Yahoo News I visited a historic Coventry car maker and it was like stepping back in time in the best way
The Alvis Car Company is one of those names you see in the annals of British motoring. One of those long lost companies from the pages of history whose cars occasionally appear at classic car shows or concourse events.
At least, that’s what I thought it was. I had no idea Alvis were still going.
But indeed they are. On a lane in Kenilworth, the company who were once sited at a large facility on Holyhead Road are still making cars. And they do it the old fashioned way.
READ MORE: I visited the Coventry-made vehicles that played a role in a dark period of the UK's history
READ MORE: Coventry tower block in "poor condition" will be bulldozed in £21m regeneration scheme
While Jaguar Land Rover and LEVC keep the flame lit for automotive mass manufacturing in Coventry, Alvis takes a different approach. Instead, they’re the Coventry area’s torchbearers for how cars used to be made.
Without getting too technical, unless you own a pickup truck or a few other commercial vehicles, your car is a monocoque. This means that the whole body and chassis are one big unit.
However, with Alvis, they’re all body on frame. That means that the body and chassis are entirely separate.
Decades ago, Alvis would only sell you a chassis and an engine. Then it would be up to you to find a separate coachbuilder to make the body and upholstery. Alvis still builds cars in this manner today - only the coachbuilding is done in house.
It’s an artisanal industry and those in the workshop are still deploying the skills that put the city on the map. The leather interior is handmade, the body is built in-house, the loft of the workshop is home to a wealth of parts, some of which date back 60 years.
The result is a luxury car with classic looks and a modern registration plate. Being such low volume, they avoid a lot of the restrictions placed on modern mass manufacturers.
Here’s what was heart-warming - these people who create these exquisite luxury cars are carrying on skills that Coventry once thrived off. 70 years ago, thousands would work on production lines doing everything that the Alvis workers were doing.
Whole streets and terraces revolved around housing those with these skills. You can spot them all across the city, near the sites of the old car factories.
It’s one thing to see an army of robots assemble a car in minutes. That is incredible in itself. For a small team to painstakingly create a car from bare parts to the finishing touches involves an enormous amount of skill, talent, and patience.
Despite now being a small operation in Kenilworth, Alvis is a living monument to what British motoring does best. It’s keeping alive skills that mass manufacturers long since delegated to robotics.
It’s like watching someone make meals from scratch. You know the supermarket has products that let you take shortcuts, yet having someone go through the dedication and perseverance of doing it the old fashioned way adds a special something.
