25 Nov 04
"The 1750SS has always been the dream car. And in all the time the Allegro Club has been going we've only found about six or seven, which is hardly any when the production run was a couple of thousand..."
The golden rule with any '70s Leyland car is to buy the most pristine car you can, because even they will cost buttons. Unfortunately Colin hasn't been able to go about it like that, because there are no faultless surviving 1750SS Allegros. So for the last 13 years Colin has been restoring a 1750SS. To date the rebuild has cost him £12,000 - "if you include the cost of collecting sad things from the nether regions of Britain" - and it is not finished yet. An empty but pristine body shell sits in the garage next to the vicarage. The re-trimmed Bri-Nylon seats are in the loft of the church. Further parts are with another Allegro fetishist named Nick.
Admittedly, Colin's car is the oldest known surviving Allegro in the world, but twelve grand still seems a lot of money to spend on a car that would struggle to raise £1000 at auction. "My justification is that I always knew it wouldn't be worth anything when it's finished", h explains. "My one fear, though, is that somebody from the club is going to turn up with an immaculate out-of-the-box 1750SS. At which point I shall start to cry, because that is the one real justification for spending so much to restore this car - there aren't any others!"
