The Vintage Alvis
 

	1926 Alvis TE 12/50 Sports Tourer

Contents:  Four Cylinder Cars    Six Cylinder Cars      Front Wheel Drive Cars   Coachwork   Bibliography

 

What makes the vintage Alvis exceptional is that it is generally regarded as the classic vintage car with its excellent balance of power, road holding and braking. The simplicity of its mechanical design and the strength of its chassis contribute to remarkable durability and reliability: it is also eminently suitable for the owner who prefers to do his own maintenance and servicing. On the road the vintage Alvis is very satisfying to drive. To quote from The Vintage Motor Car by Clutton and Stanford (Batsford 1954): “we cannot but consider it (the 12/50) one of the classic designs of the time, and it remains of all vintage sports cars the one which needs least apology”.

 

All vintage Alvis cars have an obvious affinity - with the exception of the front-wheel-drive cars. They clearly have a common ancestry, beginning with the 10/30 which first appeared in 1920. The cars are of orthodox design with conventional ladder-type chassis frames built from channel section steel. Suspension is by semi-elliptic leaf springs and friction dampers. The front axle is of the beam axle type, and the cast aluminium rear axle is of fully floating design. The early cars had rear wheel brakes only with four-wheel braking being introduced in 1924.

 

All have four-speed crash gearboxes with right-hand gate change and central accelerator. With the exception of the front-wheel-drive cars, the gearbox is separate from the engine and driven by a short cardan shaft from the clutch.

Four-cylinder cars.

The 10/30, 11/40 and 12/40 cars, of which very few survive, have side-valve engines, of 1460cc for the 10/30 and 1598cc for the 11/40 and 12/40.   The earliest 10/30s were advertised in July 1920 as ‘The Car for the Connoisseur’ and were priced at £685 for the open two-seater, more or less in the same price bracket as the HE and Arrol-Johnston.  Within a year, private owners and works drivers were winning numerous sporting awards all over the country, and this set a trend which was to continue throughout the 1920s and beyond.  The early emphasis on quality and performance set the tone for all subsequent models.

	1922 Alvis 11/40

  12/50s, first advertised in late 1923, and 12/60s have overhead valves. The crankcase and sump are aluminium castings with cast iron being used for the cylinder block and head. The camshaft, dynamo and magneto are driven by a train of gears from the front of the engine. Later cars feature electric fuel pumps and coil ignition. There is no water pump.

  Sports 12/50s were fitted with a short-stroke big-port engine of 1496 cc (68x103 mm) enabling them to compete in 1500 cc events. Touring 12/50s generally had a long-stroke small-port engine of 1645 cc (69x110 mm). Apart from the difference in stroke, bore and the detail design of the cylinder head, the two engines are practically identical with many parts being interchangeable. Production of the 12/50 ceased for a short time between 1929 and 1930, but it was reintroduced with several chassis improvements as the TJ 12/50 to meet the deepening economic crisis. It retained the familiar 12/50 mechanical components, and a twin SU carburettor sports version, named the 12/60, was introduced early in 1931.    Return to Contents

	1928 TG 12/50 Sports Saloon

Six-cylinder cars.

 The 14.75 Six (1870 cc) was the Company's first venture into the six-cylinder market in 1927. The aim initially was for improved flexibility rather than increased performance. In late 1928 the six-cylinder model became the 16.95, the engine size being increased to 2148 cc, to give a fast, smooth car capable of up to 80 mph depending on the bodywork fitted. In March 1929 the model was renamed the Silver Eagle. A short-chassis sports version was introduced in October 1929, and from mid-1930 Silver Eagle models featured a wider track and lowered chassis. About one hundred Silver Eagles of all types are known to the Register.  Touring versions have one Solex or Zenith carburettor: sports versions have triple SUs.  The water pump, dynamo and dual-ignition magneto are coupled together on the offside of the engine. The camshaft timing wheel and the drive gear for the ancillaries are situated at the rear of the engine and driven from the crankshaft by duplex chain fitted with an automatic spring controlled chain tensioner.  Return to Contents

1929 16.95 SA Silver Eagle sports tourer

Front-wheel drive.

Front-wheel-drive cars were produced from 1928 to 1931. There are some 35 survivors out of a total production of about 150. This model is an out-and-out sports car with a fine competition history. The engine was 1496 cc, overhead cam and available with or without a supercharger. Two cars ran at Le Mans in 1928 and came 6^th and 9^th overall, a very fine achievement, whilst another came second in the 1928 TT, only 13 seconds behind the winner after six hours of racing. Maintenance is relatively complicated and the cars were suitable for a specialised market only. They were a very ambitious project for the time and are now highly sought after.      Return to Contents.

	1929 FE 12/50 FWD Tourer

Coachwork

Alvis did not make their own coachwork, and most cars had standard bodies built by the Coventry firms of Carbodies or Cross and Ellis. Although Alvis offered a standard range of body colours, purchasers could specify an individual paint colour and extras to suit their own requirements. In a few cases Alvis supplied the chassis only and the customer commissioned a body from a coach-builder of his choice. After the body had been built and trimmed, the car was returned to the factory for checking and road-testing before despatch.

 

A comprehensive range of designs was available. More photographs of these can be found in the Gallery section. Typically this included 2/3-seaters, 4-seater tourers, four- and six-light saloons and the three-quarter or Doctor's Coupé.  Fabric "Alvista" bodies were made as well as the traditional steel or aluminium panel on ash-framed coach-built bodies. Most body styles were offered on both four- and six-cylinder chassis, but the earlier 12-50 sports models were generally fitted with a polished aluminium 2-seater body with a single dickey seat in the pointed tail. (Popularly known for obvious reasons as the ‘duck’s-back’). 

1924 SA 12/50 2-seater sports ("Duck's-back")

A modified 2-seater sports body, again with single dickey-seat, (known unofficially as the ‘beetle-back’) was introduced on the SD 12/50 sports chassis in 1926, and further modified versions appeared on the TK and TL 12/60 chassis and on some 16.95 Silver Eagles between 1930 and 1932.    Return to Contents

Contrasting 2-seater sports ‘beetle-backs’. On the left 1928 SD 12/50. On the right 1931 TL 12/60.

Bibliography

·         The Vintage Alvis by Peter Hull and Norman Johnson. First edition published by Macdonald 1967. Reprinted by David and Charles.

·         The Vintage Alvis by Peter Hull and Norman Johnson. Edited by Paul Haye. Second edition published by the Alvis Register 1995. ISBN No 0-9525334-0-5

·         Alvis. The Story of the Red Triangle by Kenneth Day. Published by Gentry Books 1981. (2^nd edition  Haynes 1989; 3^rd edition  Haynes 1997; 4^th edition Haynes 2009)

·         The Vintage Motor Car by Cecil Clutton and John Stanford. Published by B T Batsford 1961.

·         The Alvis Car 1920-1966 by K R Day. Published by the Author 1965.

·         A Vintage Car Casebook by Peter Hull and Nigel Arnold-Forster. Published by B T Batsford 1976.

·         Alvis Gold Portfolio 1919 - 1967. Compiled by R.M. Clarke. Brooklands Books. 1989.

·         Alvis Collection 1924 - 1930. Compiled by R.M. Clarke. Enthusiast Publications. Undated.

·         Alvis Publicity - The Leopold Adams Legacy. Written and compiled by Norman Johnson. Privately produced in 1997. Second edition privately produced in 2003.

·         The 12/50 Engine by Micky Radford. Published by Speed & Sports Publications 1971.

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