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

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Morris

GB, 1913 to date

(1) W.R.M. Motors Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1913 – 1919

(2) Morris Motors Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1919 – 1970

(3) Austin-Morris Division, British Leyland Motor Corp Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1970 to date

W.R. Morris (later Lord Nuffield), an Oxford cycle and motor agent, launched his Morris-Oxford light car in 1913. This Morris car was made from proprietary parts, the engine being a 1-litre T-head four by White and Poppe. At £175 the Morris car was one of the best of the true light cars (as opposed to cyclecars) and over 1.000 Morris cars had been sold by the end of 1914. A larger model, the famous Morris Cowley, arrived on the scene in 1915; this Morris car was assembled from American components, the engine being by Continental. After World War 1 Morris cars marketed two 1½-litre L-head sv fours, with power units by Hotchkiss of Coventry; the Morris Cowley differed from the Morris Oxford mainly in its more austere equipment and the absence of a starter. In an inflationary climate, Morris cars was brave enough to reduce the prices of its Morris cars(a Morris Cowley two-seater cost £465 in October 1920, £299.10s a year later, and £225 in October 1922) and ensured a steady flow of Morris carproduction by acquiring his suppliers, such as Hotchkiss, Wrigley (transmissions) and Hollick and Pratt (bodies).

The Morris ‘bullnoses’ were soon best-sellers backed by a nation-wide service organization of Morris cars, and in 1925 Morris outsold all his competitors with 54.000 Morris cars. From 1924 to 1926 the staple Morris cars were the 1½-litre Morris Cowley and the 1.8-litre Morris Oxford, both with 3-speed gearboxes and the wet-plate clutches which persisted on some Morris carmodels right up to 1939. The Morris Oxford acquired front wheel brakes in 1925, and they were available as an option on Morris Cowleys a year later. 1927 Morris cars produced the flat radiator and also a venture into the export market with the unsuccessful Empire Oxford Morris car of 2½-litres, which had a 4-speed box and worm drive. Equally unsuccessful was a plan to market Gallicized Morris cars built in the Léon Bollée plant at Le Mans.

Meanwhile Cecil Kimber had produced the first of the Morris-Oxford-based MG sports cars, and a new name had been born. Morris had made a few six-cylinder Morris cars in the early 1920s, but his first serious attempt in this direction with Morris cars was a 2½-litre ohc model for 1928, the engine of this Morris car inspired by the Wolseley 16/45, a make which had come under Morris control the previous year. 1929 saw another ohc Morris car, the 847cc Morris Minor at £125. Never a best-seller, the Morris car none the less served as the basis for MG’s Midget. The 1930 6-cylinder Morris cars had hydraulic brakes, extended down the range until they were universal by 1934 on all Morris cars, and in 1931 Morris managed to offer a simplified sv two-seater version of the Morris Minor for £100. The early 1930s proved very difficult for the Morris car company, which had no obvious best-seller and too many different models of Morris cars. Sliding roofs and electric fuel pumps by the Morris-owned S.U. concern were innovations for 1932 and 1933 Morris cars pioneered the semaphore-type traffic indicator in Britain. That year Morris cars sv 1.3-litre Morris Ten-Four came out as an answer to Austin’s Ten and Hillman’s Minx. All 1934 Morris cars had synchromesh and the bigger sixes the added refinement of a free wheel.

The best-seller Morris car came at last in 1935 with the 918cc sv Series I Morris Eight, which retailed at £132.10s for a fully-equipped Morris car saloon and helped reach their first million Morris cars by the summer of 1939. In a bigger category were the Series II Morris carmodels with modern styling, 3-speed gearboxes, and built-in jacking systems, ranging from a revised Morris Ten-Four up to a 3½-litre 6-cylinder Morris Twenty-Five at £280. These Morris cars were contemporary with the Series I, though introduced some months after that Morris car. All 1938 Morris cars except for the Morris Eight had push-rod ohv engines (already applied to Wolseley and MG). Later that year Riley was absorbed into the Nuffield Morris car empire. Two 1939 winners were a revised Series E 8hp with a 4-speed gearbox and headlamps faired into the wings of the Morris car, and the 1.140cc ohv Series M Ten, which introduced integral construction to Cowley and this Morris car was made after World War 2 by Hindusthan in India.

Only the 8 and 10 Morris cars were made in the first post-war years, the first really new Morris car for ten years being the 1949 Morris cars designed by Alex Issigonis. Of these the MM series Morris Minor used the old 8hp sv engine, but boasted integral construction, rack-and-pinion steering and torsion-bar independent front suspension and set a new standard in popular car handling. A million of the basic design Morris cars had been sold by January 1961. Its companion Morris carmodels, also chassisless, and with independent front suspension were a new sv 1½-litre Morris Oxford and the 2.2-litre ohc Morris MS Type Six.

The amalgamation of Nuffield and Austin to form the British Motor Corporation in 1952 resulted in a gradual process of rationalization. First the Morris Minor went over to Austin’s 803cc ohv A30 engine in 1953. The Series II Oxford Morris car and its less powerful companion, the Morris Cowley, of 1954 had Morris hulls, but their engines were also ohv Austins. In 1955 the Morris carrange was completed by a new Isis using the 2.6-litre BMC 6-cylinder unit – this Morris car was discontinued in 1958. In the late 1950s some Morris cars were made and sold in Australia under the Morris car name which were in fact more closely akin to other makes in the BMC group. The 6-cylinder Morris Marshall was really an Austin A105, while both the Major and its Austin counterpart, the Lancer, were based on the Wolseley 1500.

With the arrival of the Farina-styled 1½-litre Morris car saloons in 1959, differences between Austin and Morris cars had been reduced to house colours and radiator emblems. The front-wheel-drive Mini (1960) was shared between the two makes and though its bigger stablemate, the 1100 of 1963 with Hydrolastic suspension, was initially a Nuffield monopoly Morris car, the inevitable Austin variant followed a year later. In the case of the third front-wheel-drive model, the 1800, Austin were ahead of Morris cars in introducing it by nearly eighteen months. The 1968 Morris car range comprised the fwd Mini, 1100/1300, and 1800 as well as the conventional 1.600cc Oxford and the indestructible Morris Minor 1000, now with 1.098cc engine and still selling close on 60.000 Morris cars a year. This sole survivor of independent Morris car design did not disappear until the end of 1970. Minis became a separate make that year. From 1971 Morris car versions of the 1100 and 1300 disappeared; the name was reserved for the Marina, an orthodox rear-wheel-driven family saloon with Minor 1000 front suspension, semi-elliptics at the rear, and drum brakes on the simpler variant Morris cars. Push-rod 1.300cc and 1.800cc B.L.M.C. 4-cylinder engines were used, and the original 2-door coupé and 4-door saloon were joined by a station wagon Morris car in 1973. The largest fwd cars were still available with Morris car badges – there was a version of the 6-cylinder 2200 in 1972.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

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