open two-seater Sportsman's 2-door saloon front wheel drive open two-seater T.T. replica drophead coupé sports saloon sports saloon
Early history The original company, T. G. John and Company Ltd., was founded in 1919 by
Thomas George John (1880–1946). Its first products were
stationary engines,
carburettors, and
motorscooters. Following complaints from the
Avro aircraft company, whose logo bore similarities to the original winged green triangle, the more familiar inverted red triangle incorporating the word "Alvis" evolved. On 14 December 1921, the company officially changed its name to the Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd.
Geoffrey de Freville (1883–1965) designed the first Alvis engine and is also responsible for the company name. The origin of the name
Alvis has been the subject of a great deal of speculation over the years. Some have suggested that de Freville proposed the name as a compound of the words "
aluminium" and "vis" (meaning "strength" in
Latin), or perhaps it may have been derived from the
Norse mythological weaponsmith,
Alvíss. De Freville vigorously rejected all of these theories. In 1921, he specifically stated that the name had no meaning whatsoever, and was chosen simply because it could be easily pronounced in any language. He reaffirmed this position in the early 1960s, stating that any other explanations for the source of the name were purely coincidental. Production was relocated to Holyhead Road in Coventry, where from 1922 to 1923, they also made the
Buckingham car. In 1922, George Thomas Smith-Clarke (1884–1960) left his job as assistant works manager at
Daimler and joined Alvis as chief engineer and works manager. Smith-Clarke was accompanied by William M. Dunn, who left his job as a
draughtsman at Daimler to become chief draughtsman at Alvis. This partnership lasted for nearly 28 years, and was responsible for producing some of the most successful products in the company's history. Smith-Clarke left in 1950, and Dunn assumed Smith-Clarke's position as chief engineer, remaining in that position until 1959. De Freville's first engine design was a
four-cylinder engine with aluminium
pistons and pressure
lubrication, which was unusual for that time. The first car model using de Freville's engine was the
Alvis 10/30. It was an instant success and established the reputation for quality workmanship and superior performance for which the company was to become famous. The original 10/30 side-valve engine was improved, becoming, by 1923, the overhead valve
Alvis 12/50, a highly successful
sports car that was produced until 1932. Around 700 of the 12/50 models and 120 of the later
Alvis 12/60 models survive today. In 1927, the six-cylinder
Alvis 14.75 was introduced; it became the basis for the long line of luxurious six-cylinder Alvis cars produced up to the outbreak of the Second World War. These cars were elegant and full of technical innovations. Independent front
suspension and the world's first all-
synchromesh gearbox came in 1933. followed by
servo-assisted brakes. The
Alvis 12/75 model was introduced in 1928, a model bristling with innovation, such as
front-wheel drive, in-board brakes, overhead
camshaft, and, as an option, a
Roots-type supercharger. As with many upmarket engineering companies of the time, Alvis did not produce their own coachwork, relying, instead, on the many available
coachbuilders in the
Midlands area, such as
Carbodies,
Charlesworth Bodies,
Cross & Ellis,
Duncan Industries,
E. Bertelli Ltd,
Holbrook,
Grose,
Gurney Nutting,
Hooper,
Lancefield Coachworks,
Martin Walter,
Mayfair Carriage Co,
Mulliners,
Tickford,
Vanden Plas,
Weymann Fabric Bodies, and
Arnold of Manchester. Several cars also survive with quite exotic one-off bodywork from other designers. In 1936, the company name was shortened to Alvis Ltd, and aircraft engine and armoured vehicle divisions were added to the company by the beginning of the Second World War. Smith-Clarke designed several models during the 1930s and 1940s, including the six-cylinder
Speed 20, the
Speed 25, and the
Alvis 4.3 Litre model.
Second World War Car production was initially suspended in September 1939 following the outbreak of war in Europe. It later resumed and production of the 12/70, Crested Eagle, Speed 25, and 4.3 Litre continued well into 1940. The car factory was severely damaged on 14 November 1940 as a result of several
bombing raids on Coventry by the German
Luftwaffe, although the armaments factory suffered little damage. Much valuable cutting gear and other equipment was lost and car production was suspended for the duration of the war, only resuming during the latter part of 1946. Despite this, Alvis carried out war production on aircraft engines (as subcontractor of
Rolls-Royce Limited) and other aircraft equipment in its
shadow factories.
Post war drophead coupé-cabriolet Car production resumed with a four-cylinder model, the TA 14, based on the prewar 12/70. A solid, reliable, and attractive car, the TA 14 fitted well the mood of sober austerity in postwar Britain, but much of the magic attaching to the powerful and sporting prewar models had gone, and life was not easy for a specialist car manufacturer. Not only had Alvis lost their car factory, but also many of the prewar coachbuilders had not survived either, and those that had were quickly acquired by other manufacturers. The postwar history of Alvis was dominated by the quest for reliable and reasonably priced coachwork.
