Alvis E-Book

Matthew Vale

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

This book tells the story of Alvis and its cars, aero engines and military vehicles. Starting with the formation of the company in 1919, it traces the company's products through the 1920s and 1930s, and through its wartime exploits to its eventual takeover by Rover. The book covers: the early four-cylinder cars; the amazing six-cylinder cars; early ventures into armoured car and aero engine production; the post WWII four- and six-cylinder cars; the Leonides post-World War II aero engines and finally, the post-World War II military vehicles. It is an essential reference for all Alvis owners and enthusiasts of British classic cars, and superbly illustrated with 263 colour photographs. Matthew Vale is an established author of motoring books and writer of articles on automotive matters.

Leseprobe

THE COMPLETE STORY

OTHER TITLES IN THE CROWOOD AUTOCLASSICS SERIES

ALFA ROMEO 916 GTV AND SPIDER Robert Foskett

ALFA ROMEO SPIDER John Tipler

ASTON MARTIN DB4, DB5 & DB6 Jonathan Wood

ASTON MARTIN DB7 Andrew Noakes

ASTON MARTIN V8 William Presland

AUSTIN HEALEY Graham Robson

BMW CLASSIC COUPÉS James Taylor

BMW M3 James Taylor

BMW M5 James Taylor

BMW Z3 AND Z4 James Taylor

CITROËN DS SERIES John Pressnell

CLASSIC JAGUAR XK – THE SIX-CYLINDER CARS, 1948–70 Brian Laban

CLASSIC MINI SPECIALS AND MOKE Keith Mainland

FERRARI 308, 328 AND 348 Robert Foskett

FORD CONSUL, ZEPHYR AND ZODIAC Graham Robson

FORD ESCORT RS Graham Robson

FROGEYE SPRITE John Baggott

GINETTA – ROAD AND TRACK CARS Trevor Pyman

JAGUAR E-TYPE Jonathan Wood

JAGUAR MKS 1 AND 2, S-TYPE AND 420 James Taylor

JAGUAR XK8 Graham Robson

JENSEN V8 Mark Dollery

JOWETT JAVELIN AND JUPITER Geoff McAuley & Edmund Nankivell

LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH Peter Dron

LAND ROVER DEFENDER, 90 AND 110 RANGE James Taylor

LOTUS ELAN Matthew Vale

MGA David G. Styles

MGB Brian Laban

MGF AND TF David Knowles

MG T-SERIES Graham Robson

MAZDA MX-5 Antony Ingram

MERCEDES-BENZ CARS OF THE 1990s James Taylor

MERCEDES-BENZ ‘FINTAIL’ MODELS Brian Long

MERCEDES-BENZ S-CLASS James Taylor

MERCEDES-BENZ W124 James Taylor

MERCEDES SL SERIES Andrew Noakes

MERCEDES W113 Myles Kornblatt

MORGAN 4/4 Michael Palmer

MORGAN THREE-WHEELER Peter Miller

PEUGEOT 205 Adam Sloman

PORSCHE 924/928/944/968 Glen Smale

PORSCHE BOXSTER AND CAYMAN Johnny Tipler

PORSCHE CARRERA – THE AIR-COOLED ERA Johnny Tipler

RANGE ROVER FIRST GENERATION James Taylor

RANGE ROVER SECOND GENERATION James Taylor

RELIANT THREE-WHEELERS John Wilson-Hall

RILEY RM John Price-Williams

ROVER 75 AND MG ZT James Taylor

ROVER 800 SERIES James Taylor

ROVER P5 & P5B James Taylor

ROVER SD1 James Taylor

SAAB 99 & 900 Lance Cole

SHELBY & AC COBRA Brian Laban

SUBARU IMPREZA WRX AND WRX STI James Taylor

TOYOTA MR2 Nigel Burton

TRIUMPH SPITFIRE & GT6 Richard Dredge

TRIUMPH TR7 David Knowles

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI James Richardson

VOLVO AMAZON Richard Dredge

VOLVO 1800 David G. Styles

THE COMPLETE STORY

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2019 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2019

© Matthew Vale 2019

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 588 6

Designed and typeset by Guy Croton Publishing Services, West Malling, Kent

CONTENTS

Introduction and Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1 THE ALVIS COMPANY FROM 1919 TO 1939

CHAPTER 2 ALVIS 4-CYLINDER CARS OF THE 1920s AND 1930s

CHAPTER 3 THE ALVIS FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE STORY

