Saving the first front-wheel drive Alvis

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Most of our readers will know that Alvis was one of the first car-manufacturers to seriously explore the merits of front-wheel drive, building a short but well-received run of fwd sports-cars in the late 1920s. What isn't so widely known is that Alvis's first use of fwd was in a pair of Grand Prix cars from 1927, and that one of the very same, number 2, still survives to this day, even though it was abandoned to a Warwickshire scrapyard a few years after its ill-fated racing career ended.

When it débuted at the Junior Car Club's 1927 200-Mile Race at Brooklands, it attracted enormous interest for obvious reasons. Even onlookers who knew nothing of its unconventional drivetrain were sure to have their curiosity aroused by its strange, coffin-like appearance. Its noticeable length was occasioned by it supercharged straight-eight, 1½-litre engine.

Such a promising start...

Unfortunately, the Alvis was perhaps a bit too clever for its own good. There were two fwd Grand Prix cars built and, being somewhat experimental, both were affected by teething problems which prevented them from running in the 1927 British Grand Prix, where they were supposed to début. Two weeks later, however, they were working well enough to compete in the 200-Mile Race. The Alvis's rapidity was phenomenal, lapping Brooklands at speeds in excess of 120mph. Maurice Harvey's car qualified first on the grid, with George Duller in car 2 second. When the flag fell, Duller took the lead, but was shunted back to third following a spark-plug change, and sadly retired on the 52nd lap with engine trouble. Back at the Alvis works, they started taking it to pieces and found a con-rod had completely shattered.

The engine was never returned to the car and it sat in the factory, completely lifeless, until the need to free some space prompted Alvis to give it to Roach Brothers, a Coventry scrapyard, with strict instructions for them to break it up rather than sell it on. Fortunately for us in the modern world, the Roaches had their fingers crossed when they made that agreement and weren't too proud to turn down an offer from Bill Pitcher, a motorcycle dealer from Rugby, to buy the car.

Pitcher had to find a drivetrain for the car, and he settled on an engine from an old TT or Le Mans Alvis and a 1929 gearbox. Again, fortunately for us today, Pitcher never made much progress with his plans to convert the car to a rwd layout and, with his business in trouble, he was forced to sell the Alvis in 1955. The new owner, Alvis fwd enthusiast Nic Davies, transported it all around the world and showing it off, but all the while it was no better off than when Pitcher had given it up.

The culmination of a 33-year restoration

That started to change in 1990 when Davies committed to restoring it, even though it was incomplete, and by 2003 it was in running order. The restoration only gathered pace after 2006, however, when the car was acquired by Alan Stote, the present owner of the Alvis Car Company, and Alvis fwd expert Tony Cox.

Aided by historic photographs and original drawings of the engine, the restoration moved forwards. Reverse-engineering parts with the use of CAD, Alvis remanufactured all the parts it needed, including a faithful recreation of the original straight-eight.

It goes without saying that the project was not at all straightforward, but it needed to be done, and the combined efforts of Davies, Stote, Cox and Alvis's restoration team paid off: 96 years after the car was unveiled and quickly withdrawn again, the Front-Wheel Drive Grand Prix car was unveiled as a rolling chassis before an appreciative crowd in Japan on 14th April. The engine work is scheduled for completion later in the year, after which the Alvis will embark on a series of demonstrations and displays.

There should be many opportunities to see this unique and historic racer in future, including a return to Brooklands for its 100th anniversary in 2027, so keep an eye open for an appearance near you.

Words: Zack Stiling; photographs: The Alvis Car Company
 

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