1936 Alvis Crested Eagle TF 19.82 Saloon

Description

Ex-Stratford Motor Museum; stunning example treated to a body-off restoration in the 1980s; coachwork by Charlesworth; huge history folder with much recent expenditure; one of only 322 made; find a better one!

Alvis built its reputation with the immortal 12/50, a lightweight sports-tourer which offered delightful road manners allied to a fair turn of speed.

Built throughout the 1920s, it was sufficiently successful to allow Alvis to develop a number of technically interesting, if commercially challenging models including the 12.75 front-wheel-drive, a 14.75 six-cylinder touring car and even a straight-eight front-wheel-drive Grand Prix car. Needless to say, the latter was nearly too much for the finances of such a small company and it was only the re-introduction of the 12/50 as the TJ and TK models in the early ‘30s that kept the doors open.

The good news was that the six-cylinder engine had proved very promising and had found its way into a new model in 1929, the Silver Eagle. In 1932 Alvis introduced the Speed 20, a new low-slung six-cylinder sports model, announcing at the same time the more formal Crested Eagle as a replacement for the Silver Eagle the following year.

Offered with a substantial X-braced chassis and independent front suspension, the Crested Eagle usually carried formal limousine or saloon coachwork and was initially offered with the 2,148cc Silver Eagle engine, although capacity was soon to increased to 2,511cc, then 2,762cc (a single carburettor version of that used in the Speed 20) and eventually the 3,571cc engine also used in the Speed 25 and 3 ½-litre models.

This stunning 1936 Crested Eagle TF is a 19.82hp 2,762cc model with four-speed synchromesh transmission and carries six-light saloon coachwork by Charlesworth, the most popular choice on this chassis with 322 of the 602 Crested Eagles having this body style.

It comes with a vast history folder showing that it was supplied new via Turner and Hore of Suffolk in September 1936 and delivered to its first owner in Newmarket. A note on file suggests this Alvis would have originally left the factory with a red leather interior, whilst the bodywork was finished in Lake (?) with black wheels.

It was later acquired by a Mr L Camidge in 1965 and a Mr Tim Dale in 1980 who treated it to a total body-off restoration, including a colour change to the current Claret over Black and a full interior retrim after which it was loaned to the Stratford Motor Museum in 1986.

It passed to a Mr Mike Cummins in 1998, and Mr Brian Garratt in 2003, it then changed hands a couple of times before being snapped up by our vendor in 2017, who believes it to be one of four such Charlesworth-bodied examples surviving, one of which is in the USA and another in Sweden.

The history folder shows much recent expenditure at classic specialist CMC of Bridgnorth, with invoices for a replacement head gasket in February 2022 alongside a carburettor rebuild, full service, new coolant and heater hoses plus a full brake overhaul. It also had a new water pump in June 2022 and in January 2023 the radiator was refurbished, all the work carried out by CMC. There are also 20 old MOTs showing regular light use, the last of which expired in August 2018 with no advisories recorded, and the car is of course now MOT-exempt.

As you can see in the photos, this Alvis looks absolutely stunning, testament to the quality of the restoration some 40 years ago, and you would be hard-pressed to find a better example anywhere.

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