Phil’s History:

Peter completed this technical document at the age of 90 and sent it to me for typing only a month or two before he died, which was some days after the November 2002 meeting of Puddles at the White Horse at Sutton, Sussex. There is some symmetry about this because Peter’s life-long connection with Bill Dykes came about purely on account of motor-racing - his sister Winifred Lord had (in the 1920s) sold her house to a known motor-racing driver (Bill Dykes) and so she invited Bill Dykes (whom she otherwise did not know) to dinner to meet her New Zealand motor-racing friend, (Sir) Bill Hamilton, who was visiting England at the time, and at that dinner, Bill Dykes also met (the then-teenage) Peter Lord.

Bulletin of the 12/50 Alvis Register

A Time of Transition: 1926 and 1927

1. Limitations and Acknowledgements

This article is drawn largely from memories of and frequent discussions with my long term friend and professional partner Bill Urquhart Dykes. At the advanced age of 90 I am computer illiterate and my short-range eyesight precludes any access to web sites. I am indebted in particular to The Vintage Alvis 2^nd edition (TVA2), to Norman Johnson and his volume on Alvis Publicity (AP) from which I quote page numbers, and to John Burnell’s database, Stanley Paine, Michael Jacklin, and Adrian Daley.

1. Definitions and Generalisations

The terms Duck’s Back (DkB) and Beetle Back (BtB) are now accepted. As I shall be discussing wing shapes I will refer to the side elevation of the model. The angled slanting wings of DkBs are straight front and rear; other models especially the SDs had partially straight front and close fitting rear. See TVA2 pp 484 and 485.

An article such as this will be bound to contain (and suffer from) generalisations. Skilled researchers will relish the opportunity to point out exceptions. Nevertheless I set out below a few:

1. the period 1926 – 1929 was a time of transition for Alvis;
2. publicity material for new models, especially drawings for advertisements, was random and misleading in many cases;
3. of the two main coachbuilders, Carbodies (CBD) and Cross & Ellis (C&E), it was sports models such as DkBs, BtBs, Doctors’ Coupes and Saloons which CBD produced, whereas C&E concentrated on four and two seaters, coupes and saloons.

NB. In 1924 there were two early DkBs from C&E and a few non-sporting saloons from Carbodies.

Big Port Heads, by which I mean those sold commercially on SDs, were not introduced until late 1926. Distinguish this from heads with enlarged and otherwise fettled ports and chambers used by works racing cars and a few private owners pre-1926.

1. My Long Association with Bill and Ruth Urquhart Dykes

Bill and Ruth lived in the 1920s at Ealing, in a house formerly owned by my elder sister. It was a few hundred yards away from the house where I was born. On my way into the town or to school, I used to pass Bill and Ruth’s house and, like any schoolboy, look at their Alvis which often stood in their front garden. For several years it was a (to me) comparatively sober wide bodied two seater, but when running it had a wonderful 12/50 engine sound. It was their first Alvis, MF 4557. It was a 1924 SA (see para 4 later).

Then one day, early in 1927 there was a beautiful new Alvis namely WM 47 (William) in grey livery with red wheels – soon to be changed to green and black. It was one of the first five BtBs produced. During 1927 and 1928 I used to follow their racing and trials in the motoring press but it was not until 1929 – the year they stopped racing – that I got to know them personally. My sister, from whom they had bought  their house, had spent 1925 and 1926 in New Zealand, on the sheep station of a friend, Bill (later Sir William) Hamilton, a skilled engineer and keen motorist. He had a pre-first-war Sunbeam which he raced at Murawai. On coming to England in 1929 Bill Hamilton bought a  4.5 litre Bentley, and wanted to race at Brooklands. He asked my sister to introduce him to Bill Urquhart Dykes and they came to dinner with us. Hamilton showed some cine films of  the 1929 Le Mans race. Ruth then took Bill Hamilton to Brooklands and showed him the track etc – both Bill and Ruth were members of the newly formed BRDC. The Bentley was also given the once over by Bill U-D and entered for races at Easter 1930.

