Think luxury British coupé and your mind is invariably drawn to the two-door machines from Bentley and Rolls-Royce, but offering much the same experience was Alvis' TD to TF series.
When others were moving towards full-injected engines, fancy suspension and complex chassis, Alvis stuck to carburettors, pushrods, leaf springs and separate chassis frames.
No matter, though, because what the comfy coupés lacked in sophistication they more than made up for in 'honest to goodness' charm. The handcrafted Graber-developed shape was the pinnacle of effortless dignity and unpretentious style. Style that shone through the Alvis' parts-bin components that came from cars such as Aston Martin's DB4,
That ethos was carried through to the interior, which relied on the British stalwarts of a lustrous burr-walnut finish and Connolly hide, yet also borrowed bits from others, including Wolseley.
Like many of its contemporary rivals, the big Alvis was built by a coachbuilder, Park Ward. Unlike Rolls-Royces or Bentleys, Alvis' coupé was fitted with a lazy 3-litre straight-six. When Martin Buckley drove one back-to-back with a Mercedes-Benz 220SE Coupé (see C&SC June ’05) he found its near-silent idle turned into a healthy burble, "you can use 5000rpm regularly, but 3500 is normally enough and it’s almost as happy to pull away in second as it is in first", said our senior contributor.
It adds up to a desirable package that makes this car, with its £17-22,000 estimate, all the more lust worthy. It crosses the block at Silverstone Auctions on 17 November, so you had better be quick. The 1959-vintage machine comes with a lovely history that begins with its delivery to Lieutenant Colonel R Bevan, in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. By ’86 the car had been subject to a two-year body-off restoration and comes with a photo file of the work. It has had a good life since with many bills to confirm this.