CHAPTER 4 PRE-WAR 6-CYLINDER MODELS

CHAPTER 5 EARLY AERO ENGINES, ARMOURED EXPERIMENTS AND WORLD WAR II

CHAPTER 6 AFTER WORLD WAR II TO THE 1970s

CHAPTER 7 POST-WAR 4-CYLINDER CARS

CHAPTER 8 POST-WAR 6-CYLINDER CARS

CHAPTER 9 POST-WAR MILITARY VEHICLES

CHAPTER 10 POST-WAR AERO ENGINES

CHAPTER 11 POSTSCRIPT

Bibliography

Index

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Even before Alvis cars ceased production in 1967, they had a mystique about them as a British marque which was always a cut above the mainstream. Autocar magazine summed this up in 1952 with the words: ‘The Alvis has never been an ordinary car for the masses, but a mount for the sporting and discerning driver interested in a quality product, and in a car that still looks like a car and is ruggedly built.’

So the Alvis car had made a fine reputation for the company and this reputation was reinforced by Alvis’s military vehicles and aero engines – both areas in which Alvis excelled and reinforced its reputation for engineering integrity. Alvis has left behind a lasting legacy of its cars, which are ably supported by Red Triangle and the owners clubs and registries across the globe, its classic radial aero engines and a range of innovative military vehicles, many of which are still in service around the world today.

This book looks at the Alvis company and describes its cars, military vehicles and aero engines up to time when Alvis finally relinquished its independence with the takeover by Rover and its eventual assimilation into British Leyland.

This book would not have been possible without the input from a large number of people and institutions and I would like to thank the following: the Alvis Owner Club and the owners of cars featured in this book for access to their cars and stories – Jonathan Huggett, Mike and Tricia Harcourt, Adam and Clare Gilchrist, Debby Gold, Edmund Waterhouse and Martin Slatford.

A special mention is given to Tony Cox for his information on the FWD cars and for taking the time to review my writing on the FWD cars. Also to Richard Joyce, Managing Director of Red Triangle, who put up with me for several hours and gave me a fascinating and informative tour of Red Triangle’s premises.

I would also like to thank the Tank Museum, Bovingdon, for access to archive photos of some of the early Alvis military vehicles; the Aldershot Military Museum for access to its collection of Alvis armoured vehicles; and the British Motor Museum at Gaydon for access to the Alvis GTS, Rover P6BS and Graber Super Alvis pictured.

Finally, thanks are due to my wife Julia and daughter Elizabeth for putting up with me writing yet another book.

Matthew Vale

2019

CHAPTER ONE

THE ALVIS COMPANY FROM 1919 TO 1939

INTRODUCTION

Alvis was one of those typically British car companies that grew up after World War I to provide the burgeoning middle classes with an affordable means of transport that was a cut above the norm. Based in the UK in the Midlands city of Coventry, the company offered cars with excellent engineering, impeccable style and a reassuringly high price tag. During the interwar years, Alvis made relatively small numbers of cars, which were clothed by the best coachbuilders of the day. Before World War II, the company had expanded into the production of aero engines and light armoured vehicles, and wartime production included bomb lifts, licence production and overhaul of Rolls-Royce Merlin and Kestrel aero engines, plus the manufacture of assorted aircraft parts and ground equipment.

After World War II, the company continued to develop its own aero engines, resulting in the successful Leonides family of radials, as well as producing a new range of cars and developing a new family of six-wheeled military vehicles. Alvis was bought by Rover in 1965, but car production had ended by 1967, when Mulliner Park Ward could no longer supply TF21 bodies at an economic price.

The first Alvis cars were the 10/30 side-valve models. This 1922 works model was pictured at Red Triangle’s showroom in Warwickshire.

The last Alvis car made was this TF21 Three Litre Series IV saloon, owned by Adam Gilchrist.

Production of the six-wheeled military vehicles continued and the design of a new range of light tracked Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) commenced in 1967 with the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Tracked (CVRT) project, which would give birth to the Scorpion range of AFVs for the British Army.

