Elva Cars

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Elva Courier

Elva was a British manufacturer of automobiles .

Company history

The company Elva Engineering Co began in 1955 in Bexhill-on-Sea and Hastings with the production of automobiles. In parallel, there was from 1961 in Rye the Elva (1961) Limited . In 1966 the merger took place under the name Elva Cars (1961) Limited and the move to Croydon . Production ended in 1968.

vehicles

Different models

Elva Mk IIa (1957)

In addition to racing cars, street sports cars were also produced, which were also offered as kit cars . Between 1958 and 1963 there were the models Courier I , Courier II and Courier III as an open two-seater, the latter model also as a coupé. Used were four-cylinder engines with 1489 cc, 1588 cc and 1622 cc displacement , the 72, 78 and 90 PS rendered. Between 1962 and 1967 there was the Courier IV model , which was based on the MGA in the first year and was only available as a coupé, and from 1963 as a roadster and coupé either on the MGB or Ford . The engine from the MGA made 90 hp from 1622 cm³ displacement, the one from the MGB from 1798 cm³ 98 hp, and the Ford engine from 1498 cm³ 83.5 hp.

An Elva Courier can be seen at the Haynes International Motor Museum in Sparkford , Somerset .

Elva GT 160

Elva GT 160

In 1964 there was the Coupé GT 160 , of which only three vehicles were produced. It had a four-cylinder engine from BMW with 1991 cm³ displacement, which made 182 hp at 7200 rpm and was installed as a mid-engine . The synchronized five-speed gearbox behind it should be available with different ratios, as well as an optional self-locking differential .

The car had a tubular frame. The wheels were suspended from double wishbones at the front and trailing arms at the rear. The car was 3450 mm long and 1480 mm wide; Wheelbase 2260 mm, track 1250 mm. The curb weight (ready to drive) was given as 428 kg.

Because of the engine, the model was also called Elva-BMW .

Elva-Porsche

Around 1960, the US asked for a lightweight racing car with a Porsche engine. Porsche then further developed the so-called Fuhrmann engine (type 547) with four overhead camshafts for Elva , which, among other things, received a plastic cooling fan wheel positioned horizontally above the crankcase . With a 1.7 liter hood and a compression ratio of 11: 1, this unit developed 183 hp at 7800 rpm.

Porsche supplied 15 of these engines for installation in the appropriately adapted Elva Mk VII chassis. This adaptation included changes to the placement of the petrol and oil tank, the cockpit and the rear section of the tubular frame. The Porsche five-speed gearbox was matched to the 13-inch wheels (6 inches at the front, 7 inches at the rear).

The first vehicles were ready at the end of 1963. They accelerated from standstill to 100 km / h in around 5 seconds and reached a top speed of around 260 km / h. A car cost over $ 10,000.

In 1964, Porsche used an Elva Mark VII chassis with the 8-cylinder Type 771 racing engine in the European Hill Climb Championship . This car weighed only about 520 kg and was therefore much lighter than the Porsche Bergspyder RS ​​61 (type 718) or the Spyder based on the Porsche 904 . Edgar Barth won the Rossfeld hill climb with the Elva Porsche. Because of the poor driving characteristics of the Elva, whose frame was possibly too heavily loaded by the 8-cylinder engine, Barth started again with the old RS 61 in the following races and won the championship of the sports car class as in the previous year. The Swiss Herbert Müller occasionally drove the Elva Porsche .

The 8-cylinder engine was available in two versions: with a displacement of 2195 cm³ (bore × stroke = 80 × 54.6 mm), 270 hp at 8600 rpm, maximum torque 230 Nm at 7000 rpm, compression 10 , 2: 1 and 1981 cm³ (bore × stroke = 76 × 54.6 mm), 260 hp at 8800 rpm, 206 Nm at 7500 rpm, compression 10.5: 1. Wheelbase of the car: 2286 mm, track width : front 1270 mm, rear 1350 mm, length of the vehicle: 3500 mm

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ engine catalog. Volume 13, Gildeverlag, Alfeld 1964
  2. ↑ a b c Boschen / Barth: The great book of the Porsche types. 2nd Edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01284-7 , p. 355
  3. ↑ a b c d Boschen / Barth: The big book of Porsche special types and designs. 1st edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-87943-805-6 , p. 68.
  4. ↑ Boschen / Barth: The great book of the Porsche types. 2nd Edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01284-7 , p. 398.

literature

  • Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader: The great automobile encyclopedia. BLV, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-405-12974-5
  • GN Georgano: cars. Encyclopédie complète. 1885 à nos jours. Courtille, 1975 (French)
  • David Culshaw, Peter Horrobin: The Complete Catalog of British Cars 1895–1975 , Veloce Publishing PLC, Dorchester (1997), ISBN 1-874105-93-6 (English)

Web links

Commons : Elva Cars  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files