1964 Elva-Porsche

One of the most important characteristics of a performance or racing car is the power-to-weight ratio. The goal is to maximize power, but not at the expense of too much weight or unreliability. Not enough power means you can’t keep up with other cars. Add in the engine size limit in your class, combined with the necessity to build a super light but structurally sound, reliable chassis and body and you have quite a challenge. A challenge that was ever more difficult more then 50 years ago without the aid of the computer models we have today.

The men who created the Elva-Porsche were up to the challenge back in the early ’60s, giving birth to a short-lived but exciting racecar that is as intriguing and competitive today at vintage racing events as it was on the track when it was new. The owner of the Elva-Porsche featured on these pages, Gregory Campbell, was and is intrigued by these cars and has demonstrated his competiveness many times on the track since acquiring this rare racer in 2008. The history of this car continues, but to appreciate fully what this car is, we must look into how the Elva-Porsche came about and its place in the Porsche racing legacy.

An International Affair

In 1962, the American importer for Elva, derived from the word elle va (she goes), a small British racecar manufacturer started by designer Frank Nichols in 1955, was Carl Haas. Haas had acquired a minority interest in Elva and was looking to expand sales, based out of his Chicago location. Haas raced cars as well, and had assisted a local customer, Ernie Ericson, in converting his Elva MK6 to be powered by a Porsche 4-cam Type 547 engine. The car was quite successful in National SCCA events. The formula of installing Porsche’s hot little four-cam wonder into a lightweight British car was not new, with Cooper racecars powered by Porsche engines in the 1950s. These “Poopers” tore up the tracks, especially on the West Coast. Now Haas wanted to do the same with Elvas.

Oliver Schmidt, also based in Chicago, was a racecar driver and the Midwest importer for Porsche, and counted Carl Haas among his friends in the car business. Schmidt also wanted to have a lighter Porsche-powered car that would be more competitive than the then-aging and comparatively heavy RS Spyder. Schmidt attended the Grand Prix of Puerto Rico in November of 1962, where he met up with Carl Haas and Huschke von Hanstein, Porsche’s racing director. Schmidt relayed to von Hanstein the need in America for a lightweight Porsche sports racing car, and pitched the idea of fitting the soon to be released Elva Mark 7 with Porsche power. As fortune would have it, the SCCA announced that the USRRC (United States Road Racing Championship) would allow two-liter cars to compete for points and cash with the large sports racers in the new series starting in 1963. This news galvanized Schimdt’s and Haas’s resolve to make this project happen.

After the race, von Hanstein returned to Stuttgart and spoke to Ferry Porsche about the idea, who became interested. Meanwhile, Haas talked with Elva designer Frank Nichols, who also was interested in the project. With all parties concerned on board, Schmidt traveled to Germany to discuss the details with Ferry Porsche, von Hanstein and Herbert Linge of Porsche’s racing department. The engine selected for the new racecar was Porsche’s Type 547, 1700-cc flat-four, four-cam with horizontal fan unit, developed for the F1 Porsche. The engine features included twin plugs per cylinder, roller bearing crankshaft, a dual ignition system and was fed by dual 46 IDF Weber carburetors producing 183 hp. A 718 5-speed gearbox was specified to transfer power to the rear wheels. It was a very fruitful trip for Schimdt, as he also talked Ferry into supplying him with the new Type 771 eight-cylinder engine Porsche was developing as soon as it was ready to sell.

When it came time to name the car, it would be the Elva-Porsche, as opposed to Porsche-Elva. Ferry was not comfortable with his name on the car first. Although successful and well respected in the racing community, Elva had only been in business for seven years at the time. Lola, also a British manufacturer of lightweight sports racecars had structural issues when fitted with too powerful an engine, and Ferry was concerned the same might be true of the Elva. Porsche thought Elva-Porsche would be best, just in case the car was not a success. This was officially the first time a non-Porsche chassis would be joined with a Porsche engine with the full support and blessing of Porsche.

Back at the Elva factory in England, Frank Nichols began working on modifying the chassis of a Mark 7 to accept the Porsche engine. Nichols was aware of Ferry’s concerns about the structural integrity of the frame, so he made sure it was beefed up accordingly. Because the flat-four Porsche engine was wider than the engine the frame was originally designed for, it required heavy modifications. The tubular space frame was totally redesigned from the cockpit bulkhead all the way back to accommodate the wider engine. Changes in the rear suspension were required as well, plus the brakes were upgraded from Girling discs to larger 9.5 inch Formula One discs to help tame the more powerful Porsche engine. The fiberglass body was altered as well, to accommodate the cooling air intake and carburetor velocity stacks.