ALVIS COMPANY TIMELINE – 1919 TO 1945

DateEventMar 1919T.G. John purchases Holley Brothers Ltd, renaming the company T.G. John & Co. Ltd. Production of bodies for Zenith Carburettors, Hillman 4hp and 7hp stationary engines and Stafford Mobile Pup scooters started. Based in Hertford Street, Coventry1919John agrees to license G.P.H. de Freville’s 4-cylinder 1.5-litre side-valve engine design and the Alvis nameMar 1920First 10/30 car produced using the de Freville engineMid-1920Machine shop on Holyhead Road, Coventry, acquiredLate 1920New machine tools and site on Holyhead Road, Coventry, acquired, as well as foundry on Lincoln Street, CoventryApr 1921Works moved from Hertford Street to Holyhead Road SiteDec 1921T.G. John Ltd renamed the Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd192111/40 produced as a cheaper version of the 10/301922Production of the Buckingham Cycle Car commenced192212/40 model introduced, replacing the 11/401922Captain George Thomas Smith-Clark joins Alvis as Chief Engineer, Chief Designer and Works ManagerLate 1922Overhead-valve version of the de Freville engine development startedJun 192310/30 introduced with 1460cc ohv engineLate 1923 12/50 supersedes 10/30 with ohv engine1924Front-wheel brakes offered as an optionJun 1924Cross and Ellis petitioned Alvis for monies owed, 1 leading to liquidation of the companyFeb 1925Receiver agrees rescue plan for Alvis, with creditors paid in cash or debentures1925Development of front-wheel drive technology commenced1926Straight-8 engine for FWD racers developed1927The 6-cylinder 14.75 based on the 12/50 chassis introduced1928First FWD road cars produced1928New service shop, machine shop and foundry building completed at Holyhead Road1929Silver Eagle 6-cylinder car replaced 14/75.Extension to factory built to address increased production needed to meet demand for Silver Eagle1932Speed 20 6-cylinder car introducedMid-1932The 4-cylinder Firefly introduced to replace the 12/50May 1933Crested Eagle with fully independent front suspension introducedSep 1933New all-synchromesh gearbox introduced1934Development of 8-cylinder road engines endedAug 1935Negotiation with Gnome-Rhône for licences to manufacture aero engines successfully completed1935Firebird introduced to replace Firefly19366-cylinder 3½-litre Speed 25 introduced, replacing the Speed 20Jun 1936Company name changed to Alvis LtdJul 1936New factory opened next to existing plant on Holyhead Road aimed primarily at aero- engine productionJul 1936Alvis-Straussler Mechanisation Ltd formed to produce Straussler designs of armoured cars and tanks1936New 4.3-litre 6-cylinder engine introduced along with Alvis 4.3 and Silver CrestSep 193712/70 introduced with new 4-cylinder engine1938Air Ministry informs Alvis that there would be no contracts for Gnome-Rhône based engines. Licence with Gnome-Rhône terminated. Development of Leonides startedSep 1939All Alvis production turned over to war workNov 1940Original Alvis factory bombed and largely destroyedApr 1941Aero-engine factory hit by Luftwaffe with some damage and casualties1945War ends and peacetime production begins.

EARLY DAYS AND THE ‘ROARING TWENTIES’

The man responsible for setting up Alvis and running the company through to 1945 was Thomas George John, MINA, MICA, FRAeS, MIAE and ARCS. Born in 1880 in Pembroke Dock in south-west Wales, where John’s father was employed in the Pembroke Royal Dockyard, John was apprenticed into the dockyard. He had become a qualified Naval Architect (MINA – Member of the Institute of Naval Architects) by 1904. He was promoted to the rank of Assistant Constructer at H.M. Dockyard Devonport, but left the Dockyards to join shipbuilders Vickers in 1907, where he was made Manager of the Shipbuilding Department in 1911.

The first Alvis engine was designed by de Freville and was a side-valve straight-4. Note the ‘T.G. John’ script cast into the alloy water jacket on the top of the cylinder head. Later cars would have ‘Alvis’ cast in.

After the start of World War I, John moved from shipbuilding into the nascent aviation industry, when he joined the Siddeley-Deasy Motor Company in 1915 as Works Manager and Chief Engineer. Based in Coventry, Siddeley-Deasy was engaged in the manufacture of the somewhat unsuccessful Puma straight-6 18-litre engine, which was used briefly by the Royal Flying Corps in the Airco DH9 single-engined bomber, where it was rapidly replaced with the Liberty V12 unit.

While he was at Siddeley-Deasy, John met Godfrey de Freville, who supplied aluminium pistons and casting for Siddeley-Deasy’s aero engines, a meeting that would bear fruit in the near future. John had always wanted to be his own boss, so in 1919, at the age of thirty-nine, he set himself up in the engineering business by buying a small engineering company in Coventry, Holley Brothers Co. Ltd. He achieved this by using his savings and a loan from family and friends of £3,000. His first move was to rename the company T.G. John and Co. The company was based in Hertford Street in the centre of Coventry and was a general engineering works, serving the various manufacturers in the Coventry area, which included the makers of carburettor bodies for Zenith and the rights to build Hillman 4hp and single-cylinder and 7hp twin-cylinder stationary engines.

