ALVIS LIVES! 1962 ALVIS TD21 DROPHEAD COUPE.(NEWS)

Byline: ERIC TEGLER

ALVIS HASN'T BEEN IN business since 1967, but there seem to be Alvises everywhere. If you grew up in Coventry, England, where the company produced rides for the upper middle class for 40 years, and made your way to the United States, it stands to reason that you'd want a TD21 drophead coupe.

British expat James Cooper did. His father found the chassis for this TD21 in a field near the Alvis factory, added bits from another car and sent the lot to Alvis restoration specialists Red Triangle in Kenil-worth, England, in 1984. The car was converted to left-hand drive for a move to Spain. Today, the Alvis lives with Cooper in rural Fallston, Md.

"What I love about having it up here is that the roads are similar to our country roads in England, and the Alvis corners well. It's sportier than, say, a Jaguar of its class, he says.

Alvis formed in 1921, pairing motor-scooter producer T. G. John and engine designer Geoffrey de Freville. The company's first car, the 10/30, was a success. Over the next two decades, Alvis pioneered technologies such as the first all-synchromesh gearbox. Perfor-mance-oriented models, in- cluding the 12/50, the Speed 25 and the Silver Crest, were highly regarded. Alvis built engines and chassis in Coventry but relied on coachbuilders such as Cross and Ellis and ...