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
Author: alvisarchive
Driving Alvis cars since 1964 and the website since 2012
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.
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.
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.
Grand Prix cars and iron lungs
We are very pleased to announce our first “Lunch with…..” event in the Drivers Club at Bowcliffe Hall on Wednesday 18th September.
The day starts with a the opportunity to browse the archives in Hycilla with the archivists over a cup of coffee and to meet Dr Adrian Padfield who has written the biography of Capt G T Smith-Clarke who is best known in Alvis circles for his work on the Grand Prix cars.
As a retired anaesthetist, Adrian has also been fascinated by Smith-Clarke’s work in medicine and other scientific fields and will give a talk over a lingering lunch. If you would like to attend please leave a reply below and we will provide further details.
For contemporary reports, click Grand Prix cars
How to comment on photos
One of our contributors has pointed out that it is not obvious you can make a comment on any photo that appears on the website, simply by clicking on the photo and scrolling down to “write a comment” and POST COMMENT.
A new page of photos has been added, without captions, of the 2001 AOC Jubilee event at Blenheim Palace, when over 300 Alvis gathered including the largest ever group of Graber cars driving from Switzerland, marking not only 50 years of the AOC but 50 years since Graber exhibited a 3-litre at Geneva, thus starting a partnership that survived until 1967.
In typical Julian Collins style, this was comprehensively reported in Bulletin 471, original copies of which are available from the archives together with the professional video of the event co-starring our own Chris Taylor commentating on the assembled collection.
Go to 2001 Blenheim Palace AOC Jubilee and feel free to comment.
August additions
New photos have been added to the site covering some of the car models, coachbuilders and products together with some press cuttings of “Used Cars on the Road” and Road Tests.
The owner of this 1953 TA21 Tickford in the 1960s is keen to find if it still exists.
Our records only go up to 1974 when LER 834 was in Naples, Italy. Does anyone know where it is now?
Did you know Alvis manufactured colour printers?
A new page Printers has more photos and a video link.
To find the new photos and articles click on the following which all open on new tabs so you can return to this post:
More films and photos
A couple of accessions this month have added greatly to our film and DVD library and our ability to show them at Bowcliffe. Over thirty films of Alvis events by the late Terry Poppelwell during his long ownership of his well known 12/60 have now been catalogued.
The addition of another large screen TV also makes it easier to show the many VHS tapes we now hold. The first TeePee film we tried strangely started with the donor of the TV introducing the event.
Last week we had a visit from Melanie Aspey, Director of the Rothschild Archive in London. Three trustees had an entertaining and informative day learning of the activities and procedures of a large and important archive and some insight into fund raising methods and record keeping. It was pleasing that our adoption of the FileMaker database was heartily endorsed.
Lincolnshire folk were treated to a fine display of coachwork on Alvis chassis at Doddington Hall last Sunday. No fewer than 24 immaculate models graced the courtyard and four of them had pride of place in front of the Hall.
This replica Vickers Vimy was built for that enterprising and enthusiastic gentleman Steve Fossett, and was flown across the Atlantic as a tribute to the 1919 flight of Lt John Alcock and Lt Arthur Whitten Brown. The picture was taken at the 2005 Fly-in at Turweston Airfield in Northamptonshire – 1932 12/50 TJ Special by Peter Wright NG 3638, from The Alvis Register Bulletin No. 231, Summer 2007.
From the Consultant Historian – Another Centenary: It is one hundred years ago ( 14th/15th June 1919 ) that John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown made that epic first transatlantic air crossing. This was done in a converted Vickers Vimy bomber with extra fuel tanks in place of the bomb racks. It is not widely known that on 12th July 1921, the by then Sir Arthur Whitten Brown took delivery of an Alvis 10/30, chassis 6247, registered HP 1821. One would like to think that he made a bee-line to Alvis for engineering reasons. Actually the reason is probably more prosaic. Vickers were making the Alvis chassis at the time.
