Alvis Archive

Several new and old photos have been added to three pages (just click on the links) including several pre-1961 pictures from Clive Hutchinson’s collection

Front Wheel Drive

Silver Eagle

TD21 : 1958-1963

together with a register of 180 drophead coupes.

Barn Finds – in case you missed them

Posted on November 25, 2022 by eileen4tatb14s on www.alvis14.com

Based in W Sussex. Vendor would ideally like to sell as a job lot! Offers to be considered? Still available…..

SVS424 Chassis  20965  Black – on the left in the photo

KSV601 Chassis  23055  Green & Cream – in the middle on the photo

GMJ492 Chassis 23031  White – on the right in the photo.

Three TA14s – one Carbodies drophead and two saloons.  All have been in dry storage for 10-15 years now.  The coupe and one saloon ran before going into storage and both of these have had restoration started, so not all parts are on the vehicles, but are present. The other saloon has had some parts taken off in preparation for restoration. There are many spares with the vehicle’s: – engine; gearboxes; axle and more. There is a literal “barn full” which includes three complete cars (including interiors / glass) plus additional spares.

Logbooks for all three. 

They all require restoration: –

1 x Alvis TA14 drophead coupe by Carbodies (this was running before going in to dry storage)

2 x Alvis TA14 Saloon models (one of these was running before going in to dry storage)

One (and a half!) spare engines; Three, (possibly four or five!) spare gearboxes

Front axle (maybe more). Numerous parts, bits and pieces.

A new page has been added specifically for the Series II TD21 as the first step in updating the TD21 Register – Series II – 1962-3

Also, head over to the Fourteen site www.alvis14.com to find out what these are….

Malcolm Elder’s 12/50 on the 1995 Rally Neige and Glace was the cover picture for the last Bulletin of 1997 ending the first year of Julian Collins in the Editor’s chair of the AOC. This year the response to the earlier 1997 Bulletins made available to download has been tremendous so we have made a Year Book of all the Bulletins which is now available to members on request.

In 1984 the AOC published four Model Registers for the TF21, TE 21, TD21 Series II and the TD21. The TF21 and TE21 registers were updated in 1999 and 2000 by the Model Secretary, the late Ken Cameron.

The TD21 Register has not been published since 1984 and the latest information on ownership can be found in the 2012 Membership List. With the passage of time and some 1,100 new members since 2012 the information available to members is limited.

The late Brian Maile wrote in the 2012 membership list “An up to date Membership List is essential to allow members to easily communicate with each other and identify owners of particular cars.” It was therefore good news that future AOC membership lists, will be published digitally every March and September, and include the model of each member’s car.

Fortunately, recording the ownership of cars has continued with successive Model Secretaries and the Membership Secretaries. The information we have available is vastly greater than first published. Gaps remain to be filled and of course – not all owners are members of the Club and those that are rarely notify the Club of sales and purchases.

Data Protection legislation has acted as a brake on providing this essential information to owners. Cars sold at auction and by dealers on commission are particularly affected by this. Provided consent is given, information can be shared.

So, if you own TD21 now or in the past and consent to your contact details being passed to future or past owners of your car please let us know by clicking on UPDATE YOUR DETAILS and fill in the gaps– we can then update the Register and make it available to those who participate.  

Why not do it now?

TD21 26419 pictured at Crystal Palace in 1972 – first registered 6951 HP when the Alvis demonstrator for the overdrive gearbox introduced in 1960. One of several TD21s that had a number of different UK registrations  –    6951 HP –  MEC 919 –  JF 9 –  8459 PE  – XMV 934A before moving to Germany where it is currently for sale. 

In this picture the car is fitted with the ER70 tyres that were introduced for the XJ6 Jaguar and transformed the handling. With the original 60 spoke wire wheels then fitted, broken spokes were not uncommon but the later 72 spoke wheels were much more resilient. Graber built cars often had Borrani wheels specified on either 15” or metric diameters such 400mm.

“Fun Fact” The car cost £375 in May 1970 with 96,000 miles on the clock. That is equivalent to £7,000 in 2022 money (RPI based). A new Austin 1300GT was £996, an E type coupe was £2,584 and a Silver Shadow was £9,272.

For more on the TD21 go to TD21 : 1958-1963

A few years ago a wooden carving of an eagle was commissioned for the gardens by the Blackburn Wing….

This month another Alvis themed item graces the entrance…

To learn more about the Willowbrook and its place in Alvis history click TC108G – Rara Avis

Also arriving at Bowcliffe this month were new additions to the library from our friends in Holland who celebrated forty years of the AOCNL this year. A happy coincidence was the front page photo of one of the rare birds now resident there, a Willowbrook 25925, body 56009.

Finally a reminder that we have arranged a group visit to the Rootes Archive next Sunday 27^th November at 10.30 located near Banbury at Wroxton (also home of the Bentley Drivers Club). It will be hosted by Andy Bye, a trustee and Director of Archives for the FBHVC. If you would like to join us, please leave a reply.

A gallery of photos from the current NEC show is now available on NEC Classic Car Shows.

A note from John Godley asked for identification of this car entered in the 2022 Chantilly Arts & Elegance Concours, north of Paris on Sunday, 25th September. The registration number was no help but the ever resourceful Greg Wrapson recognised it as the TL 12-60 Car no 14101 chassis 9226, originally a Cross & Ellis Sports Saloon despatched to Caffyns Eastbourne on 11.12.1931. Original registration was UF 8638.  Over the years the original body was lost, the chassis shortened and a simple open body fitted. Our member Tony Simpson took it on and created the existing body, basing the general design on that of the body that coachbuilders Grose of Northampton fitted to the SA 12-50 chassis that they displayed at the 1923 Motor Show

Armed with this information, John researched further – “I read that this car had also been present at the 2019 Chantilly event, and saw that a very similar shot to my own 2022 version had been taken.  Then suddenly, ‘hold on’, I was there too!

I needed to search through my own pictures from three years ago, and by fortune found I had seen it before and this time the photo was one near a similarly aged Bugatti, but I’d also photographed the driver’s eye view and the wooden bodywork.

Then, back to searching, I read that it was in attendance at the 2017 event – I wasn’t at that one myself – but found a “FlickR” site reference to it, by chance where that photographer (named ‘eric’), initially focused on the rabbit/hare bonnet mascot. We can now deduce the full registration is: “EG985CN”

Here, in addition, is the reference to this Alvis I found, when in England with its original registration and, it seems, the original bodywork too. This was a short documentary about Oxford, filmed in 1958. The four lower pictures can also be enlarged. https://www.imcdb.org/v959303.html “