Richard Yarrow’s opinion for www.startrescue.co.uk, providing low cost Vehicle Recovery cover.
Readers of a certain age may recognise the brand of car in the above picture. It’s an Alvis, the luxury/performance manufacturer based in the West Midlands which stopped making road-going vehicles in 1967 to concentrate on military hardware. Illustrated is an Alvis 4.3-litre Tourer, built in the late Thirties and the fastest non-supercharged machine of its day.
Er… except it’s not. Let me explain. It’s identical to the original model in every detail, and has been built by the Alvis Car Company Ltd in the West Midlands to the exact spec of the original technical drawings. The only difference is that this car is brand new.
I spent yesterday in the company of the new team behind Alvis, which has launched what it’s calling the ‘Continuation Series’ of the firm’s greatest pre-War model. It’s a fascinating idea; feed all the car’s measurements from the actual historic technical drawings into modern computer software, link it to hi-tech milling machines, and produce components that are actually better than the originals. Even the engine is bespoke.
The firm has a shiny new showroom in Kenilworth, just south of Coventry, and expects to make two or three cars a year for the princely sum of around £180,000 each, depending on spec. The business is part of Red Triangle, the Alvis restoration and parts company which was set up by ex-Alvis employees when they stopped building cars.
So it’s a genuine Alvis, built by Alvis and powered by an Alvis engine. And it comes with a three-year warranty. What’s not to like?
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