TOO CHEAP? Not a question normally associated with a car that costs £323,000. But spend some time with the Alvis Car Company’s latest ‘continuation’ model – a re-issue of the 1967 Graber-bodied 3 Litre Coupé – and you might come away wondering whether it is actually underpriced. When an Aston Martin ‘James Bond’ DB5 continuation retails at £3.3million, and Jaguar’s latest C-type continuation is said to sell for £2million, you have to wonder whether Alvis is being too modest with its pricing policy.
Except that, of course, brand recognition is everything. Everyone’s heard of James Bond and Jaguar; only petrolheads of a certain age are familiar with Alvis. It’s understandable that billionaire real estate tycoons and tech company geniuses who are laying out that kind of moolah will want their piece of automotive jewellery to be recognised by the world at large. If they’ve got it, they want to flaunt it.
True style, though, lies in not looking as though you’re trying too hard – which is why the Alvis Graber Super Coupé would be such a wonderful thing to own and drive. It has superbly understated looks and, with modern fuel injection and various other present-day tweaks to its 3.0-litre straight-six, it’s a decent performer. In fact, Alvis claims that peak power has been increased from the
