Vintage Thing No.60 - 1937 Alvis 4.3 litre pillarless saloon by Vanden Plas

At last year's Lanlivery Show, I spotted this magnificent Alvis. It's a 1937 4.3 litre sports saloon with bodywork by Vanden Plas. Only 248 of these cars were built before World war II and every one was in chassis only form. As befits a thoroughbred motor car, each customer had the opportunity to work with a coachbuilder to realise the car they wanted. Some purchasers knew exactly what they wanted, others were content to choose from what the designers had to offer. Each body was bespoke and was haute couture for automobiles, using only the finest materials and workmanship.

This sort of coachbuilding didn't happen overnight. The chassis was built in 1937 in Coventry (that place again - see earlier posts about Lea-Francis)but the bodywork wasn't completed at Vanden Plas' Kingsbury factory, in north-west London until January 1938. It was then sent back to the Alvis factory for use as a demonstrator until sale to Brooklands Motors who took delivery in July 1938. The price was in the region of £1200.

Half a dozen pillarless Alvises (Alvii?) were completed at about the same time and similar bodies were offered on Bentley and Daimler chassis, sometimes with sidemounted spare wheels, at other times with them sunk into the boot. John Bradley was the designer at Vanden Plas and Brian Smith in his book on Vanden Plas describes him as Artist:Designer - note the capitals. Body design was something of a black art at the time. The position of industrial designer had yet to be established. In those days, designers were often picked by management from the drawing office and developed from draughtsmen who showed the elusive quality of "flair". Nobody could describe but most people knew it when they saw it. Successful candidates could attend The Regent Street Polytechnic School of Motor Body Building.

Bradley re-vitalised Vanden Plas following his appointment in 1931. He introduced a modern drawing office and had to overcome traditions that had existed since the days of the horse drawn carriage. Fr'instance, blacksmiths made all the ironwork fittings and deliberately over engineered them. The chief smith was a "piece-boss". He gave his price for the hinges and brackets and then negotiated a lower rate with his workmen, taking the difference for himself. Considered an expert in his specialism, he was resistant to change and would often claim Bradley knew "nothing about the business" but Bradley had the confidence of Vanden Plas management, who at one stage had considered closing down due to such old fashioned ways. Bradley saw that the Depression wouldn't last forever and that lighter weight coachwork was the way forward.

Beginning with beautifully executed line and wash drawings - fore runners of the marker pen renderings we were taught at Coventry Polytechnic) - the body shape was drawn out full size and Bradley saw to it that every detail was worked out before construction began. Each artisan could then refer to the drawing and find all the information they wanted, a practice already adopted by other coachbuilders like Barkers or Hoopers and advocated by The Regent Street Polytechnic School of Motor Body Building. He also persuaded management to allow his scrutiny of the bodywork prior to painting and often roadtested the finished car himself.

A pillarless saloon such as this Alvis is a tour de force of structural woodworking. There is no B pillar to add rigidity to the bodyshell itself and there was also a full length sunroof. Not only that but the windscreen opened. Vanden Plas were at the cutting edge of what was possible with ash framed bodies in the thirties and I find the effect of those "drawing room doors" opening quite breath taking.

Incredibly some Vanden Plas pillarless saloons were specified with divisions between the chauffeur and the pasengers in the back, which just goes to show that many customers were right but completely off their trolleys - didn't they understand what Bradley was trying to achieve?

Anyway, it all worked out beautifully for this car.

I had a long chat with the owners and they pointed out one or two interesting details.

The sunroof was filled in before they acquired the car in 1971. This has probably contributed to the survival of this car. With such big holes in the structure, most went the way of all things some time ago. The Alvis Owners Club believes four still survive, which is pretty good going out of half a dozen, but this is then most original example in this country. I read that as meaning that the others have been re-bodied and made more into even more sporting open top tourers or specials.

The gearbox is all-synchromesh. The world's first ever had been fitted to an Alvis 3½ litre in 1933 when General Motors was content to offer it on only top and third.

The overall condition reeks of many years of enjoyment. One day it will no doubt be restored to within an inch of its life but all those little blemishes will go and part of its history and personality will go. Once removed, you can't put back the patina brought on by the action of many loving hands.

The complicated arrangements of universal joints that sprouts out of the steering box are for the hand throttle and ignition advance controls mounted on the steering wheel. This had to be dismantled a few weeks earlier to get at the starter motor but only after the owner had taken extensive notes on what went where. He made that mistake of not doing that once before - but only once.

The engine is pretty sensational in itself. It was the biggest six-cylinder engine ever offered by Alvis and put out 137 bhp on a compression ration of 6.25:1 and with three SU carburettors. Bore and stroke were 92 x 110mm and these six cylinder engines were related to the 3½ litre, which was famous for having no fewer than 108 valve springs - 9 small coil springs arranged circumferentially around each valve instead single or double concentric ones. Kenneth Day in his book The Red Triangle states that some dry sump 4.3 litre engines were considered for use by Vickers for military use, presumably in armoured cars. What a find one of those babies would make today!

The family of Alvis sixes, which included the 3½ litre, Speed 20 and Speed 25, was the work of Captain George Thomas Smith-Clarke, an outstanding inventor/engineer who subsequently became known to many as "Mr Alvis". Money and power were of no interest to him and in later years he worked in the field of medicine following a period of illness that took him away, for a while, from his beloved workplace.

Of all the machines at the Lanlivery Show in 2009, this was the Vintage Thing that I would have liked to take home with me most of all but - in all honesty - I genuinely believe it's in the best hands and has the owners it deserves.