That meeting was my first visit to Brooklands. Ruth managed Bill Hamilton’s pit. He entered and won three races but I particularly remember Ruth giving him an unexpected rocket when he returned to his pit after winning the first race by several hundred yards. “Ebby will penalise you severely for that!” she said. He was re-handicapped but took care to reduce his winning margin in subsequent races.

My other memory is of standing on the Members’ Bridge during one of Tim Birkin’s fastest laps. How I got there I cannot recall, but Bill Urquhart Dykes was a BARC official that day and probably took me there. The sight and sound of the great single seater Bentley was unforgettable.

Bill’s decision to give up racing in 1929 was in order to build up his Patent Agent’s practice. Ruth considered it would not be fair for her to continue and herself followed suit despite offers of drives from Alvis, Riley and Lagonda. She did drive a big Lagonda in a Concours D’Elegance at Brooklands. It was not a car which impressed me when she took me out in it.

Bill and Ruth soon became family friends and during the next two years while I was at Cambridge I saw a lot of them. Bill advised my father to buy a Talbot 75, a car which I greatly loved. He also ran his hands over my 1921 G.N., bought for £2.10/- in bits from a Cambridge garage`which specialised in that breed and had a pile of G.N. bits. The proprietor, Max Meadows, said that for the princely sum of fifty shillings I could pick over the heap and build myself a vehicle. With the help of a friend I did, and the resulting vehicle covered some 2,000 miles until I sold it – for £5! The G.N. was followed by a four rocker Salmson circa 1923 vintage, to which Bill U-D helped me fit a Singer 7 front axle with brakes.

During these years WM 47 was now retired from competition and being used as a road car. I was taught to drive William and even learned to snap change with the excellent clutch stop. I could never do it nowadays! We used to go to Cornwall where Bill and Ruth were building a cottage at Constantine Bay, near Padstow. On one of these trips I achieved my first 80 mph driving William on the Honiton to Ilminster road.

At Cambridge I had read Classics and Architecture, intending to join the family firm of Architects and Interior Decorators. However, my father died of a stroke while on a holiday in Cornwall in 1934 and the prospect of an architectural future became less appealing. Discussing this with Bill U-D in 1935, he told me that he was looking for a technical assistant in his Patent Agent’s practice and he suggested that I might be interested. After a six weeks trial in his office I found it fascinating. I became an articled pupil to Bill and under his tuition passed my exams and qualified as a Chartered Patent Agent in 1939.

In 1933, when Ruth was visiting her sister in Somerset, she stopped behind a stationary Daimler just outside Sparkford. She was stationary, with the handbrake off, when an Austin 20 rammed William from behind and thrust the Alvis into the Daimler, puncturing the rear tank of that car. The Austin suffered a damaged radiator, and William, the meat in the sandwich, had a distorted chassis, becoming appreciably rhomboidal. Nevertheless, William, the only driveable vehicle, was driven home to Ealing by Ruth while the other two cars were hors de combat.

In those days, pre-Register, restoration to original specification was not contemplated so Bill got a later chassis from Alvis and took the opportunity of the rebuild to change to inboard exhaust and an S.U. carburettor. I helped him carry out much of this work during a long vacation from Cambridge.

So far as I can trace or recollect, the only time that William went off the road or track, was not during his competition life but after he had retired.

My father, who was staying with Bill, Ruth and myself on the site of their cottage in Constantine Bay, then being built, had a major stroke. My elder brother, Wilfrid, was staying with his fiancée at Hexworthy, on Dartmoor. Bill immediately set off in William to fetch him, and travelling at what I am sure was a seriously illegal speed, hit a patch of fresh cow manure at the bottom of a dip near Davidstowe whereupon William followed the startled cows through an open gate and pulled up in the field undamaged.

In about 1934, on the advice of Kensington Moir, Bill bought a Railton Fairmile Coupe, as being more suitable for trips to and from their cottage in Cornwall. Sadly they parted with William, never dreaming that over forty years later he would be so faithfully restored to competition condition by Adrian Daley and his father. About this time, Bill provided Anthony Powys-Lybbe with particulars and drawings of the dry sump system used on William.

