News
29 January 2012
The FA Front Wheel Drive (FWD) Alvis, chassis # 6992 engine # 7602 car # 11825, was despatched byTozer,Kemsley & MillbournLtd of London on 3rd September 1928 and arrived in Sydney in December 1928. It came with an aluminium Cross & Ellis 'Le Mans replica' body and was the first production front wheel drive car to come to Australia.
The FWD Alvis is a technically ingenious car. Its 4 cylinder 1482cc engine (68mm bore x 102mm stroke) sports an overhead camshaft, driven by eleven straight-cut gears from the crankshaft. Supercharging was in its infancy but Alvis had produced Roots-style super-chargers by 1925 and now included these with the production FWD. The front brakes are located inboard of the driving half shafts, either side of the four star differential, reducing the unsprung weight. Their two leading shoes make them particularly effective. They are operated by a single cable through a brake compensating toggle. All wheels have independent suspension with quarter elliptic springs, making for a more gentle drive. To avoid heavy steering (the front wheels take the weight of the engine, transmission and drive the car), the car has separate push and pull rods for each wheel.
And these FWDs were successful. In England Alvis raced FWDs at Shelsley Walsh hill-climb, making ?Fastest Time of Day? for the 11?2 litre class and at Brooklands, setting 11?2 litre class records. FWDs won their class at the 1928 Le Mans, were second in the disputed Ulster TT, but won the 1930 Isle of Man TT. Alvis went on to make a straight 8 cylinder 11?2 litre racing car, but the 4 cylinder car was now well respected as the small sports car of the day.Alvis sold 142 of these cars between 1928 and 1930 only to then experience the Great Depression when the FWD was taken out of production. Forty of these cars still exist.
6992 was originally purchased by Canadian born Harry Taylor who, with his brother Russell, owned Advanx Tyres. He used the car as a promotion for his company. He raced the car successfully in the Royal Automobile Club trials of the day, generally winning the superchargedclass. In 1930 Taylor took 6992 to tour New Zealand and the following year to the USA and Canada, driving across the US. These trips were no doubt a combination of business promotion and the opportunity to catch up with family.
In 1936 6992 was sold to Paul Burton who raced it successfully at Penrith Speedway and in various hill climbs. In 1938 he raced it in the Australian Grand Prix, which was held for the first time at Bathurst. It was sold in 1939 to Pat Barbour who passed it on quickly to Jim Marshall, a founder member of the Vintage Sports CarClub of Australia. It then passed through the hands of highly respected sportsmen including John Crouch (1943), Jack Jeffery (1944), Alec Mildren (1947) and Clive Adams (1948), later famous for the PRAD specials he made with Jack Prior.
Clive prepared 6992 for the 1948 NSW Bathurst Grand Prix investing his last few pounds in the car. He didn't have enough money left for accommodation and slept on the riverbank. The car was flying on the first lap of the race when Clive noticed a miss in the engine down Conrod Straight. He came into the pits to find he had broken three conrods and the car was running on a single cylinder.
Why would the car fail in such a spectacular way? A clue might be in the anecdote of its wartime owner, Wal Scully (1945-7), who was a soldier with a modest salary. When he twisted an aluminium conrod, he couldn't afford to buy a new one, so he had the damaged one repaired and put it back in the engine. Was this the one that let go down Conrod Straight and caused Clive's dramatic exit?
Disgusted, Clive sold 6992 in 1948 to his friend F (Bill) Clarke, another successful racer, who was keen to make it the world's first rear-engined racing car, predating the current F1 designs by 50 years. His plan was to reverse the body, so that the engine was in the back, driving the rear wheels. Bill quickly took the car apart but never completed the project despite owning it for 17 years. In 1965 an enthusiastic Rob Gunnell took over ownership and custody of this historic car.
6922 in 1970, as Rob worked on the framework
Rob spent a year of Sundays searching for bits of 6992 in Bill's shed (a former steam laundry at Chatswood) and, having collected all he could, contacted past owners to find its history.
The original owner Harry Taylor had died but his son, Harry, provided Rob with some publicity photos of the car as new, which inspired Rob to restore it to its original condition.
Rob took 22 years to complete this goal and put 6992 back on the road in 1988, when he competed in a hill climb at Bathurst to mark 50 years of the Bathurst Grand Prix and in the same year drove it to Phillip Island to participate in the 60th anniversary of the Australian Grand Prix.
Since then Rob has proudly driven the car in international rallies, such as the Malaysian Tour in 2007, national Alvis rallies and club events. He believes its sporting features, reliable performance and comfortable driving make it a truly outstanding car of its time.?
