Heading to Auction: 1940 Alvis 12/70 Competition
Image: Silverstone Auctions
In the days before global marques dominated the racing landscape, brave and creative racers took cars with promise and turned them into the fierce race cars which created the motorsport history we celebrate today.
This Alvis 12/70, heading to auction at Silverstone Auctions’ Silverstone Classic Sale, is one such machine.
Introduced in 1937 the Alvis 12/70 came in two variants – a sports saloon and four-seater drophead coupe. Only 741 of them were made, and each featured a 1842cc overhead valve engine with aluminium alloy block and three-bearing crankshaft. These produced a monstrous 63 and a half bhp.
The Alvin’s chassis quickly gained respect for its handling and balance, which lead to a lot of the cars being re-bodied with sports racing bodies and prepared for racing. To up the oompf on this particular car it was fitted with a six-cylinder Alvis Silver Crest overhead valve 2763cc engine and wrapped in a home-designed body.
In the most recent of its eight decades of services, the car was campaigned in National hillclimbs and International races by prolific VSCC driver member Robin Everall, who designed and built its body himself, and earned the car a great reputation and successful race history.
The Alvin won at Mallory Park, Silverstone, Prescott and the two-hour sports car relay race at Donnington Park. In 2009 it received the ‘Ruth Holbert Memorial Trophy’ – the highest racing award an Alvis can hope to achieve – after accumulating a record haul of championship points, and in 2010 it received the ‘Silver Con-Rod Trophy’ for best presented car by the VSCC.
In magnificent condition, rare, exhilarating and sold complete with a monumental spares collection, exhaustive specification, comprehensive history file, photographic record and even instructions on starting and running the car specific to the type of competition, this is a magnificent vintage racer which we would love to see go to a good home and heading out to the track again soon.
Images via Silverstone Auctions
