SYDNEY.- The
Mossgreen auction at Carriageworks, Sydney on Sunday 28th May features some 20 interesting cars, none more so than the two Alvis cars with stories to tell.
The 1954 Alvis Graber TA21G Coupé estimated to sell for A$140,000 – 160,000 is an original right hand drive delivered as a rolling chassis by Alvis to the distinguished Swiss coachbuilder Herman Graber.
The car was displayed painted white and with disc wheels at the 1954 Geneva Motor Show. It sold to a Swiss businessman who agreed to let Graber show it again in 1955, the price being a change of colour to bronze with wire wheels as it is today.
In the 1960s car returned to Graber as a trade-in. Fitted with a tow bar and used as the factory run about. Graber died in 1970. In 1975 British Alvis expert Nick Simpson discovered the car under a dustsheet in Madame Graber’s garage in Berne. He subsequently bought the car and in his 20 years as owner carried out a full restoration.
The car then sold at auction in 1996 and spent the next ten years in a private museum in Saudi Arabia. It was purchased by its current owner in 2007.
ALVIS HEALEY WITH FILM STAR CREDENTIALS
The sale also includes a 1953 Alvis Healey barn find. This right hand drive car is one of only 25 built and was owned by a polo playing socialite who dated the film starlet Ava Norring. The car has not been seen since 1988 and needs total restoration. It is estimated to sell for A$35,000 – 40,000.
This rather special Alvis Healey has been resident in Australia since 1988 and was discovered in a barn-find condition.
It is chassis # G-516, number 16 of just 25 cars built. It has matching numbers, original key and bill of sale.
Originally sold by Brewsters of Long Island, New York to Leverett Saltonstall Miller, a wealthy polo player who was married to Hollywood actress Ava Norring (1929 –2016).
In 1954 her friend Barbara Nichols was injured in a car accident when being driven by Miller, resulting in Nichols suing them.
This three-litre Healey sports convertible had an Alvis in-line 6-cylinder engine. Bodywork was designed by Gerry Croker who later designed the Austin Healey 100. It is one of the first British sports cars to have locks on the doors.
Alvis cars are described as the “original supercar” and Autocar in 1938 complimented the marque,saying: ”In the scheme of things there are cars, good cars and supercars, the Alvis falls definitively into the latter category.”
With almost 100 years of engineering experience Alvis first established itself as a top car maker and then diversified into the defence and aero industries. The cars are famed for their bespoke design, high performance delivery, luxury style and craftsmanship and world class engineering. Based in Coventry in the UK, they were produced from 1919 to 1967. Innovation was central to the marque’s allure. These cars were elegant and full of trechical innovations offering independent front suspension and the world’s first synchomesh gearbox in 1933. This was followed by servo-assisted brakes, front wheel drive, overhead camshaft and a type of supercharger. These were cars for the discerning driver.
