Alvis

GB, 1920 -1967

(1) T.G. John Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1919 – 1937

(2) Alvis Car & Engineering Co Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1921 – 1937

(3) Alvis Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1937 – 1967

From its beginning, the name of Alvis has connoted high quality, long life and better-than-average performance. The first production Alvis set the trend. Those responsible for it were T.G. John, formerly of Siddeley-Deasy, and G.P.H. de Freville, who had worked for D.F.P. and had designed aluminium pistons bearing the name of Alvis for them. Their 10/30hp light car, current until 1922, used an extremely efficient 4-cylinder sv engine of 1.460cc made by Alvis, a 4-speed gearbox and attractive aluminium bodies by Morgan or Charlesworth. It was available in two-seater, four-seater or Super Sports form. The last-named as the first Alvis to have the famous ‘duck’s back’ body. Though noisy and expensive, the aLVIS ‘10/30’ was immensely popular among sporting motorists. In 1921, 322 examples were sold and by the following year the Alvis company employed 350 people. At the end of 1919, the new-born company had undertaken to deliver 1.000 cars, but the moulders’ strike which a brief spell during this period, the company made the Buckingham cyclecar.

In 1922, an engine of 1.598cc with a bigger bore and rated at 12/40hp was introduced in Alvis cars designed more for touring. Captain G.T. Smith-Clarke became chief engineer in 1923. He was responsible for the push-rod ohv 12/50hp engine, which was quieter and more powerful than its predecessors and at the same time extremely strong and long-lasting. It was first seen, in modified form, in the Alvis that won the Brooklands 200-Mile Race of 1923. The touring Alvis models were provided with 1.598cc engines, but the Alvis Super Sports had a shorter stroke giving 1.496cc and was more highly-tuned. The former were usually capable of about 60-65mph, but the latter would exceed 70mph comfortably. Handling qualities of all Alvis models were excellent, while bodies were by Cross & Ellis. During 1924 all Alvis cars went over to the new engine. At first, the Alvis firm’s survival was doubtful. Although 963 units of the older Alvis models had been sold in 1923, a receiver had to be appointed in the following year, because of lack of the capital needed for production on a scale to meet demand. More money was forthcoming, however, and the new Alvis 12/50hp restored the company’s fortunes. Prices were reduced for 1926, and all Alvis models were given front-wheel brakes. The chassis was stiffened by doing away with the separate subframe that had carried the engine and gearbox, and the engine was rubber-mounted. The downward-sloping ‘beetle-back’ tail was now the Super Sports style. By 1928, 6000 Alvises were on the road, and production was running at about 900 chassis per annum.

In that year, Alvis introduced a new type that was also to be a great success. Following fashion, it was a small six of 1.870cc. Similar in design to the old four, this Alvis was smoother, more flexible and quieter. Bodies were roomier and gearing was lower. This Alvis 14.75hp was superseded by the Alvis Silver Eagle in 1929, a car with a bigger bore that gave a mistake. They put into production a Alvis sports machine that had front-wheel-drive (Alvis FWD) – the first instance of this type of drive in a catalogued car – and independent suspension by four quarter-elliptic springs at the front and swing axles with quarter-elliptics at the rear. The 4-cylinder, 1.482cc, single ohc engine utilized many Alvis 12/50 parts, and could be had with a Roots-type supercharger. Helped by a low centre of gravity, the roadholding was very fine, and so were the brakes. During 1928 this Alvis model finished 6th and 9th at Le Mans, and 2nd in the Ulster Tourist Trophy race. In the following year an 8-cylinder version, still of 1½-litres was added. Unfortunately, the Alvis fwd had a very specialized, limited appeal, being complicated, unconventional, temperamental and hard to work on. However, Alvis were so confident in them and in the new six that they announced suspension of the production of the Alvis 12/50 in 1929. It was hurriedly reinstated when the six, popular though it was, proved insufficient to keep the Alvis company going alone. It was for sale until 1932, alongside a new sporting variant, the Alvis 12/60hp.

This was the Alvis company’s last out and out sports car, but its reputation for high-performance vehicles was sustained by the introduction of another new line for sale in 1932. The Alvis Speed Twenty was an exceptionally low-built, handsome fast tourer of modern appearance that combined the refinement of a medium-sized (2.511cc) six with speed, excellent roadholding and brakes, stamina and a reasonable sales-price. The car, and the types which succeeded it were a great success. The engine was a slightly tuned version of the largest option available in the Alvis Silver Eagle, and the chassis, too, was basically similar to that of the earlier Alvis model, which was retained. The power output was about 87bhp, permitting the better examples of the Vanden Plas open tourer to attain 90mph, in spite of the car’s weight, which was an equally traditional Alvis feature. The bodies were all coachbuilt.

