Alvis Company History

Alvis Archive

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  Alvis TC-TF

  Rating: 7 / 10

  Price: TC/TD saloon: £2500 - £10,000; TC/TD convertible: £5500 - £15,000; TE/TF saloon: £3500 - £11,500; TE/TF convertible: £6000+ - £17,000+

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Alvis was founded by T. G. John, a skilled and respected engineer who, amongst other projects, was involved in the design of submarines. His first business was T.J. John Ltd (1917-21) starting with motor bikes and scooters before manufacturing his first car. The name Alvis placed in a winged trianlge was found to be the copyright of the Avro Aeroplane Co, so the wings were removed and the triangle turned upside down.

The Alvis 10/30 had the performance of a Bugatti but sold at £680 against the Italian’s £900 and set the tone for future sporting models As well as making cars, Alvis also had an aero engine division by 1937.

Always highly respected as a rival to the likes of Aston and Lagonda, but Alvis was slow to keep up with the fast moving times; the Grey Lady saloon was a good saloon but looked positively dated against the bigger Jags of the time, for example let alone the Mk1.

The first ‘modern’ Alvis was arguably the TC108G/ TD21 which formed the mainstay of the company until the TF21 which signalled the end of the famous name in 1967, only two years after Rover purchased the outfit.

Car production halted but the name survived as Alvis had long been associated with military machines and the company continued well into the 21st Century supplying armoured vehicles where it was subsumed into British Aerospace a few years back.