Alvis Items
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Sir,
I was interested to read Mr. Howlett’s letter about the 1926 Alvis Rally and Race Meeting organised at Brooklands. The first of these was held as early as 1923, apparently the first of the one make rallies held at Brooklands and 150 AM attended. Whether these were held every year I have not yet discovered but the 1926 meeting was well reported in the motoring Press. Equally clearly Major Harvey was away competing at Shelsley Walsh and did not appear at the meeting. Paul Dutoit did and gave a line exhibition of trick driving in the 1924 Alvis racing car, 2931, so beautifully restored and raced in recent seasons by Eric Benlield. A picture of Dutoit savaging his Alvis appears in the recent series of articles written by Eric in the Alvis Register Bulletin. Dutoit also ran in the last race as a noncompetitor and won from the scratch position. The reports of the meeting make no mention of the All-Comers’ race won, Mr. Howlet recalls, by a Graham-Paige tourer.
Henlys repeated the event in 1927, with eight events plus Dutoit again trying to remove his tyres at 35 m.p.h. The third of these was open to any car and featured many well-known names, like T. V. Carson in a Paige. Thanks to Bill Urquhart-Dykes I have a copy of the original race programme and it makes fascinating reading. From this I ,found the complete name of the first owner of a 12/50 I am struggling to restore and found it had even won a Brooklands third place in the stopping and staffing event in the programme. Sadly when I eventually tracked down the first owner from this information I was exactly two months late as he had just died. Can I appeal to anyone else who has copies of the programmes for Alvis Day at Brooklands, which were held from at least 1923 on, to please get in touch so that copies can be made ? While on the subject of records, the Staffordshire Record Office in Stafford has not long ago rescued the original works records for Dorman petrol engines of the Edwardian and Vintage periods, If one has the relevant engine number quite a lot of information can be obtained from these records, about the car in question as well as the engine. I will happily supply further details or particular information if people will provide the particular engine number.
Keele HUGH TORRENS