With the introduction of this Alvis, the character of Alvis policy in the 1930s was set: the Alvis Speed Twenty and its developments provided the glamour, while an assortment of ‘bread-and-butter’ fours and sixes backed it up. All had push-rod ohv engines. The old Alvis ‘12/50’ and Alvis ‘12/60’ were replaced for 1933 by the sale of the heavier Alvis Firefly in the 1½-litre, 4-cylinder range. Much of the extra weight was added by the optional Wilson pre-selector gearbox, which could also be had on its development, the Alvis Firebird of 1935. This car, however, had an 1.842cc engine, in an attempt to cope with the avoirdupois. The Alvis Silver Eagle was joined early in 1933 by the 2.511cc Alvis Crested Eagle, which also had a Wilson gearbox. This was a chassis intended to carry heavier boddies, and was important because it was the first Alvis touring car to have independent front suspension, which was by a single transverse leaf. This feature, together with an all-synchromesh gearbox, was seen on the 1934 Alvis Speed Twenty. The latter model for sale, which was also growing heavier with increasing public demand for comfort rather than sporting pretensions, was given a bigger engine of 2.762cc in 1935 by lengthening the stroke.

For the same reason, the Alvis 3½-litre also made its bow. It was basically similar to the Alvis Speed Twenty, which it supplemented, but had a smoother, quieter engine with a bigger bore, providing 3.571cc and was designed to accommodate more comfortable, less sporting bodies. The Alvis 3½-litre was, however, a more powerful car than the Alvis Speed Twenty, with 110bhp. It was a short and logical step to replace the Alvis Speed Twenty with a new car for sale for 1936 that combined the virtues of both models. This was the fine Alvis Speed Twenty-five, which used the 3.571cc engine. Capable of a smooth and silent 95mph in saloon form, it was what many people still regard as the best Alvis ever built. At the same time, a car that was originally envisaged as a replacement for the short-lived Alvis 3½-litre was announced. This Alvis 4.3-litre had the same engine, bored out to a capacity of 4.387cc and providing 123bhp. With the introduction of the short-chassis sports tourer version for 1938, the Alvis 4.3-litre became the most exciting Alvis in the range, for it could easily exceed 100mph, with acceleration to match. Some consider that it was not quite as good-looking as the Alvis Speed Twenty-five, nor equally refined.

A new four for sale to replace the Alvis Firebird was listed for 1938. This was the Alvis 12/70hp, a George Lanchester design, with an 80mph performance in spite of its weight. The engine size was unaltered. The Alvis Silver Eagle had been dropped in 1936, but the Alvis Crested Eagle became for sale in a number of versions with the 2.762cc and 3.571cc engines as they appeared, in less highly-tuned forms. The Alvis Silver Crest, another Alvis car in which George Lanchester had a hand, was also brought in for sale in 1938 alongside the 12/70hp. It was intented to carry bodies of the more formal sort, and was powered by the 2.762cc engine, among others. It, too, had independent front suspension.

An aero engine works had been opened as early as 1937. The Alvis car factory at Holyhead Road, Coventry was completely destroyed by bombing in 1940, but the company continued to make aero engines – Rolls-Royce Merlins – at eighteen shadow factories. After World War 2, Alvis made their own Leonides unit and Alvis car production was restarted in 1946. A one-model policy, tailored to meet conditions of austerity, was adopted. Quality was still the main characteristic of the new Alvis TA14 for sale, which, in Alvis tradition, used a 4-cylinder push-rod ohv engine, now of 1.892cc.This Alvis TA14 car was the direct descendant of the 12/70hp. An ugly sporting model appeared briefly for sale in 1948. The Alvis TA14 was dropped during 1950 and the Alvis TA21, a big six, substituted. This was the first entirely new post-war Alvis. Its 2.993cc engine developed 90bhp, and this Alvis car – though not its sports roadster variant the Alvis TB21 – was as slower car than the Alvis Speed Twenty-five. Not so its development, the Alvis TC21/100, for sale in 1954 and 1955. This, after attention from Alec Issigonis, had a tuned engine providing 100bhp and a higher axle ratio, and carried a 100mph guarantee. The Alvis TC21/100 did not last long, for in 1955 there appeared one of the handsomest cars Alvis ever made, the Graber-designed Alvis saloon on what was virtually the Alvis TC21/100 chassis. Few were built until 1959, when this car was given a modified engine delivering 120bhp and renamed the Alvis TD21. It acquired disc brakes as standard fittings on all four wheels for 1962. For 1964, it was replaced by Alvis TE21, with 130bhp and five forward speeds. Automatic transmission was optional. In 1965 Rover acquired a controlling interest in the firm; production of private ceased in the summer of 1967.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Hotchkiss

