YESTERDAY, R&T JANUARY 1959 INTRODUCED US to the 1932 Alvis Speed 20. Today in Part 2 we review this luxurious Brit four-seat tourer with tidbits gleaned from R&T’s Classic Road Test No. 24, not an actual road test, but one synthesized from 1930’s material. Think, sorta, a 2024 double-barrel time machine.
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Picture R&T—and Us—Back in May 1932: R&T wrote, “It may be true that the new Alvis Speed 20 model, introduced a few months ago, was designed and built in only a few weeks’ time. Yet here is a car with which it is extremely difficult to find fault. To be fair, all the major components except the frame rails are more or less development of the Silver Eagle series, and the engine is basically the 1927 model with its bore increase by 4 millimeters.
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See Part 1 for details of the Alvis’s triple-carbed complex-valve-spring ohv six.
An Alvis/Chevy Analysis. “In our opinion,” R&T assessed, “the biggest drawback to this car is undoubtedly the smallness of its powerplant in relation to the machine’s overall size, weight and price. A piston displacement of just over 2.5 liters is well under the current Chevrolet’s 3.18 liters, for example, yet the Alvis is 700 pounds heavier. Nevertheless the Speed 20 has its share of surprises, not the least of which is its ability to outperform our lowest-price 6 by a substantial margin.”
R&T analyzes why: “This feat has been accomplished by virtue of a very efficient powerplant which develops 72 brake horsepower and runs smoothly at very high revolutions. Consequently the Alvis uses a 4.778:1 axle ratio as compared to the Chevrolet’s 4:11, a difference which more than offsets the Alvis’s weight but one which entails an engine speed of 4400 revolutions per minute when an honest 82 miles per hour has been attained. This is of course a good 10 mph faster than the Chevrolet….”
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A Quick Mover. “Acceleration from a standstill is also surprising,” R&T reported. “Four close-ratio forward speeds are provided and remarkably quick upshifts can be made with only a slight clunk. The engine, which peaks at 4200 rpm, will not begin to approach the 6000 figure claimed. It will exceed 4500 comfortably, with 5000 available if pressed really hard. We used 4500 rpm as a rev limit during the standing start tests, as acceleration falls off rapidly at anything over that rate.”
An Audible Tradeoff. “The engine is quiet and smooth,” R&T wrote, “and the absence of fan buzz is appreciated, even though the engine temperature rises rather high when the engine is idling. Unfortunately the gears (except for 3rd) are quite noisy and, when used to best advantage, tend to offset the good qualities of the engine. Fuel consumption drops to 13 miles per gallon when the car is driven fairly hard and never gets better than 15 mpg under any conditions.”
Geez, the Speed 20 was a luxurious/sporty piggy.
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Sporty Steering; Sensitive Front End. “The steering by Marles-Weller is extraordinarily good, a little heavy around town, and definitely in the true sports car tradition. We found that the front wheels must be balanced accurately to avoid shake between 50 and 70 mph, but once this is done, the higher figure is a comfortable cruising speed.”
Quite the cruising speed for 1932.
Chassis Maintenance. R&T reported, “Roadholding and ride proved to be exceptionally good, and there were no signs of squeaks or rattles. In this connection, the Bijur chassis lubrication system (as used by Auburn, Cord, Packard and others) is a real asset, provided the owner-driver remembers a) to use it, and b) to keep the reservoir filled.”
R&T’s 1932/1959 Conclusion: “More ‘sports’ than ‘family,’ the Alvis should be brought into this country with a somewhat shorter chassis, considerably less weight, and left-hand drive. But in its present form it is a high-quality machine and one that definitely lives up to its good name.”
However that name evolved. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024