One of the first jobs that John started was to undertake the manufacture of a small scooter, the Stafford Mobile Pup, which was powered by a single-cylinder 140cc four-stroke ohv engine for Stafford Auto Scooters Ltd. However, John’s aim was to become a manufacturer in his own right and the jobbing engineering work carried out by his company was simply a means to this end. His association with de Freville bore fruit in 1919, when he bought the rights to de Freville’s design for a 1460cc 4-cylinder side-valve engine, along with the rights to the name ‘Alvis’. This association was to result in the emergence of the first Alvis car, the 10/30, which was first listed in the T.G. John Ltd catalogue for 1920, where it featured as the ‘10-30 – The Light Car de Luxe’.

While T.G. John made the engine and many of the other mechanical parts of the 10/30, the chassis and body were bought in. The purchase of a new machine shop outside and to the west of the city centre on Holyhead Road was made in the middle of 1920, giving the company more capacity as production of the 10/30 started and by September production of the 10/30 was reported to number around five a week. John also purchased a foundry in Lincoln Street, Coventry, to the north of the city centre, where the Alvis tradition of making all its own aluminium castings was established – and of course it cut down the company’s reliance on outside suppliers. Many of the workforce in the foundry came from the Royal Dockyard in Pembroke, with which John still had a close relationship due to his family and work connections with the area and he offered jobs to the Welsh locals when the Dockyard started to be run down in the post-war years. This led to the main language of the foundry being Welsh for many years – luckily John was fluent! With the success of the 10/30 more room was needed to increase production and John was able to purchase a plot of land to the north-west of Coventry city centre, on the Holyhead Road opposite the new machine shop.

This early ‘Winged Alvis’ logo seen on a 10/30 model was changed to the ‘Red Triangle’ design in 1922, after complaints from Avro that it was too similar to their logo. The hare as a mascot was used on Alvis cars through the 1920s and 30s.

Typical of the Alvis designs of the 1920s, Jonathan Huggett’s 12/50 offered a decent sporting performance coupled with a four-door, four-seat body.

The later Alvis Red Triangle logo is seen here on Jonathan Huggett’s 1927 12/50, along with the ‘Hare’ mascot.

Towards the end of the year, in November 1920, Alvis took its first stand at the London Motor Show at Olympia and White City – there was a complementary bus service between the two sites. Alvis displayed two 10/30s with Morgan ‘Zephyr’ alloy two-seater bodies, a single Charlesworth bodied four-seater and a complete bare chassis. By this time, T.G. John had appointed R.E. Jones of Bond Street, London, as Alvis’s distributors. R.E. Jones had subsidiaries in Exeter, Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea, giving Alvis cars a good spread throughout the south of the UK, and the company also owned the Morgan coachworks, which made the ‘Zephyr’ bodies for the 10/30.

The new Alvis factory was established on the Holyhead Road (now the A4114), just to the north-west of Coventry, on the south-west side of the road just before the existing railway bridge, on the opposite side of the road to the Holyhead Road machine shop. The construction of a new factory on the site was quickly achieved and early in 1921 Alvis moved out of the Hertford Road premises and into the site that would be its home for the next seventy years.

With the move to the Holyhead Road site, John was able to start to execute his ambition to have all the manufacturing processes housed under one roof.

In December of 1921, the company name was changed from T.G. John Ltd to the Alvis Car and Engineering Company Limited, aligning the company firmly with its car-making future. At this time engine castings for the 10/30 and 11/40 started to have ‘Alvis’ cast in, either to replace the cast in ‘T.G. John’ lettering, or just adding it to the casting along with the ‘T.G. John’ lettering.

In 1922, John appointed Daimler’s Assistant Works Manager, Captain George Thomas Smith-Clarke, as the Chief Engineer and Works Manager, and W.M. Dunn as Chief Designer. In these roles, Smith-Clarke would take on the technical side of the company, looking after the development and production of the cars, while Dunn took on the design side, leaving John to look after the financial and administrative side of the firm. At this time, Avro complained to Alvis that the ‘Winged Alvis’ logo was too similar to Avro’s well-established logo, so Alvis changed its logo to the now classic ‘Red Triangle’ version, which would see the company through to the end of its existence.