France, 1903 – 1955

(1) Hotchkiss et Cie, St. Denis, Seine, 1903 – 1936

(2) Automobiles Hotchkiss, St. Denis, Seine, 1936 – 1955

The American Benjamin Berkeley Hotchkiss set up his ordnance Horchkiss car factory at St. Denis in 1867; the Hotchkiss cars were the result of an arm slump. The work of Terrasse, these first Hotchkiss cars were T-headed fours with pair-cast cylinders, 5-ball-bearing crankshafts, low-tension magneto ignition, round honeycomb radiators, 4-speed gearboxes, and the famous Hotchkiss drive by live axle and open propeller shaft. Initially cylinder capacities of Hotchkiss cars were 4.6-litres and 7.4-litres, but the Hotchkiss car company’s first racers of 1904 were 17.8-litre monsters notable for their aiv and chain drive. Though their 1905 successors conformed once more to touring-car practice, they were even bigger Hotchkiss cars, with 18.815cc and an alleged 130bhp. Hotchkiss’s last racing season was 1906 with their Grand Prix Hotchkiss cars had 16.3-litre L-head units and quick-detachable wire wheels. Though these Hotchkiss cars were unsuccessful, Hotchkiss sold 167 cars that year, with gate change standardized, and a choice of five Hotchkiss car models: a short-lived 4.2-litre petrol brougham, fours of 18, 30 and 42hp, and their first six. The last-mentioned Hotckiss car was the large V-type that evolved into a 9½-litre machine and was still being offered in 1912 as a Hotckiss car. Chassis price was £1.000 and it was capable of 60mph.

The slump following the Agadir crisis led to the abandonment of ball-bearing crankshafts on Hotchkiss cars; at the same time there was a move towards smaller Hotchkiss cars with the 3.1-litre T-type, with side valves in an L-head and high-tension magneto ignition. Two years later came something even smaller and more modern, the 12/16hp Hotchkiss X-type with 2-bearing crankshaft and three forward speeds at £390. Soon monobloc engines spread up the range to the 3.7-litre Hotckiss AB of 1912. From 1911 there were some smaller L-head sixes, the 4.678cc Hotchkiss X6 and the 5½-litre Hotchkiss AC6; 1912 sales were a record 598 Hotchkiss cars. Electric lighting was available from 1913, and all the 1914 Hotchkiss car models – the 2.6-litre Hotchkiss AG, the 4-litre Hotchkiss AF, the 5.7-litre Hotchkiss AC, and the 6-cylinder Hotchkiss AC6 – had semi-elliptic suspension all round.

The wartime demand for Hotchkiss machine guns led to the establishment of a branch factory under the Englishman Harry Ainsworth, this subsequently making engines for W.R. Morris until it was absorbed by him in 1923. At home Hotchkiss sold off their surplus works capacity at Lyons and concentrated on a revised Hotchkiss car again, the AF with full electrics and a horseshoe-shaped radiator in place of the traditional round one. Its successor, the Hotchkiss AH of 1921, had cantilever rear springs and torque tube drive, and a year later came the Hotchkiss AL with ohv, and a detachable head; front-wheel brakes were added for 1923. There was also a prototype luxury Hotchkiss car at the 1921 Paris Salon; this Hotchkiss AK had a 6.6-litre 6-cylinder ohc engine, dual ignition, 4-speed unit gearbox, servo-assisted 4-wheel brakes, and a cruciform-braced frame, but it never went into production.

The return of Ainsworth to St. Denis in 1923, coincided with the construction of a new Hotchkiss car factory and a more realistic type of car, the 2.4-litre 12CV Hotchkiss AM, with 4-cylinder sv engine, 4-speed unit box, four-wheel brakes, wire hwwls, and Hotchkiss drive once more. Between 1924 and 1928 it was the Hotchkiss car company’s staple product, selling at the rate of over a thousand a year and offering a 70mph performance at a modest outlay. It persisted until 1932, acquiring ohv in 1926 and rod-operated brakes in 1928, and its engine was used in some Morris-Léon Bollées. Even better was the Hotchkiss AM80 of 1929, largely the work of Bertarione. This was a short-stroke (80x100mm), 7-bearing ohv 3-litre six that owed a good deal to the AM2, though early cars featured torque tube drive; it was to be the basis from which all subsequent Hotchkisses were evolved. A silent 3rd gearbox featured on 1931 Hotchkiss car models, Hotchkiss drive reappeared in 1932, and 1933 improvements included Bendix brakes, cruciform-braked frames, down-draught carburetors and mechanical fuel pumps. Hotchkiss AM80 engines were also fitted to Sizaire Frères and Tracta cars.

