Alvis Airline Sports Saloon by Bertelli

RM Sotheby's 2025 Monterey auction offerings included the Alvis "Airline" Sports Saloon pictured in the Gallery below.  Its web page featuring that car is here, mentioning:

"Car number 18039 was prepared by the Alvis works as a 3 1/2 Litre show chassis, and in that form appeared at the Paris Motor Show, sans coachwork, in October 1935, then the following month at the Scottish Motor Show.  After these appearances, the chassis was purchased by Henken Widengren, a Swedish racing driver...

"Mr. Widengren commissioned the latest, most modern coachwork for his automobile, produced by Bertelli of Feltham, Middlesex, the small coachbuilding firm operated by Enrico “Harry” Bertelli, brother of the owner of Aston Martin.  Only five Alvis cars were bodied by Bertelli, and the 18039 was the sole 4.3 Litre—Widengren having had the chassis raised to the latest specification while his car was being completed."

So the car was technically not a production 4.3 Litre car, nor a 1936 4.3 Litre, as the Sotheby's headline indicated: the production 4.3s were technically 1937-1940 models.  Though the chassis was bodied in 1936, and an early, 1936-built 4.3 engine seems to have been used.

That said, what matters here is the design.

The book "A-Z British Coachbuilders: 1919-1960," (here), describes the Bertelli firm as follows:

"Enrico 'Harry') Bertelli was the brother of Augustus Cesare ('Gus') Bertelli of Aston Martin fame.  After Gus had taken over the the running of the firm he brought in his brother to supervise the body-building side at Feltham, and indeed to act as body designer.  In 1929 Harry started E Bertelli as a separate coachwork business, on the same site, incorporating it as E Bertelli Ltd a year later.  In this form he was permitted to body other chassis, although in the firm's ten year life probably only a couple of dozen such chassis were involved.  They included some Alvises (four or five in total), two six-cylinder Rileys, two MGs, two Lagonda Rapiers, a Type 57 Bugatti, a 3 1/2-litre Bentley and an Amilcar racer." Along with some others.

Photos below are via RM Sotheby's.

Gallery

I've mentioned many times that the 1930s English "Airline" style bodies probably contributed little in terms of improved aerodynamic efficiency.  That was because the cars' front ends remained aerodynamically "dirty."   Setting that aside, Airline saloons and coupés based on long-wheelbase chassis could be very attractive cars.  I wrote about an outstanding Rolls-Royce based example here.

That assessment includes the Alvis featured here.

Unlike some '30s "streamlined" cars, the backlight window is placed low enough for the driver to have some useful vision to the rear.

Although the roofline tapers in profile, the passenger compartment and trunk (boot) do not taper in plan view.  Which they should, for a touch more aerodynamic efficiency.

The "teardrop" theme seen on the fender profiles is partly echoed by the roof profile abaft of the B-pillar.  Also regarding the B-pillar, as was the case for many Airline designs, the beltline is horizontal forward of the pillar, then curves downwards abaft of it.

All things considered, a very attractive design for its time.

All that frontal clutter is what prevented true aerodynamic efficiency.  Incidentally, that car has a front bumper, but none at the rear.