Lot 050: 1959 ELVA MK V SPIDER SPORTS RACING CAR

Elva, the name comes from French "elle va" or "she goes" was founded in 1955 by Frank G. Nichols, a local garage owner from Hastings on the south coast of the United Kingdom. His intention was to build a low cost sports racing car and in 1954 the first model was produced using Standard front suspension and Ford Anglia rear axles with an overhead valve conversion of a Ford 10 engine. As with all cars development took the cars through various changes up to the 1958 Mark IV which had an 1100cc Coventry-Climax engine and independent rear suspension with inboard brakes. The Mark V was designed for Formula Junior events and had a DKW engine in a tubular steel chassis and was extremely successful until the Formula was taken over by rear engined cars. After financial problems caused by the failure of the US distributor, the company was sold to Trojan in 1961 when production moved to Rye, Sussex and then again in 1966 to the main Trojan factory in Croydon. Elva production ended in 1968. Chassis number 100/93 was exported new in 1959 to Carl Haas who of course is still very much a racer. It won in that year at Daytona and again in 1960 at the Marlborough six hour race. We are reliably informed that it has a complete history from new up to the present day and was brought back into the UK a couple of years ago by Hall & Hall and sold by them to the present owner who is a racer of some note and competes in a variety of events around the globe both in this and in his vintage Bentleys and beloved Lagondas. He got a first in class and 4th overall at Porto and won the class award in 2005 in the HGPCA Drum Brake Series but last year he didn't really have a lot of time to race her which is the only reason she is for sale. This is such a great and easy car to drive and is a real Lotus eater and it is eligible for practically all the important race meetings around Europe, and of course the USA with its American history. However it also has something else that very few other race cars can claim at the moment - a full set of the new HTP papers. It's almost worth the money just to get a look at a set of those.