
Best of luck to the Retropower team on finishing this one-of-a-kind build. We can't wait to see what the results look like. One thing's for sure, it'll be a heck of a lot faster than it was bone stock.
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