The Dutch Alvis Owner Club (AOCN) is celebrating the Alvis centenary with an exhibition in the Famous Louwman National Automobile Museum in the Hague, from 20 December 1919 to 2 February 2020.
The Louwman Museum presents a retrospective exhibition of seventeen Alvis cars from the period 1920 to 1967 at the Great Hall in the museum.
“Alvis is known as an English manufacturer of high quality cars who introduced a number of important innovations that are still used in the automotive industry. The exhibition shows a beautiful overview of the most important models that were fitted with mostly typical traditional English bodies“
A great opportunity to visit this top class museum enhanced with the presence of Alvis cars. Other exhibits from a visit some years ago:
1931 12/60 TK Beetleback, in current ownership for nearly fifty years and once owned by Rivers Fletcher – on the Alvis Owner Club stand 510 in Hall 1 (on the left of the main entrance)The 1936 Gurney Nutting SA25.63 making its debut after a lengthy restoration, on stand 1-510Just through the doors of Hall 5, (right turn at the Main Entrance) is the Federation Village (FBHVC) with a fascinating collection of HVs including the unique 1959 Graber Special TD21
The swiss website Zwischengas has an article on the newly opened Pantheon Exhibition which includes several Graber Alvis cars and 60 photos. There is a translate button with a union jack. See also 2014 Graber exhibition which we visited on our coach trip in March 2014.
We are proposing another coach trip in March 2020 to include the German Alvis exhibition. Leave a reply if you are interested in joining us.
An invitation a few weeks ago to a small celebration of the Alvis marque in its centenary year was readily accepted as it was to be held at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall. The publicity for the Continuation Series of models was also gaining momentum as was the success in gaining overseas orders for several cars. It was no great surprise to later discover there would be several guests for the champagne reception and during the week of the celebration the Bertelli 4.3 was to be on show in the Rotunda.
However, what Alan Stote kept secret was the suprise that four historians with over 200 years of Alvis ownership between them, were to be present, including Wayne Brooks from Pennsylvania.
Cox, Fox, Brooks and Culshaw with the Bertelli
During an evening of fine dining we also enjoyed the company of Michael Hicks, Neil Jones and Ian Simpson from Red Triangle and Alistair Pugh who undertook the digital reverse engineering of the coachwork.
Alan also presented us with newly reproduced items from a hundred years ago.Who knows what the next hundred years of Alvis will be like, but for now there seems to be no shortage of enthusiasm for the marque.
Our thanks and appreciation go to Alan Stote for his dedication to the marque and its history.
Alan poses yet another question to Dave CulshawTony Cox contemplates the lines of the BertelliWayne Brooks, still a little hoarse from three days chatting to Alvis owners at Hershey is spending a few days in Kenilworth
Much of our historic material has been sourced from Autocar over the years and like many I first saw an Alvis on the pages of that magazine. The Illiffe Press were early owners of Alvis cars. Now, Alvis is in the news again, click
Steve Horne reports: On Sunday 22nd September 5 Alvis braved the elements for a sunny but showery day out at The Warren Concours and Supercar Show, Woodham Mortimer, Essex, Sadly we lost one participant due to over-zealous preparations that morning, but our turn -out included the 4.3 Vanden Plas of Jeremy Coleclough, The Ivins’ TE 21, Steve Horne’s Speed 20 SA Vanden Plas, Jon Tracey’s 12/70 and Edmund Waterhouse’s Speed 25 Charlesworth saloon. The latter won the Alvis Centenary Class, alongside other celebratory classes for 30/98 Vauxhall and Bentley (100 Years) and the Mini ( 60 Years), and hence went forward to compete against all other Class winners, where a 1903 De Dion Bouton took 2nd and 1st prize Overall went to a 1933 Invicta 4 ½ S-Type Low-chassis.
As most of the 13 Concours Classes were limited to 5-6 cars of one marque, or up to 14 cars in mixed British, European , Racing/Sports or Supercars, our Alvis marque was well represented and we had pride-of-place at the top of the fairways. We were even lucky to have demonstrations of a 9-cylinder Leonides radial aero-engine, dated 1952 and which had only run 2189 hrs of commercial use, together with Merlin V12 Mark 50-27 of 1943; both marked another feature of Alvis production, and their contracts to overhaul Rolls-Royce engines during the War and, as planned, are also signed up to join other Alvis radial engines at Coombe Abbey, Coventry in 2020. Not a bad start to our Centenary.
an exhibition in the Famous Louwman National Automobile Museum in the Hague, from 20 December 1919 to 2 February 2020.
A great opportunity to visit this top class museum enhanced with the presence of Alvis cars. Other exhibits from a visit some years ago:
