Gary Pellow with his TE , Mike & Suzy Hatton with Speed 25 off to Scotland and Chris Taylor with his Speed 20 running in the rebuilt engine.

Following a catastrophic failure on July 19th a cylinder liner slipped out of position, due to poor workmanship 12 years ago. As the piston rose its rings cleared the top of the liner and the following down stroke of the piston dragged the liner out to be devoured by the crankshaft balance weights. This caused shearing of most of the piston crown above the top ring and those pieces then got suck under the open valves in cylinders 3 and 4 (a piece must have been sucked round the corner) resulting in two bent push rods and one bent valve. If that wasn’t enough the next time the rod rose in the liner-less cylinder No 3 what remained off the piston cracked the block wall allowing the water to escape the jacket into the sump.

All the above of course happened within about 2 seconds from the bang to silence!

On hearing the block was maybe not written off but gone too far for any ordinary machining to sort it I was lucky enough to happen across an engine about 10 numbers away from AYF’s that had a serviceable block. This was purchased and sent for machining whilst I set about purchasing a valve from RT (excellent service it arrived the following day) I had a replacement piston in stock and I shortened two ex Firebird pushrods. Much cleaning out of the engine with a rare earth magnet to ensure no bits of the liner remained and everything reassembled to be at Bowcliffe on the 16th. The run of 75 miles each way from Cheshire was without issue and I can report the car is running well.

It will be at Mick Fletchers Sunday breakfast meeting at Blacko on Sunday 20th and if all goes well it is booked on the night sailing from Hull to Rotterdam for some driving in Holland on Weds 23rd returning on the 30th where breakfast will be enjoyed in the Drivers Club at Bowcliffe.

To ensure this can’t happen again the cylinder block has been machined leaving a step at the bottom of the bore for the liner to rest on and the cylinder head will stop it rising so the liners are now securely held in place.

---

Steve Horne reports on the Hampton Court Concours of Elegance on Events in 2026.

Glen Matthews tells The Story of 14009 at IAW 2026.

A TA14 is for sale on www.alvis14.com

Twenty years ago today the AOC lost the Bulletin Editor, at the all-too-early age of 60, after a sudden and deadly resurgence of the hepatitis that he had first contracted, and seen off, several decades earlier. Cruelly, this came at an exceptionally productive time in his life, when he was within sight of a much-deserved partial retirement that would have allowed him to spend more time on his varied interests and projects. With Alvis his first love among cars, he was fascinated by the vision and application of the founders and engineers T.G. John, Capt. Smith-Clarke, W.M. Dunn , and the works driver Maurice Harvey.

New pages have been added with a compilation of his work in 1997. Click Julian Collins

Several car stories have been received – click on the links The story of 9913

The story of 14147

The story of 15459

Some photos sent in by Ian Allman (former AOC member 2089M) – “while I was having a nostalgic wander around one the Alvis galleries I came across the picture of my old car and another one with the same bodywork. In both cases it was recorded as the only one built by each coachbuilder. There must have been a set of drawings available for anyone to use.“

I bought KUB on 4/12/1960 at 78580 miles and sold it to Jim MacQueen 6/4/1965. I think he came from Bristol. A few years later I telephoned him to see if he might consider selling it back to me but sadly he had taken it to a scrapyard a few months earlier with a “collapsed back axle”. On 14th May 1962 at Assington Comm. Clinkard had fitted new king-pins and bushes which transformed the general handling.

The TJ 12/50 came from Ken Ledbrook in 1963 very soon before his tragic death.
I can’t find the name of the chap who bought the working chassis from me but I do remember he had a jolly nice Speed 25 towing his trailer ! I would like to know if he made a successful restoration.

Another photo of KUB at the Works.

---

Adrian Padfield published his book on Smith-Clarke some while ago and he has since compiled addenda and errata which now can be found on a new page Captain G.T. Smith-Clarke together with an article on the his “blue plaque”.

Arthur Varney‘s grandson sent photos of a tankard he inherited with an interesting back story on another new page Arthur Varney

Photos of recent meetings can also be found on Events in 2026 together with a reminder of future events including Tatton Park this weekend where Chris Taylor is hosting the AAT’s stand of Alvis cars.

---

One of Martin Wickham’s donations to the Trust is a collection of Alvis Regalia, ties and badges.

Much of the material on the website has been written and photographed by Alvis owners over many years. If you have a story to tell about your Alvis or association with the company you can become a “Contributor” with access to the website facilities to write a post or page and upload your photos or documents. Just leave a comment and we will do the rest.

The last post generated a surprising number of views on the page of answers to the Highway Code questions. You can download the current version, all 236 pages, here.

We are on a mission to trace all the 106 TF21s to update the Model Register and any information you may have on the following cars will be rewarded with a £10 voucher for one our books.

27374 saloon auto, registered GF 6

27387 saloon auto EKW 800D

27440 saloon auto RLC 767E

27452 saloon auto GCL160F

27460 saloon zf VBY 60E

Fifty years ago, the last hot summer in the UK, there was an Alvis Tour of Britain, reported in “The Field”

To read the full article, click 1976 Tour of Britain

Martin Wickham writes:

The Coventry Apprentice Association staged an annual bedstead race around the Mallory Park Circuit. Alvis Apprentices built a very sporty bedstead and won it at least twice in succession, thought to be 1964 and 1965. The photograph shows the winning team, probably from the second occasion:

(Martin Wickham assisted by Ted Banks June 2026)

See also Apprentices

Saturday 18th July enjoyed a respite from the heatwave earlier in the week and attracted a fine selection of cars from 1932 to 1966. The venue was the Chasney family’s Goose Beck Vineyard near York so as well as the traditional Concours and Driving Tests, there were Vineyard tours and tastings for the participants.

Click here for more photos. There were five entrants to the Driving tests which included some questions on the UK Highway code. The winner was Mike Hatton in the Speed 25. Can you identify all the signs and answer the multiple choice questions?

Answers are to be found here

Chris Taylor’s Speed 20 restoration of AYF 93 hit a snag with the engine arguing with itself. He is in need of a replacement cylinder head and perhaps block for the 2511 cc engine. If you have a spare you are willing to part with please call Chris 07890 414130.

We have a large collection of videos and films of Alvis cars and events. We would like to appoint a film archivist who can convert the various media into an accessible format for the website and posterity. If you have the skills and interest in Alvis to take this on we would love to hear from you.

Eileen has reported on the 75th AOC Anniversary Weekend at Leamington Spa which celebrated 80 years of the Fourteen, on alvis14.com.

The following photos (thank you Terry) give a flavour of the many other attendees.

Thanks for inviting us to be there.