Mossgreen Australia to auction rare Alvises

The Mossgreen auction at Carriageworks, Sydney, on Sunday May 28, will feature some 20 interesting vehicles, but none more so than the two Alvis cars with stories to tell.

First to go under the hammer will be a 1954 Alvis Graber TA21G coupé, which is estimated to sell for A$140K to A$160K. The original righthand-drive car was delivered as a rolling chassis by Alvis to the distinguished Swiss coachbuilder Hermann Graber, for the finished car to be displayed, painted white and with disc wheels, at the 1954 Geneva Motor Show before it was sold to a Swiss businessman. It was traded back to Graber and used as a factory runabout.

Following Graber’s death, in 1975, British Alvis expert Nick Simpson discovered the car under a dust sheet in Madame Graber’s garage. He bought the car and spent 20 years carrying out a full restoration. It was sold at auction in 1996 for an undisclosed amount, then spent the next 10 years in a private museum in Saudi Arabia. The current owner purchased it in 2007 and has decided to put it on the block once again.

Second up is an Alvis-healey barn-find. Again a right-handdrive car, this time from the 1953 model year, it is one of only 25 built and was owned by a polo-playing socialite who dated the film starlet Ava Norring. It disappeared in 1988 after originally being sold by Brewsters of Long Island, New York. It was discovered in Australia in a barn-find condition, with chassis number G-516, making it the 16th of just 25 cars built — and with the original key and bill of sale.

This 3.0-litre Healey sports convertible had an Alvis in-line six-cylinder engine, with bodywork designed by Gerry Croker, who later designed the Austin-healey 100. It is also one of the first British sports cars to have locks on the doors. In need of total restoration, it is estimated to sell for A$35K to A$40K.