The Bonkers’ Alvis, history and exciting news

In which Sid tells the tale of the long awaited Alvis being built for long distance rallies, adventures and tarting around.

Ten years and more ago Sid and Doris started to compete on long distance road rallies. In fair Cordoba, where we lay our scene, at the start of the 2015 Sahara Challenge there are pre-war Bentleys, Talbots, Vauxhall 30/90s, Lagondas as well as Rolls and old Coupes as seen below.

Sid and Doris are in awe of these people, they having brought along an Opel Kadett C Coupé more at home among the TR4s, Datsun 240s, Amazons, a London to Mexico replica Escort and a Mini that looks like a flying pea.

It turns out that the pre-war drivers, largely post-war themselves, are a welcoming bunch, having a lot of fun and would welcome some more vintage competition. Doris is lured in.

Sid does some homework, finding that proper Bentleys are vairy expensive to buy and ruinous to maintain though certainly handsome, as seen here in the Jebel el Fna, Marrakech.

The nimble, prewar BMW 328 has everything to recommend it except the price – maybe £600,000. A later road test of Joe Robillard’s Chevrolet Coupe finds these are charismatic but like driving a surprisingly fast bouncy castle. Here it’s seen, after its Peking to Paris run, on the start at Prescott hill climb, where the Bonkers’ Alvis must surely go.

Sid begins to think an Alvis 4.3 might be a good answer, as they were the first 100mph production saloons and had synchromesh on the four forward gears. They were popular with police forces and managed 0-60mph in 10 seconds, which was still quite handy even in the 1970s. The standing quarter was measured at 18 seconds.

This is what the handsome £1,095 4.3 saloon looked like.

Sid and Doris think having a car built will make for a more reliable rally car than buying second hand. So, S and D start to talk to Earley Engineering about the spec for a sturdy road rally car fit for The Alpine Trial, definitely not optimised for Peking to Paris. But first, is it nice to drive and second will it look good queued up for the ferry?

Above, a cheery Doris getting out of a touring bodied 4.3 after a very short drive that proves that it is quite punchy, doesn’t need revs, pulls to maybe 4,000rpm and has a turning circle much, much greater than Doris’s Triumph Spitfire. So, yes and yes.

What have they bought? This is chassis 13649 of DPP 59, the 1937 Charlesworth bodied 4.3 Saloon (like the 1936 saloon above) bought new by William Norman Birkett when he was the Director of Public Prosecutions. When new it was dark green with black wheels and green leather interior. The chassis has been owned by the Simpsons (who run Earley Engineering) since the early 1980s. Its hour had come, March 2020, pretty much the day the UK locked down for Covid. S and D are told it will take about eighteen months to build.

The chassis will be shortened (Alex’s hands show you by how much and where) for nimbleness on alpine roads. For the same reason there will be no heavy running boards to ground on the inside of hairpins. Note the independent front suspension, better than a beam axle but not much travel. The back axle was later used in a small tank. Sturdy, but these really hate speed bumps.

A six-cylinder 3.5 litre engine will be rebuilt into a 4,387cc unit with an original cast crankcase but newly poured alloy block and head with three SUs. A Silver Crest gearbox has been sourced that will require a bespoke bell housing. There will be a hydraulic clutch with external slave cylinder. (Remember we were stranded in fair Verona when the concentric Tilton unit failed on the car borrowed for Ypres to Istanbul? This does not require a ramp or gearbox removal to replace.)

For rougher events or racing there will be a demountable cage to work with six point harnesses and FIA competition seats. Sid expects purists to disparage these precautions, but S and D intend to live for ever.

Sid and Doris optimistically entered their Alvis for the October 2021 Carrera Italia but Teal stepped into the breach and revelled in this posh company.

Below a picture from early 2022 where we have a rolling chassis.

From the front, an original bonnet. To the right of the bonnet, that big frame will carry a spare wheel – one each side. The bulkhead into which the steering column disappears is cast aluminium. The steering wheel has to be large because the power-steering is by Armstrong. It is a fine old joke and quite true. The drum brakes are very large and will work with a combination of hydraulic and wire rope actuation. The brakes on the car we were lent for Ypres to Istanbul were quite effective if given a hearty push.

Originally the bodywork would have been wrapped around ash frames but that will not like being rattled over Moroccan piste roads. Here you can see steel, rather than ash, giving shape to the suicide doors and the rear of the car in which a 120 litre petrol tank. The wheels are 19” with Dunlop race tyres. The trough at the back will take the hood for a non-pram look. The round tube is part of the cage.

We now leap forward four years to late May 2026.  Say it slowly…

On Friday 29th May 2026 S and D go to Earley Engineering to drive a very nearly finished car.

This is the pretty side of the long engine with bronze body Skinners Union carbs. The radiator grille hides a proper ali radiator with electric fans. The cooling is helped with a big electric water pump that sounds like your washing machine. The header tank is the elegant oval on the bulkhead above the Filter King. We don’t want it getting hot. The other side of the engine bay is less romantic with a modern alternator, starter motor and Lumenition box.  It will be approved for Vintage Sports Car Club events but it is a RestoMod.

The car had already been out. The first customer outing is with Alex instructing Sid how to drive. The key lesson is that the brakes are only operating across about a third of their shoes. Leave a vairy long braking zone, use engine braking, look a long way ahead, do nothing brave. There are no belts. Sid is not afraid.

Then nothing will do but Sid and Doris must take the flivver to Abergavenny, first down narrow country lanes and then the main A465 past Llanvihangel Crucorney around the mega A40 gyratory at Abergavenny and home. Those 44 miles add about 40% to the car’s mileage.

Doris isn’t afraid, as well. The temporary mirror shows nothing and the windscreen mirrors will be delivered when we get back to base. The long throw gearbox is very ‘positive’. That means that you need a left arm like a hydraulic ram. Sid only makes one scrunchy sound. It can’t be rushed.

The speedo is on Doris’s phone. This proves that we will have no trouble keeping up with traffic. When distance to the car in front allows Sid gives the long stroke engine a little squeeze. In fourth it just pulls. Third will be quite vivid. It’s a warm day, the oil pressure and engine temperature gauges (on Doris’s side of the car) stay in bounds. The nav instruments are in the right place.

Sid assists with the running in of the brake shoes with some left footing. Doris reports a bit of a smell. It might be the brakes. A tractor pulls out, Sid shoves the brakes really hard and scrubs off several miles an hour. No tractors were harmed in the making of this journey.

And so back to the works to talk about nav’s foot bar, clutch footrest and raising the floor under the pedals. Then team photos and plans to return in a couple of weeks for two days of driving in the Welsh Marches.

S and D have entered Rally the Globe’s El Clavel pre-war only rally that starts in Oviedo on 13th September 2026 after a 1,200 kilometre cruise down through France and Spain.

It’s going to be great.