Ex-1928 Le Mans Works Entry, Urquhart-Dykes and SCH Davis
1928 Alvis Front Wheel Drive Sports Two-Seater

1,481cc SOHC 4-Cylinder Inline Engine
Single Solex Carburetor, 50hp
4-Speed Manual Transmission
Front, Independent Suspension by Transverse Leaf Spring, Rear, Leaf Spring Suspension
2-Wheel Inboard Front Brakes

*9th Overall and 2nd in Class at 1928 Le Mans - 'Bentley Boy' SCH Davis (Winner of the 1927 event)
*Sole survivor of 1928 Works Team for Le Mans
*Restored to concours standards
*Best in Class Winner, The Amelia Concours 2023

THE FRONT WHEEL DRIVE ALVIS

Despite the somewhat conservative image Alvis has today, T G John Ltd produced some technically innovative cars in the Vintage period, pioneering front-wheel drive technology and championing small-capacity, high-performance engines. Engineer T G John had founded the Alvis company in 1919 when he acquired the rights to an automobile engine and with it the brand name of its aluminum pistons – 'Alvis'. The first Alvis car - the 10/30hp - appeared in 1920. Conventional yet well engineered, the four-cylinder, side-valve engined 10/30 was unusual among contemporary light cars in having a four-speed gearbox.

Chief engineer Captain G T Smith-Clarke and chief designer W M Dunn experimented with front-wheel drive in 1925 in the form of a racer known as 'Tadpole', which was built for sprints and hill climbs. Early signs of promise resulted in a far more ambitious plan to run two FWD cars in the new 1½-Liter Grand Prix formula of 1926. Despite boasting supercharged straight-eight engines and De Dion front suspension, the Alvis Grand Prix racers proved a failure, but faith in the concept remained undiminished and a new front-wheel drive 12hp sports model - the FD - entered production in May 1928.

At the heart of the Alvis FD was a robust four-cylinder engine with single overhead camshaft and a bore/stroke of 68x102mm, giving a displacement of 1,482cc. The camshaft, magneto and water pump were all gear driven and the cylinder head detachable. The chassis frame consisted of deep channel sections while, unusually, there was independent suspension all round. Supercharged (12/75) and un-blown (12/50) versions were offered, the former's 75bhp endowing it with phenomenal performance for a 1½-liter car. A long wheelbase (10') FE version arrived in September 1928.

Few front-wheel drive Alvis cars were made, the total being estimated at 155 including prototypes and racers, while even fewer have survived the passage of time. According to Alvis Register figures, only 39 FD-series cars were manufactured between 1928 and 1931, of which approximately 14 are presently accounted for.

THE CAR OFFERED

In this incredible Le Mans 100th Anniversary Year the celebrations at the circuit and around the globe have brought to the forefront of our minds the wide range of automobiles that were built with the sole purposes of firstly lasting the grueling 24hour race, and secondly, having survived that to have outsmarted and outdriven their competition. Here we present this remarkable British entry from 1928 which achieved all of those things.

Alvis had long enjoyed successes on their home turf at Brooklands, particularly in the longer distance races such as the 6hour race in and 250 miles, where they placed highly and even won in August 1927, it must have seemed natural to follow in the footsteps of other Brits and stake a claim at Le Mans, which they attempted for the first time in 1928.

The Works elected to build a pair of their front wheel drive cars for their campaign, this, chassis .... and chassis.... their features included innovative inboard brakes and cross-mounted independent leaf springs at the front. In typically British fashion they were registered for the roads with consecutive license plates, which reflected their origins of Coventry with 'WK' prefixes, being WK 5491 and WK 5492 – this exact car.

Alvis put a lot into their entrée, not least in their drivers who included Sammy Davis the previous year's winner for the Bentley team, who drove this, the Number 28 car (WK 5492) with Bill Urquhart-Dykes and Maurice Harvey and Harold Purdy, paired for Number 27 (WK 5491). Sent over in good time for the practice days, this proved to be a key component of their success and important lessons were learned for the four drivers and the team. It became apparent that the transverse spring set up could cause all sorts of troubles, instead of shock absorbers, spring clips were employed which under duress decided not to release, causing one car to have to return to the pits on three wheels! While a tight cornering move could cause the steering drag link to lock under the springs and hold its fully turned position inevitably resulting in the car spinning. Happily, both incidents were remedied before the race, otherwise they might well have not made the distance.

Reviewing Le Mans in The Autocar, Sammy Davis commented 'The front-wheel-drive would take corners beautifully steadily provided that the engine was pulling, which introduced a new interest in life and a revision of one's ordinary methods, which definitely taught some extremely good lessons for the future and made the three turns of the Arnage 'S' perfectly fascinating.' "A good change to third at speed on the first turn and then go exactly along a little rut, brake, change to second while braking, open up, and skim the edges of the grass on the left turn, accelerate, change to third, brake, change to second, swing wide, hugging the right-hand bend for all one was worth and, away we go. All of this, mark you, in 100 or 150 yards."

In addition to the interesting technical specification of the Alvis, its aesthetics were also honed for the event with neat fabric bodied torpedos which tapered dramatically behind the driver running out in an aerodynamic wake. The regulatory top folded back onto that tail so as not to hamper the drivers.

On a day when the attrition rate of competitors was nearly 50% (17 left from 33 starters), the pair of Alvis cars finished very respectably in 6th (car 27) and 9th (this car), with average speeds of 59.2 and 58.2mph respectively, nearly 10mph higher than the same class just one year before.

It appears that after Le Mans the cars would not race again, an entirely separate roster was run at the Tourist Trophy later that summer, and it is believed that the number 27 car was most probably dismantled, as it has certainly never resurfaced. This car had a much happier existence, it was acquired by the Iliffe family of publishing fame shortly after the race and has perpetuated through a series of collectors, including long term ownership from the late 1990s to early 2010s. The present owner acquired the car in 2016 and as a passionate enthusiast and user of his cars had the car reviewed thoroughly technically in the UK while elevating its aesthetic condition also. The majority of the work was carried out by respected engineering firm SPB Historics.

On completion, the car has been displayed at a series of events around the country, including at the Audrain Concours in 2022 and at The Amelia Concours d'Elegance earlier this year. Beautifully presented and with a pedigree that began with a second in class at Le Mans, this is one of the most important examples of its marque and has been appreciated wherever it is shown.