1950s sports saloon sports saloon Smith-Clarke retired in 1950, and Dunn took over as chief engineer. Before retiring, Smith-Clarke came up with the Alvis 3L3, TA21 prototype in 1947, TA14 body with a six-cylinder 3-litre engine, after retiring he used the prototype Alvis 3L3 as his personal car. In 1950, a new
chassis based on the TA14 and six-cylinder 3-litre engine was announced, and this highly successful engine became the basis of all Alvis models until production ceased in 1967.
Saloon bodies for the
TA 21, as the new model was called, again came from
Mulliners of Birmingham, as they had for the TA 14, with
Tickford producing the
dropheads. With Mulliners committing themselves in October 1954 to supply only
Standard Triumph, which purchased Mulliners in 1958, and Tickford being acquired by
David Brown, owner of
Aston Martin Lagonda in late 1955, it was becoming clear that new arrangements would have to be made. Some of the most original and beautiful designs on the Three Litre chassis were being produced by master coachbuilder
Carrosserie Hermann Graber of
Switzerland. These often one-off–designed cars are highly sought after today. Graber had begun to use TA 14 chassis soon after the war, building three
Tropic coupés which were much admired. When the Three Litre chassis was introduced, his bodies displayed at the Geneva Motor Shows in 1951 and 1952 attracted sufficient interest for Graber to set up a standing order of 30 chassis per year. Swiss-built Graber coupés were displayed on the Alvis stand at both Paris and London Motor Shows in October 1955. With a licence in place, from late 1955 all Alvis bodies became based on Graber designs, but few chassis and few bodies were built over the next two years. Around 15 or 16
TC108/Gs were built by
Willowbrook Limited of Loughborough and Willowbrook was subsequently taken over by Duple Coachbuilders. Over the same two years Graber built 22 TC 108Gs and complained that if he had received chassis he would have committed himself to buying 20 a year. Only after late 1958 with the launch of the
TD 21 did something resembling full-scale production resume as Rolls-Royce subsidiary
Park Ward began to build the new bodies now modified in many small ways. These cars, the TD 21 and its later variants, the
TE 21 and finally the
TF 21 are well built, attractive and fast cars. However it was clear by the mid-1960s that with a price tag of nearly double that of the mass-produced
Jaguar, the end could not be far off. From 1952 to 1955
Alec Issigonis, the creator of the later
Mini, worked for Alvis and designed a new model with a
V8 engine which proved too expensive to produce.
1960s fixed head coupé drophead coupé or cabriolet
Rover took a controlling interest in Alvis in 1965. A Rover-designed mid-engined V8
coupé prototype named the P6BS was rumoured to be the new Alvis model, but with the takeover by
British Leyland this too was shelved. By the time the TF 21 was launched in 1966, it was available in both saloon and drophead forms, with either a manual or automatic gearbox, and was beginning to show its age, despite boasting a top speed of 127 mph – the fastest Alvis ever produced. With only 109 sold and with political troubles aplenty in the UK car manufacturing business at that time, production ceased in 1967. In 1968, a management buyout of the car operations was finalised and all the Alvis car design plans, customer records, stock of parts and remaining employees were transferred to Red Triangle, a company founded by ex-employees of Alvis to provide parts and service for their cars.
1970s to 2004 As part of Rover, Alvis Limited was incorporated into
British Leyland but was bought by
United Scientific Holdings plc in 1981. Subsequently, the company's name was changed to
Alvis plc. Alvis plc acquired British truck manufacturer
Universal Power Drives in 1994, naming their new subsidiary Alvis Unipower Limited. The trucks were subsequently branded as Alvis-Unipower. In 1998, Alvis plc acquired the armoured vehicle business of
GKN plc, and the main UK manufacturing operation was moved from Coventry to
Telford. The site of the Alvis works in Holyhead Road is now an out-of-town shopping complex, but its name, Alvis Retail Park, reflects the heritage of the site. In 2002 Alvis plc purchased
Vickers Defence Systems to form the subsidiary Alvis Vickers Ltd, which was in turn purchased by
BAE Systems in 2004. BAE Systems ended the use of the Alvis distinctive red triangle trademark. In 2009, Red Triangle negotiated the legal transfer of the Alvis car trademarks. The following year, the company announced that the 4.3 Litre Short Chassis
tourer would once again be available. All Alvis' records remain intact at the company's
Kenilworth headquarters along with a large stock of period parts. One of the men to have worked on the last Alvis car produced in 1967 is still retained by Red Triangle in a training capacity. Built to the original plans, the new car has been named the "Continuation Series", to reflect the 73-year interruption in its production between 1937 and 2010. It differs only in detail from the pre-war examples: for emissions, the engine is governed by an electronic
fuel injection system with
electronic ignition, brakes are hydraulic rather than cable, the steering column collapsible and the rear light arrangement reconfigured to conform to modern standards. ==Revived company==