PIONEER IN THE WORKS

Driving the first Alvis competition car and the most original survivor of the Coventry firm's debut model

-  CHARLIE CALDERWOOD

Alvis has a big following in Japan, in case you didn't know. That's great for the preservation of the cars, as another source of funds and enthusiasm for the marque, but a slight inconvenience today, because the wooden block that is used to improvise a choke when starting this 10/30 has been left in Tokyo. Without that, a cold-start is a two-person job, with one covering the trumpet of the carburettor with their hand while the other fires the starter motor. With that, the 1.5-litre 'four' comes to life with a pronounced clatter and vibration. Crucially, however, there is an electric starter, which immediately marks this out as a 1920s car with premium aspirations.

Having purchased the wartime Coventry premises of the American Holley brothers (later known for their carburettors, fitted to numerous muscle cars) in 1919, Thomas John set about building a vehicle that would provide big-car quality with the running costs of a more compact machine. In doing so, he was part of motoring's maturation in the 1920s, as a distinct 'mid-range' was formed between the Rolls-Royces and the Ford Model Ts. John worked jobbing engineering contracts in 1919, but by 1920 he was ready to make his first car, named Alvis in part as a reference to its aluminium pistons - the Latin vis means strength. Both the name and the engine design that inspired it were acquired from Geoffrey de Freville, an ex-Bentley showroom manager and advocate of lightweight pistons.