Alvis TA14 Duncan Sports Saloon

Surely one of the most striking Alvis silhouettes ever to grace the highway, the Duncan Alvis was launched in the summer of 1947. The brains behind the car was Ian Duncan, an aeronautical engineer who had taken over an old canning factory in North Walsham, Norfolk, to produce his own mini-car, the Duncan Dragonfly, powered by a 500cc BSA motorcycle engine. To defray the development costs of the Dragonfly (which had many innovative features later seen on the Mini), Duncan began to make a few bodies for the Donald Healey Motor Company.

 

The Reliance Garage in Norwich were Alvis agents and their sales manager, Stan Boshier, was so impressed with the prototype Healey Duncan that he asked Duncan to put a similar body on an Alvis TA14 chassis. Penned by Frank Hamblin, another refugee from the aero industry who was instrumental in the design of the Dragonfly, the body was a daring pillarless construction with a large glass area, an elegant streamlined tail with a useful luggage capacity and wide opening doors for easy rear seat access.

 

The seasoned ash frames were initially made by a firm of Norfolk boat builders and each took three weeks to assemble, using 62 pieces of wood screwed and glued together with Aerolite 300F, the resin used to bond the wooden structure of the Mosquito fighter bomber. The frames were then sent to Motor Panels of Coventry to be clad in high-tensile aluminium alloy panels.

 

Trimming and painting was done in-house back in Norfolk with extensive soundproofing and high quality wood and leather furnishings. “The combination of the Duncan body and the Alvis chassis provides standards of silence and performance which can only normally be obtained in much larger cars,” said the sales brochure.

 

The chassis and running gear were exactly the same as the TA14, the 65bhp 1,892cc four-cylinder engine being good for a top speed of 75mph and a comfortable cruising gait of 65mph. Handling was flat and responsive with Marles steering, Girling brakes and semi-elliptic springing front and rear. “This elegant sports saloon is at once outstanding, its handsome contours creating the impression (later to be convincingly demonstrated) of silent speed, superb acceleration and excellent road manners,” wrote Autocar.

 

Weighing some 2.5cwt less than the Mulliner-bodied TA14 saloon, the Duncan had spirited performance and was guaranteed to draw a crowd wherever it parked. Unfortunately such hand-built luxury did not come cheap and, at £2,205 including the dreaded purchase tax, it was almost twice the price of a standard TA14. Strictly for the well-heeled motorist only, just 27 examples were sold before Duncan Industries was forced into receivership by a £60,000 debt to HM Customs and Excise.

 

First registered in January 1948 in Norfolk as JAH 263, this particular car spent most of its early life in East Anglia before eventually moving to Ireland about three years ago. Here it stayed until earlier this year when it was brought back to England – hence the Dublin number plates in the photos which are due to be replaced by UK plates prior to the sale. Appearing to be in lovely condition throughout with a well cared for original interior, the car is said to drive beautifully and certainly ran sweetly and performed well during a brief test drive on the occasion of our visit to take these pictures.

 

It comes with many bills going right back to 1955 to show regular maintenance and had a new exhaust fitted in 2003. Also present is an original owner’s handbook, a buff continuation log book from 1956 and a book about the TA14 specially commissioned by the Alvis Owners’ Club to mark the 50^th anniversary of the model. It is believed that only 17 of these Duncan Alvis saloons survive worldwide, of which possibly only four are in roadworthy condition. Altogether a most rare, handsome and practical car that is sure to prove a great talking point wherever it goes.