Alvis TB14 DHC by Grogg (1951)

[BERTRAND]

Builder, model, coachbuilder and when please

[kitaharo]

French car?

[BERTRAND]

not french

[BERTRAND]

expert

[Lavrakas]

Things are rarely simple on Autopuzzles! All we can say with any certainty is this is a photograph of an Alvis 14 at a Continental motor show (both cars in the picture are left-hand drive) sometime in the late 1940s – a prototype TB14 body on what was officially a TA14 chassis, although the two chassis were virtually identical. It isn't a 1950 TB14 with AP Metalwork body as all (?) production TB14s (chassis numbers 23500-23599) have one-piece fold-flat windscreens with twin cowls and low-cut doors with no exterior handle. Nor is this one of the original FJ Bidee-bodied TA14s, which had concealed headlights, as did the 1948 Earls Court show car (chassis 22568) which had a body by Godalming-based ambulance manufacturers King and Taylor and right-hand drive (not to mention a built-in cocktail cabinet for the driver and make-up case for the "lady passenger" – how times have changed!). The 1949 Earls Court show car is said to have been a modified version of the 1948 car and was, probably, the first proto-TB14 with XK120-esque faired-in headlights and, according to the Alvis Owners Club Bulletin of September 1996, it was sold as "shop-soiled" in October 1950 and registered LND 702; the only extant post-sale photograph differs significantly from the puzzle picture. The left-hand drive Alvis at the 1951 Geneva Show was clearly a standard TB14.
Presumably, the puzzle picture is of a second prototype built around 1949. Who made the body is anyone's guess (but most likely AP Metalwork). The most interesting thing about the body and the puzzle is that door and windscreen treatment are vety like the Brian Finglass/Gavin Maxwell Maserati 8CM, the subject of MJW #1127, currently languishing in the Black Hole. The November 1991 issue of Thoroughbred and Classic Car tells the curious story of a Mark Cullingworth whose TB14 wore a body that wasn't original and was reputed to have come from a Maserati. A case could be made for saying that, when the "second" Alvis prototype became redundant in 1950s, its body was salvaged and much modified by Roland Dutt to fit the 8CM (the engine being further back in the chassis and the distance between driving seat and rear axle much smaller), then modified yet again in around 1960 to fit the Cullingworth TB14 (LMV186, right-hand drive chassis no 23597 despatched 14/12/1950 wearing an AP Metalcraft body 1098, which it subsequently lost).

[BERTRAND]

Alvis, yes.  TB14, yes.  It's missing the coachbuilder

[Lavrakas]

As I said, this is a largely undocumetred one-off prototype, significantly different from the production model and all previous prototypes, and who made the coachwork is anyone's guess. My guess would be AP Metalwork. Willowbrook did some work on the TC prototype, but that was much later; Bidee and King and Taylor much earlier. I would be very pleased to hear if anyone knows more about it, particularly the Finglass connection.

[BERTRAND]

I just read and re-read articles, which confirms the coachbuilder I have

[hermanoto]

coachbuilder: A.P. Metalcraft

[BERTRAND]

Not Metalcraft.  The front view is the same but i have a difference with the doors design

[Lavrakas]

Is this the special TB14 drophead coupe converted by coachbuilder Grogg (Langenthal) for Hauser Automobiles, at the 1951 Geneva Salon?

[BERTRAND]

that's the ticket, one more point for you

[autospeurder]

Please change the name of this puzzle because the car is by Grogg (from Langenthal) not by Carrosserie Langenthal (also from Langenthal)

[ropat53]

From Wikipedia
"1888 - Founding of the Wagner workshop by Fritz Grogg, house with Wagner workshop on Spitalgasse in Langenthal.
1914 - entry of the son Fritz Grogg jun. in his father's business. During the war years the company was engaged in the production of field portables, walnut rifle stocks for the arms factory and ash meat blocks for the American field kitchen. Adaptation to the new conditions: the first superstructures on automobile chassis are created. Transfer of the company to Fritz Grogg jun. Unexpected passing of the company founder, Father Grogg.
1926 - Conversion of the previous sole proprietorship into a general partnership: Robert Sommer-Grogg, born in 1886, a businessman, and Ernst Grogg, born in 1890, a master locksmith and graduate of the Hamburg wagon building school, were actively involved. As a result, the company name was initially changed to Grogg & Co., later to Grogg, Sommer & Cie. changed.
1929 - Conversion of the previous general partnership into a family stock corporation. Carrosserie Langenthal AG."