Forgotten Hero

Alvis TB14

Although a new post-war policy saw Alvis produce just one type of chassis, its Fourteen of 1946 would be fitted with a variety of different bodies. The ‘standard’ Mulliners TA14 was a 65bhp four-cylinder four-light saloon, accompanied by Carbodies and Tickford drophead coupés, as well as the TB14 seen here in our photos.

It was designed by FJ Bidee, who drew inspiration from an Alvis Special developed by industrialist and racing driver, Pierre Goldschmid, which, like the Earls Court Show car, hid its headlamps behind the grille; a feature revised for the production TB14. The aforementioned beauty parlour and cocktail cabinet were also given the boot.

Getting the TB14 into production proved to be a challenge, with a number of coachbuilders – including King and Taylor of Godalming and Richard Mead at Dorridge – all unable to produce bodies at a price (and to a standard) that Alvis found satisfactory. By the summer of 1949, things were getting desperate, until AP Metalcraft of Coventry signed a contract to produce 100 examples.

It wasn’t until 1950 that those cars rolled off the production lines, by which time the fervour that Alvis had originally generated at the 1948 Motor Show was a distant memory. Rather than building further examples, Alvis replaced the TB14 with the 90bhp six-cylinder TB21, complete with traditional upright grille. Unfortunately, it was was even more expensive and by this point completely overshadowed by Jaguar’s XK120 sports car, so it too failed to garner much interest.

Most TB14s were exported to the Far East and Australia – hence why ours is right-hand drive, as are about three-quarters of cars. Today, the Alvis Owner Club (alvisoc.org) reports that more than half of the 100 produced still survive, an assertion echoed by Richard Joyce, managing director of marque specialist, Red Triangle.