Alvis TF 21
Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd
Production1966–1967 / 106 produced
Engine3.0 L I6
Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd
The Alvis Three Litre Series IV, also known as TF21, an updated version of the 1963 TE21, was the last car produced by Alvis Cars. Having been announced at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1966 it remained in production until 1967. Externally, the car was identical to the TE21, but there were some changes to the suspension, and, inside, the instruments were better organised. The 2993 cc engine, first used in the 1950 TA21, had its power increased to 150 bhp (112 kW) at 4750 rpm by fitting triple SU carburettors, giving the car a top speed of 120 mph (193 km/h).
A choice of automatic or five-speed gearbox made by ZF was available. The chassis and suspension continued with front coil springs and leaf springs at the rear. Disc brakes were fitted to all wheels and recirculating ball-type steering gear was used with power assistance optional. Although this car was an update of the TE21, the TE21 remained available to special order until 1967. In August 1967, it was announced that production of the Park Ward bodied Alvis 3-litre had ceased.
From the Wikipedia article Alvis TF 21, CC BY-SA.
The Alvis TF 21 is one of 18 Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd models in the MotorJury library, the catalogue that sets out to hold every car ever made — production, prototype and concept alike. The record places its introduction in 1966. The photography on this page is hotlinked from Wikimedia Commons under an open licence, with the photographer credited on every frame.
To read the Alvis TF 21 properly it helps to place it in its decade. The 1960s were the decade of the pony car, the mid-engined revolution and the birth of the modern hot hatchback's ancestors — engineering advanced faster than in any decade before it. Any car launched into that world was shaped by it — by what materials, engineering and regulation allowed, and by what buyers of the day demanded. Its direct contemporaries in this catalogue, introduced within three years of it, include the Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Spider, the Dodge Dodge Charger, the Lamborghini Lamborghini Miura — the cars a buyer of the period would actually have cross-shopped.
On paper, the Alvis TF 21 reads like this: the record lists its engine as 3.0 L I6; kerb weight is recorded at 3250 lb (approx); the layout is FR layout. Every figure above is a manufacturer specification carried by the Wikipedia infobox or the open Wikidata record for this model — nothing on this page is estimated, and where a source is silent the row simply does not appear.
Within Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd's own catalogue the Alvis TF 21 sits alongside the Alvis 10/30, the Alvis 12/50, the Alvis 12/70, the Alvis 12/75. The record names the Three Litre series III as its predecessor and the none as its successor, fixing its place in the model line's chronology. Assembly is recorded at United Kingdom: Coventry, England.
This library is generated, verified and rebuilt from the open record on every deploy. The catalogue skeleton comes from Wikidata, specifications from Wikipedia's infoboxes under CC BY-SA, photography from Wikimedia Commons under each file's own licence, and the ownership data from United States federal safety records. Nothing is written by hand and nothing is invented: every fact on this page traces to a public source, and every page is rebuilt nightly as those sources improve. Errors in the source record will appear here too — and disappear the night the source is corrected.
Most car databases stop at series production. This one deliberately does not, because concept cars, racing specials and cancelled prototypes are where the industry thinks out loud — the ideas tested in public years before they reach a showroom. Holding them beside the production cars they inspired makes the lineage legible: nearly every landmark road car in this library has a concept ancestor somewhere in the catalogue, and the connections run through the era links on every page.
What this page cannot yet tell you is what the Alvis TF 21 costs to live with — that is a different dataset. MotorJury's ownership verdicts are computed from federal complaint and recall records plus EPA economy data, published per model year as the nightly ingest reaches each car. If this model was sold in the United States, its years will surface in the ownership database; browse it live or price any car yourself with the true-cost calculator.
Specifications come from the Wikipedia infobox for this model (CC BY-SA) and the open Wikidata record, and are shown only where a source actually carries them — nothing here is estimated. Figures are manufacturer specifications, not measured results.
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Ownership verdicts are computed from NHTSA complaint and recall records plus EPA economy data, re-priced for your country. Verdicts are published per model year as the data is ingested — browse them live, or open the true-cost calculator to price any year yourself.
Contemporaries from other marques, introduced within three years of this car.