From the Archives - May 1968 Alvis National Day Crystal Palace

The first time I went to the Crystal Palace Motor Racing Circuit was not for a race meeting but for an Alvis National Day.  It was 47 years ago on May19th 1968 and I think it was the day after I saw my very first ever race meeting at Silverstone.   The cars went through a number of driving tests and there was also a concours d'elegance.  These driving tests were quite popular at the time with many car clubs; I'm not sure they happen any more.  According to the Motor Sport report of the day, 220 cars took part. Included amongst the cars were three of the Alvis Le Mans cars from 1927.

Alvis was a car manufacturer in Holyhead Road, Coventry from 1919 to 1967 and were absorbed into Rover in 1965. They didn't become known as Alvis until 1921.  In more recent times they have produced military vehicles although even more recently Alvis have started to produce one of their older model cars again.  In terms of racing they only participated from 1925 to 1930.

These photos bring back memories of the old pits and stands.  Picture quality is not high as they were taken on a Kodak Instamatic; remember them?

Pre-War Alvis in front of the old Crystal Palace pits.  I think it is a 12/60 beetleback.

This Alvis Special was my favourite car on that day.

Alvis on parade in front of the stands on the start finish straight at Crystal Palace 1968.  I think they were taking part in a concours d'elegance competition.

Not being much of an Alvis expert, I need some help in identifying the cars in the pictures.  please enter a comment if you know.

Here are some interesting links for those wanting to know more about Alvis:

http://www.alviscarcompany.com/

http://www.alvisoc.org/

http://www.alvisregister.co.uk/

John Etherton asserts his copyright to the photographs in this blog post.  You may reproduce them elsewhere on the web providing you provide a link to this post and the name of the photographer and this blogsite.