The 12/50 was powered by a peppy 4-cylinder ohv motor. This is the 1465cc unit fitted to Jonathan Huggett’s 1927 12/50.

The 12/50 came with a selection of body styles. This is the ‘Alvista’ four-door saloon, with a lightweight fabric-coated body which helped to give the car a good and lively performance.

Also in 1922, Alvis flirted with the cycle car concept, producing a small number of 1096cc V-twin powered ‘Buckingham’ light cars. These cars were originally designed by Buckingham and modified by Alvis. Initially, Alvis expected to produce about twenty cars per week, but hostility towards the car from some senior Alvis personnel, who saw it as diluting the Alvis reputation for quality, combined with the emergence of the Austin Seven light car, proved fatal and production was stopped later in the year.

In 1923, while production of the 12/40 continued, Alvis introduced its first ohv engine, which powered the 10/30 Super Sports. Based on the 1460cc engine, this engine was the forerunner to the 12/40 series of engines. Very soon after came the announcement of the 10/30 Super Sports, followed by the model that would form the backbone of Alvis’s success in the 1920s and 1930s, the 12/50. The company was further boosted by the success of the 12/50 driven by C.M. Harvey in the inaugural Junior Car Club (JCC) 200-mile race at Brooklands, with a second 12/50 coming eighth.

By 1924, half of the Alvis cars produced were powered by ohv engines, but while the company was increasing production it also had cash-flow problems and in June the Alvis Car and Engineering Company was placed into liquidation by creditors Cross & Ellis and Ransome & Marles – both coachbuilders who wanted payment for bodies supplied to Alvis. A stay of execution was granted and the board was rejigged to try to get the company on a firmer financial basis. With the creditors paid in cash or debentures against the company, Alvis came out of liquidation and production carried on into 1925 with the 12/40 and 12/50 models, although this would be the last year of production of the side-valve engines. Also in 1924, Alvis introduced the option of front brakes on its cars.

The majority of the factory’s engineering efforts, however, were occupied by the design and development of the front-wheel drive (FWD) cars and the associated racing activities. In 1926, front brakes became standard on all production cars and the first of the Alvis straight-8 grand prix engines were produced. The following year saw the introduction of the first of the Alvis 6-cylinder road car engines, an 1870cc unit mounted in the 14.75 model, which moved Alvis upmarket. 1928 saw the introduction of the front-wheel drive road cars, which in 4-cylinder guise were marketed alongside the rear-wheel drive 4- and 6-cylinder models.

The 6-cylinder engine grew in size in 1929 to become 2148cc and powered the Silver Eagle model. Production of the front-wheel drive cars was allowed to tail off so that the company could concentrate on the ever popular 4-cylinder cars and the upmarket 6s.

DEBBY GOLD’S 1963 TE21

One of the recurring aspects I came across while writing this book was the deep impression that Alvis ownership has made on generations of people. Time and time again while chatting to owners, I discovered a deeply held affection for the cars and in many cases cross-generational ownership, with cars passing down the family line.

One classic example is Debby Gold’s 1963 TE21 convertible, which was fitted with the Alvis straight-6 engine and a ZF five-speed manual gearbox. It was painted a striking metallic light beige with beige trim. Debby’s father, Peter Gold, bought the car in 1969 from Hurst Park Automobiles in East Molesey, Surrey. Debby recalls how her dad, an engineer and successful businessman, always had a nice car, and the Alvis replaced a little black Series 1 Jaguar E-Type drophead with a red interior. Finding that the E-Type was encouraging his ‘enthusiastic’ driving style, he decided he needed more of a Grand Tourer, especially as his family was growing. Debby still remembers a trip down to Cornwall in the E-Type with her mum, herself and the family dog all crammed into the Jaguar. When Peter saw the Alvis he was hooked and paid around £1,200 for it – a fair sum in the late 1960s, when a new Mini cost under £1,000 and a new E-Type roadster was just over £2,000.

Debby’s dad loved the car and ran it as his high days and holidays car for many years, as he had two Humber Super Snipes as daily drivers, but eventually it was taken off the road in 1976 as the brakes needed repair. Distracted by another project and needing garage space, Peter relocated the car to Debby’s garage in Hampshire. His health deteriorated and unfortunately renovating the Alvis became a bridge too far. He passed away in 1996.

