Coys Auction - True Greats
Royal Horticultural Halls
Elverton St
Westminster
London SW1
Tuesday 7 December 2010
By the 1930s Alvis had established a reputation for producing fast and beautifully built motor cars that also proved very competitive in motor sport. It was the 12/50 model of 1923 that really set the company on the road to success after a win in the Brooklands 200 mile race the same year with a sports model, after which there was a perceptible jump in sales figures. Alvis was thus enabled to survive a rocky period ( it had been in receivership), and by late 1929 it was prospering with healthy sales figures and the launch of the six cylinder Silver Eagle model. Two years later a new breed of Alvis appeared as the Speed 20, powered by an enlarged 2,511cc Silver Eagle engine and, for 1934, a synchromesh gearbox, the latter the first such fitment to a British car.
This superb example of the highly regarded post-Vintage Silver Eagle carries very desirable Cross and Ellis 3 positi