Alvis cars traces its roots to a company, TG John and Co. Ltd., formed in 1919 by Thomas George John and G.P. de Freville. The company manufactured motor scooters, carburettor bodies and stationary engines. The origins of the ‘Alvis’ name are obscure. In 1920 the first Alvis was produced and it took little time for buyers to discover a few things about the Alvis brand: they were reliable, had performance and were well put together.

In 1932 the company released the Speed 20 in various body designs - 4-door touring, saloon, 2-door tourer, sports saloon, and drophead coupe - built by various coachbuilders including Cross & Ellis, Charlesworth and Vanden Plas. They were powered by a straight-six engine called a ‘Silver Eagle’ supplied by fuel from triple SU carburettors and using overhead pushrod valves.

Alvis cars were a work in progress with refinements and improvements taking place as better engineering evolved. To start with the cars were fitted with semi-elliptic springs front and rear with drum brakes. A year after being launched the Crested Eagle was launched with independent suspension comprising transverse leaf springs and wishbones. In that same year the company released a gearbox with synchromesh on all forward gears. For all this solid engineering and being at the cutting edge of technology only around 750 Speed 20 models were produced when production came to a halt in 1936. These were numbers that would have been scoffed at by people like Henry Ford.

During WW2 Alvis ceased commercial production and built aircraft engines and military vehicles. Alvis resumed production after the war, but the business and engineering landscape had been changed dramatically. The Alvis factory was bombed by the Luftwaffe. Despite this Alvis brought out the TA14, a four cylinder car inspired by a pre-war design. Several coachbuilders provided the bodies. Prior to WW2 Alvis manufactured rolling chassis and specialist coachbuilders such as Mulliner supplying saloon bodies. Mulliner were again involved after hostilities ended.

By the early 1950s Alvis had its sights set on the future. This was an exciting time in the British automotive industry with makers such as Jaguar, MG, Aston Martin and Healey all undergoing transformation into manufacturers of what would ultimately the halcyon period of the British car industry. Alvis developed a new chassis and a new 3.0 litre, six-cylinder engine.

It was in this period that Alvis had to turn to Graber for design. Coachbuilders Tickford and Mulliner had been consumed by other companies _ Standard Triumph and Aston Martin - and Alvis turned to Graber. The Swiss company had gained Alvis distribution rights for Switzerland in 1948, so there was already a relationship between the two companies. From around 1955 all Alvis cars were based on designs by Graber, a company that had built bodies in the 1930s for the likes of Alfa, Bentley, Bugatti, Duesenberg and Packard. Quite a CV.

In 1958 Park Ward started building TD21 bodies in what was an attempt at full-scale production. Park Ward were also building bodies for Rolls Royce and Bentley, so Alvis was in good company. As the years rolled on the TE and TF models came off the production line. These TD 21 cars were magnificent as our images show. The TF Alvis was capable of more than 125 mph. But the writing was on the wall. The cars were too expensive - around twice as much as a mass-produced Jaguar - and sales were dwindling. The doors to Alvis cars closed in 1967.

Our featured TD21 Series 11 features the straight six engine linked to a five-speed all-synchromesh ZF gearbox and 4 wheel disc brakes. Top speed was 104 mph and the 0-100 km/h sprint was covered in around 13 seconds.