Actually, and to be honest, I think it’s a good rather than great Alvis: its six-cylinder engine is a nice idea but it rather unbalances the car and is in some ways too much for it. If you tried to get away quickly on a grippy surface it would snap its half shafts – I know, I did it – and it was quick to boil too, which is rather less forgivable than it was in the Speed 20 hot rod mentioned above.
The reason was simply that the Silver Eagle was based on 12/50 with its little four-cylinder engine. And this is the 12/50, at least of those Alvis I’ve driven, that to me best sums up all that is good about the marque. Indeed, if I think about the car that best captures my image of what a sporting British vintage car should be, it is always an open 12/50 tourer with polished aluminium body that comes to mind. That eager engine, the challenging gearbox which is so rewarding when you get it right, the enthusiastic handling, the great looks… it’s all there. And for so much less money than you might expect.
Someone I know once rather disparagingly dismissed such cars as being ‘a 3.0-litre Bentley for those who can’t afford a 3.0-litre Bentley’. But albeit for entirely the wrong reasons, he was completely right. A good 12/50 does most things nearly as well as a standard 3.0-litre (and has much nicer steering) but is available for a fraction of the money. And that, surely, is a good thing.
Le Mans image courtesy of Motorsport Images.