Over the years, the car gently deteriorated, much to Debby’s frustration, but every time she saw it, even looking sad and half covered with junk, it still reminded her of her dad. She vowed to get the car back on the road and in 2015 finally had the resources to commission a full restoration. The car had suffered while sitting in the garage. One side of the bodywork was significantly worse than the other due to damp getting through the wall of the garage. Debby made the decision to go for a concours restoration rather than just getting the car roadworthy, as the increased cost of a 100-point restoration would hopefully be offset by the value of an immaculate car. The car was exhumed from the garage where it had rested for nearly forty years and taken to a local classic Jaguar specialist’s workshop for the transformation. The car has since been treated to a full and exhaustive nut and bolt restoration, which covered everything. The good news was that the chassis was in relatively good condition and only needed localized repairs and a good clean-up and repaint. The suspension and running gear only needed rebushing, cleaning up and painting, along with the replacement of all rubber components. The engine had seized and required a complete rebuild, which, while costing less than doing a Jaguar XK unit, was still not cheap, but it was the bodyshell which really cost. The years sitting in the damp garage meant that much of the body had to be recreated, which cost both time and money and needed a great deal of skill to get it right. While some repair panels were available, much had to be recreated from scratch, but the end result was worth it.

Debby Gold’s TE21 Three Litre convertible just after her father Peter Gold had bought it in 1969.

Debby Gold’s TE21 was metallic beige with a beige interior. The car was used for high days and holidays rather than as a daily driver and plays a special part of Debby’s family memories.

The TE21 had a distinctive nose with its pair of stacked headlights flanking the traditional Alvis grille. This is Debby Gold’s car in the 1960s.

Debby Gold’s TE21 engine is the original 6-cylinder unit and was completely rebuilt as part of a comprehensive restoration.

The restoration of Debby Gold’s TE21 required extensive bodywork repairs, as well as a full mechanical overhaul. Still in primer, the nose of the car now shows no evidence of the rust and rot that had taken hold during its long period in storage.

With the restoration nearly finished and the car back in her rebuilt garage, Debby is just sorting out the last few bits and bobs.

Debby refurbished the leather seats herself, which had survived remarkably well and add a nice touch of original patina to the interior and the hood. The hood’s ash frame in particular caused a lot of problems – there is no ‘one type fits all’ solution here, as each hood frame was individually tailored to the car, so replacing the rotted wood elements of the frame and getting a new hood made were another costly exercise in time, effort and craftsmanship. With a new set of chrome wire wheels to offset the all new metallic beige paintwork, the TE21 looks a million dollars, and Debby is really happy with the result, despite some rocky moments towards the end of the restoration when the costs were escalating and progress seemed slow.

The cost of the restoration ended up being in six figures in pounds sterling, but Debby feels it was worth it – and she knows there was not a lot of choice other than to see it through once started. She has an immaculate car that evokes many great childhood memories, especially those connected with her dad and mum, and Debby is planning to take the car to as many Alvis Owner Club meetings as she can, as well as planning a Continental tour. It was also used as the wedding car for her eldest daughter, increasing the memories of the car for her, her family and the next generation of Alvis enthusiasts.

INTO THE 1930S, THROUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE PRELUDE TO WAR

By 1930, the 6-cylinder cars were making a name for the marque and the front-wheel drive road cars had been discontinued, apart from a few development and racing 8-cylinder double overhead camshaft-engined cars. In 1931, Smith-Clarke was appointed a Director of the company while continuing in his engineering role, and in 1932 production of the 12/50 ended, being replaced in the line-up by the Firefly. The 6-cylinder cars were boosted by the introduction of the Speed 20, with its low and sleek lines that epitomized the post-depression 1930s. Car development was concentrated on the 6-cylinder models and culminated in the 4.3-litre models of the late 1930s, which accompanied a wide and rather confused range of models, from the Crested Eagle, the Silver Crest and the 3½-litre, along with the Speed 20 and Speed 25 models. Engine sizes for the 6-cylinder models varied from 2148cc through to 4387cc and most sizes in-between!

In the mid-1930s, John started to look at ways of expanding Alvis and chose to look at the production of aero engines and military vehicles. The reasons for this diversification were easy to see – the car industry was starting to be dominated by large companies capable of mass production, which was intruding into Alvis’s traditional market space and resulting in orders for cars falling. Aero engines and military vehicles were made in much smaller batches and to much higher engineering and quality standards than mass-produced cars, so were better suited to Alvis’s ethos of high-quality engineering.