When war broke out Bill, ex-R.F.C. pilot, joined the R.A.F. as a technical officer, and I joined the R.A.F.V.R., and Ruth joined the F.A.N.Y. as a driver.

After the war Bill took me into partnership, forming the firm of Urquhart-Dykes and Lord.

We had lost track of William until in the 1970s we heard from Adrian Daley that he had acquired and was restoring the car. Bill gave him some information and in particular modified a 12/50 gear lever to correspond with the one he had used when racing. Unfortunately Bill never saw the restored William before his death, but later Adrian brought the car to Cobham, where Ruth and I were living, and she was able to drive it for a short distance.

As their executor, I passed their competition memorabilia to Adrian Daley and the 12/50 Register. However I recently came across some notes written by Bill shortly before his death when he was sorting out his Alvis papers. The recent article “TG or not TG” has stimulated me to rack my elderly memory and also carry out a little research into the points Bill raised. These were:

1. why did Harvey recommend Bill to buy William as being a particularly good car?
2. who had tried the car between 5^th and 13^th January 1937 and rejected it because “it would not go”?
3. why was William’s bodywork different from other SD 12/50 BtBs?
4. were big port heads available to “works” cars before coming onto the market in the SD 12/50?

I will try to deal with these queries below.

1. How Bill Came to Acquire WM 47

The successful campaigning by Bill and Ruth of their first Alvis, MF 4557 had not gone unnoticed by the company. That car was a wide-bodied two-seater, maroon in colour with wire wheels. An SA12/50. Their first recorded use of the car was Bill’s gold in the Lands End of 1924 on April 18^th/19^th.

Ruth’s performance in the JCC High Speed Trial at Brooklands on 05.06.1926 (TVA 2 p. 172) and Bill’s second place in the 1500 Class of the 1926 Production Car Race (TVA 2 p. 180) using a DkB body borrowed from Alvis, behind Maurice Harvey who drove probably the earliest BtB (TVA 2 p. 179), caused Harvey to advise Bill to acquire William.

William was received from Carbodies on 5^th January 1927 and despatched to Henlys on 13.01.1927 on which date they sold it to Bill. According to Harvey, it was an excellent car which had been rejected by the first person to try it because “it would not go”. This must have been between 5^th and 13^th January. We have no record of the man who rejected William but the Registration letters WM are a Southport registration.

Bill never enquired from Harvey who the person was that had rejected William. However, Stanley Paine has suggested, and I agree, that William may have been ordered by one of the regular Alvis drivers who raced at Southport. Possibly between 5^th January 1927 and 13^th January, the Alvis agent at Southport, who I believe was named Hall, may have registered William. Perhaps the first recipient had expected the big port head to provide a noticeable difference from the small port head, and had been disappointed. Anyway, William was passed back to Alvis and on to Henlys, who sold it to Bill on 13^th January.

Bill kept MF 4557 until December 1927. Its final competition entry was in April 1927 when Bill got a Silver in the High Speed Trial at Brooklands. He did not keep any record of its subsequent history but thanks to research by Stanley Paine, I can show that MF 4557 was an SA 12/50, delivered to Bill on 1^st February 1924, and sold by him in December 1927. The last recorded owner is C.H. Rowe of Plymouth. It had a special engine – see TVA 2 p.179.

As sold to Bill, William was grey with black wings and red wheels. The wings are distinctive, if not unique on an SD, by being DkB in elevation but domed in cross section. This may be seen from TVA 2, plate 110, p.230 by comparison with the usual SD 12/50 wings as shown on plate 111.

The fact that Bill was chosen to drive William in the Works team in the 1928 Essex six hours race, alongside Sammy and Maurice both with “new” cars, reinforces my view that William had been originally prepared and tuned by the Works.

The only other SD 12/50 BtB that I can trace with a second spare wheel under the tail is the one driven by Harvey in the Georges Boillot Cup race at Boulogne in 1927, (TVA2 p 207). This was one of the very few races in which William misbehaved, retiring at Le Wast with clutch trouble.

