Author: alvisarchive

Driving Alvis cars since 1964 and the website since 2012

Alvis at the NEC – November 8-10

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 1-510
Just 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

Click here for the Show Guide

Graber exhibition in Basel

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.

Alvistorians celebrate the centenary

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 Culshaw
Tony Cox contemplates the lines of the Bertelli
Wayne Brooks, still a little hoarse from three days chatting to Alvis owners at Hershey is spending a few days in Kenilworth

British Car Meeting in Morges

Alvis, Bentley and Mini were featured this year for their centenaries and 60th birthday, with the older marques gracing the castle grounds.

Pride of place for the oldest Alvis from 1925, Ian Sykes had driven from the UK in his TE 12/50 to take part.

For more photos, click on Swiss Meetings

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.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Steve also reports on the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court 6-8 Sept 2019

 

Swiss celebrations

A selection of photos from the British Car Meeting in Mollis is now on the page Swiss Meetings.

The next one is on Saturday 5th October in Morges again featuring Alvis in the grounds of the chateau.

We were pleased to welcome Friends from Kent, Gloucestershire, Cheshire and Lincolnshire to Bowcliffe for our first “Lunch with….” on Wednesday. The next one is on Wednesday October 16th, so leave a reply if you would like to join us.