4.3l vanden plas coninuation car 2

Who are the stalwarts of British motoring heritage?

The Alvis Car Company may not be the first name that the modern car enthusiast turns to, but in the first half of the 20th century, Rolls Royce and Bentley had a fierce competitor in the Red Triangle. More than 100 years after its inception, Alvis is ‘still making cars how they used to be made’, and delighting fans and enthusiasts the world over with its Continuation Series cars, carefully handmade in Britain.
Founded in 1919 by naval engineer Tomas George John, Alvis began to manufacture cars in 1920. In an era when Ford’s ‘mass market’ Model T was capable of reaching 40mph, Alvis’ first car, the 10/30, could get up to 60mph, with sporting variants said to have been capable of up to 80mph. Alvis’ early model’s refinement, power and quality make them popular even today, with a strong global community of 1000s of owners still cherishing and using these cars to this day.
Alvis was also scoring successes on the racetrack. Its Straight Eight Grand Prix Car, built to tackle the 1927 British Grand Prix, placed 1-2 on the grid with impressive, 120mph lap times, whilst at the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, a front-wheel-drive Alvis race car took victory in class. The acclaim kept coming with new models such as the 1932 Speed 20 and 1936 Speed 25 going on to be ordered and hand-made in their hundreds, with the 391 Speed 25s being regarded today as some of the most prized models. As recently as January 2024, these two models have been predicted to rise in value in the coming year.
In 1967, as the car manufacturing industry in the UK was changing, production of Alvis road cars came to an end, and the car company laid dormant for decades. 45 years later, Alvis was reborn, with the announcement that it would resume production of five of its cars, built upon its famed original 4.3 litre and 3 litre chassis. In line with the brand’s 100th birthday, Alvis announced the addition of the Graber to its line of new ‘Continuation Series’ cars.

45 years later, Alvis was reborn, with the announcement that it would resume production of five of its cars, built upon its famed original 4.3 litre and 3 litre chassis. In line with the brand’s 100th birthday


Rather than being imitations of previous models, cars from the Continuation Series are true, authentic Alvis’. Thanks to the survival of some 60,000 original works drawings and correspondence files, the new cars are nearly identical to their predecessors.

1928 le mans class victory 2
1928 le mans class victory 2
1928 le mans class victory 3
1928 le mans class victory 3
1928 le mans class victory 1
1928 le mans class victory 1
period chassis shop
period chassis shop
period engine shop
period engine shop


Take the 4.3 litre Vanden Plas Tourer for example. Built by hand in the UK, the car is almost indistinguishable from its 1936 original. The assembly of every car is a painstaking process that takes roughly two years from start to finish. Traditional coachbuilding, involving shaping, hammering, and rolling individual aluminium bodywork panels over an ash frame by hand, is a process that can’t be rushed, but the result is unique. The 4.3 litre Vanden Plas Tourer’s engine is capable of launching the car to 50mph in 7.6 seconds, on to an exhilarating top speed of 110mph. You would have to look very closely or be an aficionado of the original model to spot the minor differences between this modern production car from its 1930s original. To not spoil the beloved recipe, all changes are only made to meet modern safety and emissions regulations. A collapsible steering column, modern rear light arrangement, hydraulic brakes and electronic fuel injection and ignition systems are the only clear distinctions from the cars that came before.

Alvis offers the opulent, art-deco Bertelli and Lancefield, or the sleek, sporty Park Ward and Graber, all hand-built by master craftspeople in Kenilworth, not far from Alvis’ original home


Even the chassis numbers follow directly on from the Vanden Plas’ 1930s predecessors.
Production of this model is limited to 25 cars, and prices start from £325,000, with a fantastic scope for personalisation to every owner’s tastes. Alongside the Vanden Plas, Alvis offers the opulent, art-deco Bertelli and Lancefield, or the sleek, sporty Park Ward and Graber, all hand-built by master craftspeople in Kenilworth, not far from Alvis’ original home. The coach-built nature of all Alvis cars, modern and historic, is the reason for the huge variety of different designs and body styles. Each named after the coachbuilders responsible for their original designs, the Vanden Plas, Bertelli and Lancefield share the same 4.3-litre engine and steel chassis, whilst the Park Ward and Graber are based on a 3.0-litre specification. Despite these identical internals, the model’s appearances are remarkably different, such is the appeal of coachbuilding.

alvis graber coupe continuation car 1
alvis graber coupe continuation car 1
graber coachwork frame
graber coachwork frame


Alvis’ Warwickshire showroom has been aptly likened to Jay Gatsby’s garage, a space packed with gleaming roadsters, tourers, coupes and cabriolets. All are either brand-new cars or historic originals, offered for sale through Alvis’ sister company, Red Triangle. These are thought to be some of the best documented vintage cars on the market, thanks to Alvis’ possession of thousands of original service and correspondence documentation, including a letter on behalf of His late Royal Highness Prince Philip, politely declining the offer of power steering to be fitted to his Alvis!
Past the gleaming panels and brutish British engines of the showroom lies the works, a busy hive of engineering excellence, containing garages, a coachwork facility, an upholstery studio and more. At the core of the works is the storeroom, a vast treasure trove of Alvis parts, most surviving from before the halting of road car production in 1967. Stored in containers that were handmade in the 1920s, the storeroom is the source of Alvis’ unmatched originality, a resource that has ensured the marque’s new models are true Alvis cars.

coachbuilding workshop graber coupe in build
coachbuilding workshop graber coupe in build
alvis workshop
alvis workshop
english wheel in use
english wheel in use
alvis storeroom 2
alvis storeroom 2
alvis original drawings
alvis original drawings
alvis storeroom 1
alvis storeroom 1


“Taking ownership of the Alvis archives, and its incredible supply of parts was one of the main motivations behind the purchase of the company” explains Alan Stote, owner of The Alvis Car Company. “These precious resources have ensured that we can pick up where Alvis left off in 1967. As I like to say, we’re not remaking the originals, it’s just been a long time between orders.”
It is commonplace for historic carmakers to lean on their pasts for inspiration, but arguably few brands honour their histories as faithfully as Alvis. Its ethos ‘still making cars how they used to be made’ is simple and accurate, and reviving these iconic British automobiles has earned the company similar critical acclaim to the likes it received in period, and global demand filling the order books for the next 18 months. Japan in particular is a flourishing market for Alvis, with specialists Meiji Sangyo serving as the regional distributor for Asia, a market where classic cars with real heritage and prestige are highly sought after. Many of the new Continuation Series cars in production are set to be delivered to customers in Japan.
After a period of focussing on the cars built before 1967, the Alvis Car Company of today is not only continuing to look after existing models but now once again proudly producing new models in the heart of Britain, to be enjoyed across the world, just as it did decades ago.

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