The 1933 Hotchkiss car range was expanded both up and down, with new Hotchkiss 12CV (2-litre) and 13CV (1.3-litre) fours for the economy market, and an 85mph fast tourer, the 100bhp 3½-litre Hotckiss AM80S, for the enthusiast. This Hotchkiss car was based on the car with which Vasselle won the 1932 Monte Carlo Rally. Hotchkiss cars repeated this success in 1933 and 1934: in the latter year the Hotchkiss cars collected two Glazier Cups in the Alpine Trial. There were further wins in the Monte Carlo in 1938 and 1939; on the latter occasion a Grand Sport Hotchkiss car tied with a 3½-litre Delahaye. Radiators were moved forward on the 1934 Hotchkiss cars, and the 3-litre gave way to a 2.650cc 15CV that was not a success and lasted only one season. The 1935 Hotchkiss cars had synchromesh and integral boots, and at the top of the 3½-litre 20CV range was the twin-carburettor Hotckiss Paris-Nice, a 115bhp sports car capable of 95mph. Hydraulic brakes appeared in 1936 on Hotchkiss cars (to be quietly dropped halfway through 1937). The sports 20CV engine was now giving 125-130bhp and when allied to a short 9ft 2in wheelbase resulted in the Hotchkiss Grand Sport, a true 100mph saloon.

By 1938 the horseshoe radiator on the Hotchkiss car was now a wire-mesh grille, but despite the exigencies of French rearmament programmes the Hotchkiss car company managed to deliver 2.751 Hotchkiss cars that year, made up of the two fours, the reinstated 3-litre Hotchkiss 680, and the 3½-litre Hotchkiss 686 in various forms, including seven-seater limousines with the single-carburettor 100bhp engine. Hotchkiss also came to the rescue of the ailing Amilcar concern, helping to make the Grégoire-inspired 1.185cc Compound, a small fwd saloon with unitary construction in Alpax; this was sold in England, though not in France, as a Hotchkiss car. A 1.3-litre ohv development, the Hotchkiss B67, was ready for production when France collapsed in the summer of 1940.

Hotchkiss never really recovered from World War 2, though Peugeot were briefly interested in the Hotchkiss car company and Hotchkiss 686 cars won the first two post-war Monte Carlo Rallies of 1949 and 1950. The Hotchkiss 12CV and Hotchkiss 20CV were back in production, unchanged, by 1946, but the first year’s output was a miserable 117 Hotchkiss cars. Hydraulic brakes and independent front suspension did not appear until 1949 on Hotchkiss cars (though Hotchkiss had experimented with the latter in 1937), and a Cotal electric gearbox became a factory option. The 1951 Hotchkiss car models were ‘facelifted’ with V-screens, recessed headlamps and auxiliary coil rear suspension, but in the meantime there had been an expensive mistake: the acquisition by Hotchkiss of the rights to the Grégoire flat-4. This ingenious device was a development of the 1938 Amilcar theme featuring all-round independent suspension and a 4-speed overdrive gearbox, as well as front wheel drive. Production Hotchkiss car models with 2.2-litre engines were said to achieve 95mph and 30mpg, but the teething troubles were endless, and Hotchkiss only managed to make 250 Hotchkiss cars in the end. There was a shutdown in 1952 and the price of recovery was a merger with Delahaye that led inevitably to concentration on commercial vehicles. The old Hotchkiss cars 13CV and 20CV received another facelift in time for the 1954 Paris Salon, but his was their swansong, though medium-powered trucks continued to be made until 1970, along with a version of the American Jeep built under licence.

GB, 1920

Hotchkiss et Cie, Coventry, Warwickshire

Hotchkiss of Coventry, a British offshoot of the famous French Hotchkiss car firm, was set up during World War 1 to make engines in Britain. Their units became best known as the motive power for Morris and BSA light cars, but before they were taken over by William Morris, Hotchkiss experimented with a small car of their own. The Hotchkiss car consisted of their 1.080cc air-cooled V-twin ohv engine installed with a 3-speed gearbox in a pre-war Morris Oxford chassis. It never went into production.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS, TRN

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com