splateagle just posted this at the Cohort, and wonders what it is. I recognize it, but won’t spoil the fun for you.
Update: Since we’ve had two correct answers, let’s take a look at this handsome Alvis.
Alvis, another one of so many small British firms that failed to survive the huge changes in the market in the sixties. But for about ten years, from 1955 until the end in 1967, Alvis built a series of very handsome coach-built coupes and convertibles. Based on the design of a few coachbuilt Alvis by the Swiss firm Graber, but mostly built by H.J. Mulliner and Park-Ward, these 3 Liter cars were way too expensive to compete in a modern market.
Costing twice (or more) what a nice Jaguar went for, the Alvis appealed to a tiny slice of the quickly shrinking pool of upper-crust UK buyers. Alvis was actually absorbed by Rover in 1965, and plans were afoot for a Rover-V8 powered version, but it all came to naught.
Alvis 3 litre, and looks like the TD21 model. I think the Graber-designed coachwork was built by Mulliner Park Ward alongside specialist RR Silver Cloud bodies. I would guess that this particular car was first registered c 1960.
Alvis. Beat me to it.
Nice. For some reason I was thinking Facel Vega, then Nash Healey, but the taillamps were wrong. I recognize it now!
Facel Vega…….. MMmmmmmmmmmm…
I thought it was two kids stealing an old english car.
I can see how you’d think that but they’re not kids – they were a very happy looking (albeit tiny!) elderly couple out for a drive
I don’t think they would be particularly small, it actually is quite a large car. I was surprised to see one in the real world after having only seen photos.
Regarding the comment below, I’m not sure that you would call an Alvis a sportscar – more of a personal coupe in the same vein of a Riviera.
BTW, an Alvis like the black convertible above (maybe the same model) plays a major role in the 2007-2009 British television series “Kingdom”. It belongs to the main character, gets plenty of screen time and is constantly referred to by name.
By pure coincidence, the Alvis came recently to my attention when reading John LeCarre’s classic spy novel “Thinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”
Jim Prideaux, wounded in a botched operation, goes undercover with a Alvis pulling a “caravan” camper.
“The trouble with an Alvis is, no damn springs.” (Page 8)
He also rants about Communists (presumably meaning British Leyland) ending production of the last car “fit for an English gentleman.” If I recall, his was a ’58.
Now I’ll have to go watch the 1979 BBC version with Alec Guinness! A 2011 movie remake was apparently wretched.
This car is more tuxedo than Bond’s Aston!
Six cylinder luxury car, rants against communists, I’m going to read this book and then watch the BBC movie! Thanks for letting me know that the crappy 2011 movie version (whose trailer revolted me enough not to watch the movie) is not the true indicator.
BTW, the communists were (still are?) in the British Government. When the Liberals and Conservatives run a Govt. together, you’ve got to seriously question how liberal one is and how conservative the other. But the 60s-70s Govt in Britain had a big role through omission and commission in the demise of the world’s second largest auto industry (the only major survivor seems JCB? whose founder died in tax exile), unlike the paternalistic fascists in the West German and Japanese Empires.
I love the idea of a sports car pulling a trailer! I think my (modern, American) take on it would be: Mustang 5.0 pulling an Airstream Bambi!
Hey, its a *British* sports car! They were known for their brute power, nicknamed `trucks’ by Ettore Bugatti himself (regarding a certain pesky Bentley). I absolutely love the idea of a lazy six cylinder torque bomb haulin’ at great speeds and great silence in perfectly balanced, vibration-free comfort with a live rear axle for heavy-duty luggage. Seriously, look up a vintage Bentley Le Mans recreation video and turn up the volume. *That*, my friend, is a sports car. Not the high strung whistling buzz bombs that are gutless below 3000rpm, and can’t haul a chicken. Formula 1 favours such ridiculous designs, and in general the motoring press loves them. European racing sorely needs British motors to show them how its done.
OK. Enough waxing poetic for now. Just had to say it. Almost my dream situation.
YAY! Thanks Paul, good to know what it was.
They’re certainly nimble things – the elderly chap driving it seemed to be enjoying himself enormously.
I got a chance to see one of these (also a hardtop, in a lovely cobalt blue) close up at a British car show a few years ago. It’s a very pretty car and quite large by British standards (I don’t have the specs handy, but if I recall it’s about the size of a late-sixties Dodge Dart), but when I saw the notation on the owner’s information card about the engine I think I blanched. Granted, we’re spoiled these days by fuel injection and variable valve timing, but 115 gross horsepower for a car of that size — and, more to the point, that price — seems outlandish today. A Jaguar seems like it would have been a much better deal.