Car production continued, but licence agreements were entered into with French aero-engine producer Gnome- Rhône in August 1935 and with Hungarian armoured vehicle designer Straussler in June 1936. In order to have the space for the new enterprises, building work for a new factory next to the existing Holyhead Road premises started in the middle of 1935 and was completed in 1936.

The first Alvis 6-cylinder car was the 14/75 of 1927, which started a line of cars that would carry Alvis through the 1930s in style.

Two contrasting 6-cylinder Alvis cars pictured at a club meet at a wet Newlands Corner in Surrey. Left is a 1930s 4.3-litre drophead coupé with flowing bodywork by Offord and right is a 1966 Three Litre.

The first of the Alvis 6-cylinder engines had cast-alloy crankcases and a separate cast-iron cylinder block and a cast-iron head. This layout was adopted on the pre-World War II 6-cylinder units; this is one of the first, a 14/75 engine.

When Alvis’s plans to produce its own Gnome-Rhône based aero engines did not materialize, the factory was turned over to contract work for various other manufacturers, including de Havilland and Rolls-Royce. Alvis’s Straussler based armoured car and tank designs also had little take-up, and while Alvis gained valuable experience in military vehicle design, it would not produce a successful military vehicle in any quantity until after World War II.

With the advent of World War II, the company turned its energies to defeating the enemy. Car production ceased and the whole of Alvis’s capabilities were used to support the manufacture and refurbishment of military equipment, most notably with the production of de Havilland propeller assemblies and the manufacture and overhaul of Rolls-Royce aero engines, including Merlins for the Avro Lancaster.

CHAPTER TWO

ALVIS 4-CYLINDER CARS OF THE 1920s AND 1930s

INTRODUCTION

After Alvis had been established, the first cars that the company produced were aimed at the middle to upper section of the market. They were not lightweight stripped-down microcars or cycle cars; rather, they were ‘proper’ cars that had all the features and built-in quality of the larger established manufacturers’ products, but were produced on a slightly smaller scale than the then market leaders. While still focusing on the quality end of the market, the cars that Alvis started producing were relatively economical to run and were aimed at the expanding market for personal mobility, which was growing steadily after the Great War, fuelled by the ambitions and aspirations of the swelling middle class.

In common with most UK manufacturers, many of the pre-war cars produced by Alvis had model names of the type 10/30, which reflected the RAC Horsepower Formula used to calculate a car’s power rating for tax purposes and the actual power that the car’s engine produced. The RAC formula measured a notional power output using the engine bore and the number of cylinders – the formula was (D×D×N)/2.5, where ‘D’ is the bore in inches and ’N’ is the number of cylinders. In the case of the side-valve 10/30, the engine was rated at 10.5hp, but actually produced 30bhp.

Typical of an Alvis from the 1920s, Peter Huggett’s 12/50 is a four-door fabric-bodied saloon.

The pre-war Alvis range was impressive for its breadth – the number of models produced is quite bewildering to the uninitiated! Alvis had various ways of naming models, usually with ether the horsepower method outlined above (such as 12/50), or a name (such as Speed 20) to distinguish an individual model. A further two-letter ‘Type’ designation was used from the early 1920s to distinguish the different versions of each model, such as ‘TA’ or ‘SB’. This all seems quite logical, until you realize that the Type designation can be used on more than one model, or indeed on more than one version of a single model. On top of this, the chassis could be fitted with bodies of various types from different coachbuilders. The table on page 21 seeks to bring some clarity to the puzzle and will hopefully enable an Alvis novice to work out what an individual model’s designation actually means.

The 12/50 chassis could be fitted with bodies of many styles that were designed and built by various coachbuilders. This is a four-seat tourer from the early to mid-1920s. The solid ‘artillery’ style wheels were superseded by wires in around 1925–6.