Also, unlike other SDs, William carried a second spare wheel DkB fashion under the tail, TVA 2 plate 131 p.258.

This photo, incidentally, shows Ruth out on an early morning practice at Boulogne, with unclosed roads, and carrying Tat as a passenger. Coming over one of the blind humpbacks on that road, at well over 80 m.p.h., Ruth found a loose herd of cattle wandering across the road. No time to brake, but being country-bred in the west of Ireland and accustomed to cattle, she chose a gap and shot through unhindered. Turning to Tat to comment she found him cowering under the dash, where he had taken cover.

5. Transition from Duck to Beetle

To upset a generalization, the earliest DkB that I can trace in AP, is from C&E (AP p. 46) and has straight front and close-fitting rear wings. Incidentally the last DkB that I can trace is from CBD namely Frank Gilbert’s 1927 TG 12/50 illustrated on page 34 of the Bulletin Winter 2000/1. That car also has the raised beading, normally typical of DkBs from CBD, which for convenience I call the waistline, running the length of the body. There was thus an overlap between DkBs and BtBs in 1926/7.

Harvey’s car in the July 1936 production car race is the earliest BtB I can trace. As it ran stripped I cannot ascertain the wing profiles. However car No.9906, a BtB, was received back from CBD on 29.9.26 and despatched to Henlys on 12.10.1926. This was probably the Show car in 1926.

It is fortunate that a number of the earliest BtBs have survived and are in good hands. So far I have traced:

Reg. No.Car No.Engine Ex Works Comment

PY 6092 9906704012.10.1926 Probably a show car.

ER 6912 10057508118.12.1926 Well restored from scrap               

 by M. Jacklin.

WM 47 10120513513.01.1927 Ex-Urquhart Dykes.

Well restored by Adrian Daley.

TX 2177 10182516314.01.1927 Well restored by Frith.

1. Wing Profiles

Apart from the earliest DkB which I can find advertised, namely a C&E shown in AP p.46, and an advertisement in the Light Car of May 6 1922, and which has straight sloping front and close fitting rear wings, the majority of DkBs have straight sloping front and rear wings. Compare these with the usual SD 12/50 BtBs with straight sloping front and close fitting rear wings. See TVA 2 p.484, where the 1928 Alvis brochure shows both BtB and DkB despite the fact that DkBs were seldom, if ever, produced after 1927.

During this period Alvis publicity brochures and drawings in their and Henlys’ advertisements are vague and often misleading. This failing is discussed in TG or not TG in a recent bulletin. An interesting example is Henlys’ advertisement in AP p.106. My first impression was that it was a BtB with the hood erected, and with a spare wheel under the tail. The contour of the tail precludes it being a DkB. The livery suggests C&E (no CBD “waistline”). The wings resemble the ones on the 1928 SD. Stanley Paine, whose professional eye is better than mine at analysis, suggests that this represents – or should I say copies a picture of – a C&E narrow bodied TG with a luggage rack.

It has always surprised me that in the last year that the works supported 12/50 racing, no adverts show an SD 12/50. And why did the 1928 brochure bother to include a DkB (inset) in the page 484 TVA 2?

It is interesting that William’s wings with DkB elevation and a domed cross-section are, so far as I can ascertain, unique. The wings on the Frith car, delivered one day later than William, are shaped as in the 1928 brochure.

7. Big Port Heads

As I was never involved in Bill’s tuning or fettling of either of his Alvis engines, and as I have not laid hands on any Alvis engine for sixty years, I cannot comment on their relative efficiency. Since the nineteen twenties, much has been written and discovered about the extent to which fettling can be carried out. Bill Urquhart Dykes did little more than tidy and polish the ports and head spaces of his cars. He was not a trained engineer, but had a gift of meticulous preparation and assembly which stood him in good stead.

It should also be realised that Bill’s cars were anything but featherbedded, being used for daily commuting, shopping and holidays as well as trials and races. Moreover his time was limited because from 1924 to 1927 he was also studying and working for his qualification as a Chartered Patent Agent, the papers for which even in those days were complex.

