We have just acquired some 1970 films of National Alvis Day. They are in Standard 8mm format and to see what they contained we have rerecorded them digitally without attempting to clean them up.
These can be viewed on a new page ALFLIX together with a couple of new additions to our film library.
It is said we are all only six people removed from everyone in the world but if you are an Alvis Owner it could be fewer. Three examples arose recently.
Clive Taylor is collating material for a series of books on Alvis in Competition and his plea for information has yielded some good results via the usual sources of the AOC, the VSCC and the Register. So when the current owner of the ex-Birkin Speed 20 got in touch it generated interest in its history. We were able to make contact with a previous owner who was delighted to share his information and in the process he asked about two other Alvis he had owned, not least the ex-Le Mans front wheel drive WK 8045 and a TA14 which were also researched.
The photo caption of the Fischlin Speed 20 in the February Bulletin omitted to mention the man in front of the car is Patrick Rollet, President of FIVA and the brains behind the Fougeres Rally, popular with Alvis folk. 
The Fischlins acquired a Graber cabriolet a few years ago, a well known car, but they hadn’t known that the first owner, Cookson, was Patrick’s wife’s godfather. We met up with the Fischlins for lunch yesterday and exchanged some car books. Perusing the VCCSR’s Revue annuelle 2016, I came across this photo – a Speed 20 not known to the AOC for some years – a Rivers Fletcher special chassis 11859. More material for Clive’s book.
Last month Neil Millington came across a business park in Yorkshire that had office space to let and enquired on behalf of the Trust. He left a message on the answering machine. The next day just happened to be when a few Alvis friends had decided to have an away day in Yorkshire and were meeting for lunch. I thought he was having a joke when he said he had received a call back, the lady who called was most enthusiastic, even knew what an Alvis was and would welcome the AAT as a tenant. It turned out that not only was the property manager the niece of an enthusiastic TD21 owner but that the current owner of the park was in the process of researching the car owning history of the previous owner of the park who, we had discovered from looking at their website, was a serial Alvis owner.
Eliane Schleiffer has announced this year’s Graber Treffen is being held in the Lucerne area on May 27/28 staying at the Hotel Waldegg in Engelberg, one we enjoyed on the 2005 Swiss Tour, and displaying the cars at the Swiss Classic World show on the Sunday. If you are a Graber owner and have not received the invitation, leave a comment.
AOC members can look forward to the thirtieth Bulletin edited by John Lang in February with another 120 page bumper edition of news, articles and event reports from around the world. John follows a long line of Editors who work hard for club members to produce a substantial publication six times a year aided and abetted by a Managing Editor and proof readers. John, who lives in Australia, said “It has been a bit full on but I love Alvis people. We have a fabulous club in Victoria (includes interstate & internationals) of which I am now in my 15 or 16th year as editor. I enjoy the stimulation from the Bulletin in trying to make it work each couple of months and the people I communicate with overseas that otherwise I wouldn’t know existed. Just like having pen pals when everyone else these days has FB “friends.””
While the internet can provide easy access to news and information the greatest asset of the Alvis Owner Club has always been a printed Bulletin you can touch, smell, pick up and read. Given the choice, most people still prefer to reach out and pluck a Bulletin from the bookshelf, but it is also nice to refer to any one of 563 editions at the click of a few keystrokes.
So what are you missing if you are not receiving Bulletin 563? Firstly, a long list of Alvis people waiting to help you enjoy Alvis ownership; news of the Club events; reports of Alvis owners’ activities, such as in France….
THE BULLETIN No. 563 JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017
CONTENTS
| 14 | Administration
9 Board Draft Minutes |
| 16 | 16 NEC Report |
| 44 | History
24 An Admirable Alvis- The Fourteen Part 2 45 The 200 Mile Race Car |
| 51 | Letters to the Editor
51 Simpson 52 Brown 53 Walton |
| 58 | Competition
58 Goodwood 62 Competition Round Up |
| 69 | International News
69 Quelques nouvelles de Suisse 72 Chantilly Art & Elegance 77 NZ Report 78 Landing the 12/70 in Australia |
| 80 | Alvis Adventures
81 Reepham 82 London New Year’s Day Parade 92 Brooklands New Year’s Day 96 Barn Find TB14 |
| 108 | In the Workshop
102 Silver Crest 100 Mildenhall 106 Does Your Clock Work? 108 TA21 Twin SU Conversion |
AOC members might not have spotted that a new Membership List is available on members’ section of the AOC website as a 120 page PDF download. It does not include any car details as a census has yet to be completed. Members might like to check that their details are correct or in fact there at all and you should contact the membership Secretariat with any corrections. If you are not an AOC member but still own an Alvis do please update us by clicking on UPDATE YOUR DETAILS
Following comments from some readers that they found the Piano Black theme on the website a tad funereal and hard to read we have changed it – do you like it?
More items have been added to the site with new answers to ASK A QUESTION, a Used Car Road Test on the TD21 page and the announcement of a power steering option on the TE21 page – you can navigate there from the index on the right of the page, or click on these links
If you own or have owned a Speed 25 please let us know. While there are over 100 25s with current AOC members the are at least 150 more that have been recorded with owners since 1953. Where are they now? Click UPDATE YOUR DETAILS
There are some additions this month with a 1938 article on the Speed 25 page about EXK 225, one of the many surviving Cross & Ellis Tourers, and new article on serial Alvis owner Sir George Burton can be found by clicking here.
To go to the Speed 25 page click Speed 25
We start the New Year with extracts from Bulletin 161 and a reminder of what we do….
“preserve the Archives (any objects, information, or data relevant to Alvis vehicles, or personalities, of any era) which have belonged to the Alvis Owner Club;
obtain and preserve such further Archives as the Trustees think suitable and desirable;
allow access to the Archives by members of the Alvis Owner Club and anyone with an interest in Alvis vehicles at such times and upon such terms as the Trustees shall reasonably decide”.
One of our completed projects is the digitisation of the Bulletins of the AOC which are still available on a DVD. If you would like to have one please leave a comment at the end of this post.
Alvis were still making cars in January 1967 and Bulletin 161 makes interesting reading:
A Mr Trump is also selling his car this month …..
Regular visitors to the website may have noticed some changes designed to make navigation easier. Instead of header bars of several topics there is now an alphabetical index down the right hand side of the page.
Have a look at the new layout and in particular, published today, is a page on RESTORATION STORIES starting with Chris Chilcott’s latest acquisition.
Several other Restoration Stories new pages have been included and some older posts incorporated into them. Older posts can now be found by date or subject. Provision has been made to ASK A QUESTION and to UPDATE YOUR DETAILS.
Alvis Archive 