Alvis 12/50 Grand Prix Sports 1925-1930

For 1925 the company adopted front wheel drive for racing. The first effort was a hill-climb/sprint car with a supercharged 12/50 engine mounted back to front in a very low duralumin chassis, featuring a de Dion type suspension/drive shaft design, at the front of course. It secured a class win at Shelsley Walsh. Two cars developed from this design were prepared for the 200 miles race, still with pushrod 12/50 derived engines. Harvey managed to get one into second place behind Segrave's "invincible" twin overhead camshaft Talbot-Darracq on the first lap, but brake related problems eventually defeated the Alvises. Next year Alvis retained front wheel drive, but gave up trying to beat twin ohc rivals with pushrods. The new cars had roller bearing fixed head straight eight engines with horizontal valves, the latter giving a rather odd combustion chamber shape and exhaust manifold position on top of the engine.

In the 200 miles Harvey held third place until an accident forced his retirement. These cars were built to comply with the then current 1½ litre Grand Prix formula. For 1927 the design was altered to a conventional twin overhead camshaft layout, but success again eluded these very complex cars. It was apparent that Alvis did not have the resources to develop them, and therefore they decided to concentrate on sports-car racing.

[SIZE=1]Source: alvisoc.org[/SIZE]