Never mind Halloween and Guy Fawkes, the 4th November is the key date for getting in quick to book accommodation for our International Alvis Weekend 20-22 May 2016 at Wroxall Abbey Hotel & Estate, CV35 7NB. In the event that you did not book the hotel for next year’s IAW before the drawbridge went up, the hotel will be taking bookings for the event from 9a.m. 4th November by phone. Telephone 01926 484470 and quote Alvis Weekend for the discount. We have the whole hotel but it will be heavily oversubscribed. The overflow hotel is a few miles away and will have a coach access. The Sunday Alvis Day will be on site and we shall be celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the start of Fourteen production. It is also the last Midland IAW before it moves north. There is an interesting refinement to comments in the August Post about  Hagglunds of Sweden and their TA 14. It was Alvis Plc who took over Hagglunds. Then the Group became Vickers and only after that was the Group subsumed into BAe Systems. This is useful clarification for the history books and comes from someone who knows, the former Alvis Motors’ Technology Manager of 1994 who led our 75th Anniversary Parade of 200 cars through Coventry in the Company’s 1920 10/30 tourer. Choosing a TA 14 Mulliners Saloon as his own Alvis is a great vote of confidence in our Model. Two sons of former owners of TA 14s would love to have news of their fathers’ cars but so far we have had no success with the search. The first one is a Tickford TA 14 chassis 22377 registration KLL 115. The photograph in Lost Cars is a well known one of a happy family outing in Mum’s car. The boy in the photo has grown into a man and yes he does have an Alvis, the ex W.M. Dunn TA 21. After many years he can ‘still smell hot gearbox oil if I think about it.’ He also remembers family holidays to Sweden with the car being craned, in a net, into the ship’s hold. The Tickford was originally black but DVLA have a SORN on the car and this shows the colour as brown. It is possible that the car was spotted in Oxfordshire about 25 years ago painted white. Can anyone help with the whereabouts of Duncan Fixed Head Coupe KWE 779, chassis 21699? She was last heard of in the mid 1950s in the Sheffield area. The son of her owner in the mid fifties would dearly like to either find her or know her fate. The search has been put onto ‘Lost Cars’ and it would be lovely to report back with some news. The normal sources of information have not turned up anything. Sadly we had news that R.’Tony’ Moore passed away recently. An AOC Member since 1992 he was the owner of Mulliners Saloon KLE 742, chassis 22738. Our condolences go to his son Adrian and family. Adrian arranged for KLE to attend Tony’s funeral as befitted the proud warhorse saying farewell to his friend. Tony would be very pleased to know that Adrian has now become a Member of the AOC in his own right and will be continuing with the care of KLE. The giant Hershey Classic car event took place over 4 days in October in Pennsylvania USA. Eagle eyed Alvis aficionados were present and you may have picked up photos of the unique Cooper bodied TA 14 on our main  Alvis  Archive site. More photos are on The Gallery under chassis number 20723. After 40 years in the same ownership she is now for sale for $25000 so does anyone fancy a restoration challenge? As a one off TA 14 she would make a unique restoration project and the coachwork design is stylish. Another very stylish restoration is almost complete in Australia. ‘Marilyn’ has regained her curves and is having the finishing touches made. Check out chassis 23509 to see the latest picture. She looks absolutely stunning and there is the possibility she may come over to Europe next year. November 14th 1946 marked the 6th Anniversary of the destruction of the Alvis Factory by German bombs. Six years later to the day, Smith-Clarke and Stanley Horsefield handed over the keys of the first 3 Fourteen Saloons to dealers and their wives from London, Glasgow and Belfast. Previously only chassis had left the Factory. On the same day ‘The Autocar’ magazine advised it’s readers that the Fourteen ‘is a car worth waiting for’. There had indeed been a wait. Throughout the war adverts had continued to promise ‘cars for the connoisseur’ once the hostilities were over. In December 1943 Alvis approached the Board of Trade for permission to start work on post war car development. Permission was refused. Suffice to say unofficial work was undertaken and the ‘first’ TA 14 was put together in a tumbledown hut on waste ground at the rear of  an old cardboard box factory at Mount Sorrel in Leicester. The names of fitters Fred Lenton and Ivor Cole are not well known but they assembled the very ‘first Fourteen’. Does anyone know of the whereabouts of any family Members? John Price Williams book ‘Alvis The Post War Cars’ makes a most interesting read about those times. Finally Christmas is coming up fast. There are plenty of the J&M TA 14 Models for sale on EBay and they make a lovely indoor reminder of your car. Many of the Models were bought up in batches by dealers so compare prices and colours. Boots and other Companies provide a wide range of products that can be customized with photos of your favourite cars. The Alvis Owner Club has a shop at alvisoc.org for a variety of gifts and clothing. Don’t forget those in the  garage either, fire extinguishers, dusters, nano cloths are just a few options for the stocking. eileen4ta.tb14s@rocketmail.com