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Elva Mark VII S Porsche - The carter in the plastic bag

Name: Elva Mark Vll 1964
Brand: Elva

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Created on February 9, 2023

Text:

Karl Ludvigsen (Übersetzung: Paul Krüger)

Photos:

Ludvigsen Partners

Michael Alschner

Dave Nicholas

Steve Van Den Hemel

Balz Schreier

Ludvigsen Partners

Michael Alschner

Dave Nicholas

Steve Van Den Hemel

Balz Schreier

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Porsche supported the Elva project and further developed the Fuhrmann engine into the Type 547/5 with horizontal fan wheel. The car shown here has additional, removable cross struts above the valve covers to stiffen the frame.

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Not only the engine, but also the five-speed gearbox came from Porsche. As the Elva had 13-inch wheels instead of 15-inch wheels, the gear ratio of the differential had to be adjusted accordingly.

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The lower wishbones run in an arc to avoid the four exhaust pipes. The upper wishbones act on the anti-roll bar via small compression struts.

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The rack-and-pinion steering, the reservoirs for the front and rear brake circuits, the hydraulic clutch and two coolers for the engine oil are concealed under the front hood.

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The cockpit is reduced to the bare essentials. The driver could only monitor the engine speed, oil pressure and oil temperature via three instruments.

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The Elva-Porsche was a first-class vehicle for the two-liter class of the USRRC, which was held from 1963 onwards. Here is George Wintersteen at the start of the race in Augusta on March 1, 1964.

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Watkins Glen, June 28, 1964: Don Wester struggles with the steering of his Elva-Porsche entered by Oliver Schmidt and finishes sixth.

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Charlie Hayes also drove a car entered by Oliver Schmidt's "Scuderia Tin Can". He finished seventh in the race in Augusta on March 1, 1964 (photo).

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Joe Buzzetta was probably most intensively involved with the difficult driving characteristics of the Elva-Porsche. In the 1964 season, he took two class victories, including one in the 500-mile race at Road America in Elkhart Lake.

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In Europe, the Elva-Porsche mainly took part in hill climbs. Here Anton Fischhaber is at the start of the Ollon-Villars race on August 29, 1965.

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At the Rossfeld race on June 13, 1965, Anton Fischhaber also had little time to enjoy the view. In the factory-entered Elva-Porsche, he finished third behind Gerhard Mitter and Herbert Müller.

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Edgar Barth (right) won the 1964 Rossfeldrennen in an eight-cylinder Elva-Porsche - and never drove the car again. Mechanic Hubert Mimler (left) captured the race with his camera.

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William "Ike" Eichelberger had his Elva-Porsche converted into a "Porsche wedge" for the 1969 season, the rear of which could be raised (as shown here) for greater downforce

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On a straight stretch, the driver lowered the rear of the Porsche wedge to reduce drag. Given the success of the design, it was foreseeable that the SCCA would ban manually controlled aerodynamic parts for the coming season.

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Elva Mk 7 S (1964) - at the Roßfeldrennen 2013

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Porsche Elva Mk 7s (1964) at the Porsche Rennsport Reunion V

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Elva-Porsche MK7 (1963) at the 2015 Solitude Revival in the "Le Mans - racing cars and prototypes" group

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Too heavy for fuel races: Porsche RS 61 Spyder, here at the 12 Hours of Sebring 1961

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Summary

In the club races that were so popular in the USA at the beginning of the sixties, small-series English models increasingly began to overtake the Speedsters and Spyders from Porsche. German workmanship made the cars from Zuffenhausen reliable, but also heavy. A German engine in an English chassis therefore seemed to be the perfect combination for the American weekend racers. This article tells the short but fierce success story of the Elva Mark VII with a Porsche engine.

This article contains the following chapters

Chassis and engine
Premiere victory
Successful, but fragile
With eight cylinders on the mountain
The wedge

Estimated reading time: 12min

Preview (beginning of the article)

In the early 1960s, Porsche sports cars competed primarily in the classic endurance races at Le Mans and Sebring. There, the reliable cars continued to achieve good results on a regular basis. However, they were less and less suitable for the shorter sprint races that were common in North America. There, the lighter and livelier British designs from Lotus, Elva and Lola won more and more races and gradually dominated the class of cars under two liters. This led American enthusiasts to consider lighter chassis for the robust engines from Stuttgart. One such group met in November 1962 at the Puerto Rico Grand Prix, where Dan Gurney drove a Porsche 718 Spyder. Gurney, Oliver Schmidt and a few friends speculated about the possibilities of air-cooled Porsche power in a very light, English chassis without any concrete evidence. Chicago-based Schmidt could do more than just talk about it, of course. He was the Porsche importer and distributor in the Midwestern United States - a job Schmidt liked to spice up with driving the most interesting cars.

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