ALVIS TYPE DESIGNATIONS

TypeDescriptionDate Side-Valve Cars 1920–2 10/30Open two-seater. Bodies by Morgan, Charlesworth1920–2 10/30 ‘Ten’Open two-seat tourer. Named Alvis ‘Ten’1923 11/40Saloon or tourer bodies by Carbodies, Cross & Ellis1921TA 12/40Saloon or tourer bodies by Carbodies, Cross & Ellis1922–3 TB 12/40Saloon or tourer bodies by Carbodies, Cross & Ellis1922–3 TC 12/40Saloon or tourer bodies by Carbodies, Cross & Ellis1924 TD 12/40Saloon or tourer bodies by Carbodies, Cross & Ellis1924 SA 12/40Short chassis Sports OHV 4-cylinder 12/50 1923–32 SADuck’s back two-seater1923 SBTourer body1923 SCTourer1924–5 TEOpen tourer1926 TFTwo-seat beetle back1926 SDTwo-seater sports1927–9 TGAlvista saloon1927–9 THFour-seat tourer1927–9 TJTwo-door coupé1930–2 TJTwo-door saloon1931 OHV 4-cylinder 12/60 1932 TKTwo-door saloon or two-seat open1932 TLTwo-seat open beetle back or four-door tourer1932 Firefly 1932–4 SA 11.9Firefly 1496cc1932 SB 11.9Firefly 12 1496cc1933–4 Firebird 1934–6 SA 13.22Fourteen, 1842cc, all-synchro gearbox1934–6 OHV 4-cylinder 12/70 1936–40 SBSaloon and drophead coupé1936–40 SC 13.22 Series IIFour-seater Sports Tourer1936–40

FIRST CARS – SIDE-VALVE 4-CYLINDER MODELS

Introduction to the 10/30 and the 11/40

The first car produced wholly by Alvis and badged with the Alvis name was a relatively small but upmarket car with initially a two-or four-seater open body, which was powered by Alvis’s first engine. This was the 10/30, which was introduced to the public in March 1920 at the Scottish Motor Show.

Powered de Freville’s 1460cc side-valve 4-cylinder unit, which was licensed for production by Alvis, and with an all-steel ladder chassis bought in from McNeil of Scotland and two- or four-seat bodies, Alvis described it as ‘the car for the Connoisseur’ and priced it at £685, ‘delivered from stock’. While the four-seat body was conventional, made with alloy panels over an ash frame, the two-seat body was a rakish open-topped style, supplied by the Morgan Company of Leighton Buzzard (not the better known Morgan Motor Company of Malvern). It was made of aluminium panels on a wire-braced, welded-steel tube frame, described by Morgan as the ‘Zephyr’ system. This, in principle, was not dissimilar to the Superleggera bodies produced later by the Italians and this method of construction resulted in a lightweight structure that contributed to the weight of the two-seat 10/30 being about 1,568lb (711kg), which gave the car a sparkling performance and started Alvis’s reputation for producing well-engineered, sporting cars. Alvis stopped fitting Morgan bodies to the 10/30 in 1921.

Four-seater bodies were constructed by Charlesworth Ltd of Much Park Street in Coventry. Unfortunately, the four-seater bodies proved to be less popular than the sporting Morgan bodies, which meant that Charlesworth would not see much business from Alvis until the 1930s, when the company produced the striking and popular bodies for the Speed 20 and subsequent models up to the start of World War II.

The dicky seat on the 1922 10/30 sits behind the cockpit and is not covered by the hood when it was up.

The 10/30 was followed by the 1598cc 11/40 in 1921, with its chassis supplied by Woodhead. The final side-valve car was the 12/40, introduced in 1922. Production of side-valve cars finished in 1924, when Alvis concentrated on the popular overhead-valve 12/50.

The Side-Valve 4-Cylinder Engine

The motive power for the new car came from a 1460cc inline 4-cylinder engine, designed by de Freville and licensed to Alvis. The side-valve unit had a bore and stroke of 65 × 110mm, giving an RAC horsepower rating (for tax purposes) of 10, but which produced an actual claimed 30bhp at 3,500rpm – hence the name 10/30. The engine had a onepiece cast-iron combined cylinder block and head, which was bolted to a cast-alloy crankcase with separate cast-alloy sump. Early versions of the sump had cooling fins cast in, but these were found to fill up with dirt and serve no useful purpose, so were discarded on later engines. The valves were accessed through screw-in caps on the top of the assembly, and the caps over the inlet valves also carried the spark plugs. The inlet valves were made from nickel steel and the exhaust valve from Tungsten steel. All eight valves were set in a line on the left-hand side of the engine and ran in phosphor bronze guides.

Cylinders one and four had their own exhaust ports on the side of the block, while the middle two cylinders shared a central exhaust port. Each of the two inlet ports were shared by two cylinders, with one passing between and feeding cylinders one and two, and the second between cylinders three and four. The valves were operated from the camshaft by rollers and the tappet clearance on the first seventy-five engines was adjusted using shims, then the design changed to give conventional screw and lock nut adjustment.