primotipo…

Garrie Cooper exported a couple of Elfin sportscars to South Africa in the mid-sixties, both of which were competitive cars. It would be interesting to know how many of the great Edwardstown outfits products left our shores?

The shot above shows the brand spankers Elfin Mallala Ford Cosworth having perhaps its first run at Roy Hesketh, in June 1964 M Lester having a good look at the Smiths tell-tale to ensure Henri le Roux hasn’t buzzed the fresh motor. G Goetzer looks on at left.

The Mallala was essentially a sports version of the Catalina single-seater, five cars were built and delivered between December 1962 and March 1964, Henri’s car, chassis ‘S6418’ was the last of these.

The car sang for its supper immediately, Le Roux entered it in the 1964 South African Sports Car Championship, his first event was the Republic Day Races at Kyalami on 6 June where he won his class and finished second outright. The race report observed ‘Henri le Roux’s Australian Elfin Mallala with Cosworth Ford engine was most impressive and will certainly be a car to watch, though the final drive ratio was wrong and he reached peak revs early in the straight instead of near the end’ a malady rather easy to fix with a Hewland gearbox of course.

Henri raced the car at Kyalami, Roy Hesketh, East London, Killarney and Lourenco Marques with his best results first in class at Kyalami in June, second outright at Laurenco in July and third in class at the Rand GP meeting at Kyalami in December. By 1967 the car was owned and raced by Joss Viljoen, Stephen Knox brought the car back to Australia in the eighties.

 

Perhaps the pace of the Mallala inspired Garth McGillewie to acquire the second of seven Elfin 300s built. Chassis ‘SS67-5’ was completed by Elfins in September 1967 and shipped to South Africa shortly thereafter.

Durban motor trader McGillewie, with a careful eye on the local and international class structure, fitted his machine with a 2-litre Coventry Climax FPF four-cylinder engine and five speed Hewland transaxle.

Barry Catford wrote ‘…this car was shipped to South Africa where it performed exceptionally well in the hands of Garth McGillewie, holding many records in its category for some years. In the Capetown 3 Hour race the Elfin finished fourth outright behind a Ferrari P4 and two 6-litre Lola GTs. During the Rand 9 Hour race, driver Tony Jeffries shadowed the Ford GT40s until he was forced to retire after colliding with Frank Gardner and Mike Spence. The Elfin went on to take out the 1968 South African Sports Car Championship.’ McGillewie bought at Chevron B8 to replace the Elfin.

‘The car was later restored for a subsequent owner, Ron Watt of Zimbabwe, by Ivan Glasby who was responsible for returning the car to Australia some years later’ Catford concludes.

Etcetera: Elfin Exports…

My inquisitive nature usually gets the better of me. Having posed the question as to Elfins exported, i think the number of Garrie Cooper Elfins sold overseas when built is 15 cars of 264 built, the first of which was the Le Roux Mallala.

My methodology was to add the production numbers in the Catford/Blanden book then list those which were exported viz;

1964: Mallala ‘S6418’ Henri le Roux, South Africa

1967: 400 ‘BB67-4’ Andy Buchanan, New Zealand, 300 ‘SS67-4’ Chuck Krueger USA, 300 ‘SS67-5’ Garth McGillewie South Africa

1969: 600C ‘6910’ Hengkie Iriawan Indonesia, Ford FVA engined

1970: 600B ‘7015’ Teddy Yip Macau, 600FF ‘70005’ David Oxton New Zealand, 600FF ‘70009’ Frohlich Golding & Co South Africa

1973: 620FF ‘73421’ Dante Silverio, Toyota engine fitted Philippines, 622 ‘73422’ Dante Silverio Toyota engine Philippines

1974: 620/BFF ‘73430’ Mike Hall USA, ‘73432’, ‘73433’ and ‘73434’ all USA, seemingly Chuck Jones Racing

1977: MR8A-C ‘8783’ Vern Schuppan USA (i appreciate he isn’t American but he was an Oz International then so i am treating the car as such- it bombed in the Can-Am and was also raced in F5000 guise in Oz

So, fifteen cars, as always, happy for input.

Mike Hall was Elfin’s man on the ground in the US for a bit and i really must give him a call. Elfin 620FF American style, the Americans were running on the same Goodyear slicks we were at the time so the suspension should have worked nicely.

Interesting for FF buffs is that Larry Perkins debuted the 620 in the UK Formula Ford Festival in late 1972 doing well enough at Snetterton to launch his international career- that chassis returned to Oz.

Bibliography…

‘Australia’s Elfin Sports and Racing Cars’ Barry Catford and John Blanden, ‘Hieronymus’ on The Nostalgia Forum

Credits…

Roy Hesketh Circuit Heritage, Richard Winslade, Michael Hall Collection

Tailpiece…

Jos Viljoen’s Elfin Mallala Ford alongside Ray Emond’s Lola Mk1 Ford on the Roy Hesketh grid during the Easter 1967 long weekend.

Finito…