Although he kept MF 4557 with its small port head for almost a year after acquiring William, Bill only campaigned MF twice in that year, gaining Silvers in April in the MCC Lands End and the MCC High Speed Trial at Brooklands.  He seems never to have tried out his two Alvis against each other. Nevertheless the records show that he extracted maximum performance from both types of head. His only racing comparison appears to have been in the 1927 Production Car Race when he came second to Harvey’s works car which he suspected had a big port head. His query d) of section 3 above was initiated by a casual study of Bill Boddy’s book on the  200 Mile Races in which Boddy states in several places that works 12/50s pre-1935 had enlarged and polished ports, even terming these “big port” heads in one place. Bill’s only direct comparison was in the 1926 Production Car Race, when his  MF 4557 competed directly with Harvey’s works car – the first BtB (TVA 2 pp.178&9). Green and Macdonald also drove 12/50s but both retired with big end failures whereas Bill came second in his class to Harvey. Bill recollected that Harvey not only had the advantage of four-wheel brakes, as against Bill’s rear brakes only, but that it was marginally better in acceleration. In the 75 years which have elapsed since that race, 12/50 enthusiasts have had plenty of time to make such comparisons.

Certainly Bill’s careful preparation of MF 4557 enabled him to achieve Golds in four successive High-Speed reliability trials and likewise in the big-ported William to run non-stop throughout the 1927 200 miles race and to achieve the twelve hour record in 1928. As for high speed, William’s fastest Brooklands lap of 91.2 mph. was fractionally better than Powys-Lybbe’s best in the 12/60 (TVA 2 p.360).

1. Conclusions and Hypothesis

As a culmination of the above, based on such facts as I have discovered, past memories, helpful comments, and speculation, I feel I may have uncovered William’s earliest history:

1. A super sports SD 12/50, beetle backed was exhibited at the 1926 Motor Show. It had a Big Port head. I cannot trace any illustration, nor specification particulars. It was the first appearance of an SD; (FACT)
2. One of the regular Alvis Southport sand-racing drivers, probably having seen the Show car, ordered one from Alvis. Perhaps he stipulated that it should have long wings for sand clearance, and that they should be easily detachable; (SPECULATION)
3. At that time Charlie Dodson regularly raced at Southport, using the 1924 Nile race car – 2931 – (TVA2, p 239); (FACT)
4. Alvis supplied one of the first SDs, (William) Car No. 10120 with long wings and a big port head. Despatched 05.01.1927; (FACT)
5. This car was delivered to Southport, probably to the Alvis agent Hall, or perhaps to Dodson, and was registered as WM 47; (FACT and SPECULATION)
6. Dodson having ordered an up to date “Special”, works-pepared, tried the car out but found little if any better performance than the 200 mile race car (not surprising) so returned it to the Works; (FACT and SPECULATION)
7. Maurice Harvey, who had tested the car before despatch, and perhaps had had a hand in its tuning, knowing Bill’s ability with MF 4557, advised Bill to buy it; (FACT)
8. Bill bought the car via Henlys on 13.02.1927; (FACT)
9. At the car’s first outing - JCC Spring Meeting at Brooklands on 3^rd April 1927 – the performance was proved by Ruth winning the two lap and three lap races at over 80 mph; (FACT)

The above would explain William’s unique wing profiles and the reason why an obviously well prepared car was rejected  by its first orderer, assuming that was Dodson. It answers Bill’s question about first ownership..

As regards Big Port Heads, undoubtedly these were used in some form before the SD but was there a production run or were they individually prepared?

Let all who read these paragraphs be aware that I am happily open to comment or criticism. I hope this article will throw some light on the SD Beetlebacks of the late 1920s. In my opinion they were grossly neglected in the  Alvis publicity of the time. What if a team of SDs had competed at Le Mans in 1927? Perusal of the Register shows how the later generations of Alvis enthusiasts have recognized their worth. They were unfortunate in being born at the same time as the FWDs were taking over the limelight.

Writing this has brought back many happy memories to me. Perhaps it will repay the privilege of having been made an Honorary Member of the Register.

Peter Lord

Nov.2001 – Oct. 2002

***********