Porsche delivered a specially modified 547/5 engine to Nichols and the first testing of the prototype was done at Brands Hatch in the summer of 1963. One of the tests illuminated the need for different gearing. Porsche cars all ran 15-inch rims, while the low-slung Elva ran 13-inch rims, thus changing the final drive ratio. The gears were changed with good results. After the initial testing was completed, Porsche sent Herbert Linge to England to test drive the car. After receiving Linge’s blessing, the first Elva-Porsche was ready to be sent to America

Coming to America

In late August of 1963, shortly after the last testing in England, the painted yellow Elva-Porsche was carefully loaded on a Pan-American jet and flown to O’Hare Airport in Chicago where an eager Carl Haas and Ollie Schmidt where waiting. Haas wasted no time, putting the new car to work on the track right away. On its first outing the little car set a track record at a short course track called Wilmot Hills Wisconsin, with Hap Sharp behind the wheel. Although their first race with the Elva was very successful, the real goal was to run the car at the prestigious USRRC Road America 500 at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, which took place only a week later. The race at Wilmont Hills was the perfect time and place to shake down the new car and have Schmidt’s “Team Tin Can” get to know the car.

The Road America 500 was filled with around 60 serious, modified and GT machines that included E-Type Jaguars, Cobras, Scarabs, Corvettes and Ferraris all running together. This would be the true test for the Elva-Porsche to see if it would hold up mechanically and be competitive with some very powerful cars on the track that day. Piloted by noted Porsche driver Bill Wuesthoff, the Elva-Porsche ate up the course, breaking ahead of all the other cars with the exception of Don Sesslar in a Porsche RS-60 and a Cobra driven by Ken Miles, with the lead changing many times. Wuesthoff was getting fatigued when he pitted and Haas was scheduled to take over as a co-driver if necessary. Wuesthoff thought he could run the entire race himself, and the car was fitted for his driving position, not Haas’. Haas asked Augie Pabst, who had just turned over a Ferrari GTO to Roger Penske, in 4th place after completing his scheduled 60 laps, to drive the Elva-Porsche. Pabst was about the same size as Wuesthoff, so he jumped in and started driving, even though he had never driven the car before. After spinning out on Turn 5, Pabst ran the final 39 laps brilliantly, outlasting the bigger cars and becoming the first under-two-liter car to win the Road America 500 with an average of just over 84 mph.

A press release was soon prepared and sent out announcing the Elva-Porsche and the formation of a multi-car team by Ollie Schmidt:

“Formation of a team of five Elva-Porsche racecars aiming for the under-two-liter championship of the United States Road Racing Club and the United States Auto Club in the forthcoming 1964 racing season was announced here today by Oliver C. Schmidt, president of Porsche Car Import, Inc., Northbook, Illinois, Midwest Importers and distributors of the German-made car.”

It goes on to explain the victories at Wilmot Hills and the Road America 500, then about the car and the ambitious plans for the team:

“Schmidt believes that the debut run is only a hint of what the production models now being completed can accomplish. The five production cars will be raced in April to point out the excellence of the Porsche line. The Elva-Porsche is a blend of the excellent Porsche four-cylinder engine, created by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche of Stuttgart, West Germany, and the Elva Mark 7 chassis, created especially for this car by Frank Nichols, managing director of Elva Cars Ltd. of Rye, Sussex, England, through the aid of the Elva U.S. distributor Carl Haas. Power-to-weight ratio of the new racecar is 400 horsepower per ton, making it equivalent to a Grand Prix model.

“Schmidt also sees the racing team, affectionately known as the ‘Scuderia Tin Can’ team, as an excellent vehicle for promoting various components used within the car and is offering a limited number of companies the opportunity to join in the sponsorship of the team.”

Haas and Schmidt were pleased with the car and their fabulous victory at the 500 race, and even more pleased when they received 15 orders for Elva Porsches, priced at around $11,000 each. Schimdt ordered four cars, not the five, as the press release mentioned above for his team. Team “Scuderia Tin Can” remained competitive and was seen all over the United States in 1964, hauled by the team’s red Chevy heavy-duty truck pulling a 40-foot low-bed van that also served as mobile shop for the team.

Our feature car is the fourth car Schmidt ordered, number 70P/057, of the team cars. Elva factory documents show that car number 70P/057 was painted team color yellow, built without engine or transmission and was delivered to Carl Haas in August 1964. Its first appearance on the track was on September 13, 1964 at the USRRC Road America, driven by Ralph Trieschmann and Charlie Hayes as car #74, finishing 22nd overall and 11th in class. In October 1964, it was brought to the West Coast where it ran at the Times Grand Prix in Riverside (18th overall, 8th in class) and also at the Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca (15th overall, 3rd in class) with John Cannon behind the wheel.

While most of the Elva-Porsches have the 1.7-liter engine, there were a handful of cars fitted with a 2.0-liter engine that was designed for the Porsche 904. It is thought that this car is one of only four 2.0-liter Elva-Porsches, according to Gregory Campbell, the car’s current owner since 2008, who has thoroughly researched the car’s history during the last 10 years he has owned it. The 2.0-liter engine was installed by Ollie Schmidt when it was new. Campbell’s research included meeting with Augie Pabst and Bill Wuesthoff, plus countless hours of Internet searching and phone calls over the years to trace the car’s ownership history as far back as 1968. He has found some race and ownership history for the period between 1965 and 1967, but cannot verify these facts categorically yet.

The car spent most of its life in the Midwest in late 1960s through the 1970s where it was raced almost continually by a series of different owners from the region. Research reveals that the car was painted orange in Chicago in 1968, when it blew the original 2.0-liter (#99104) engine. In the early 1970s, one of the car’s owners dropped in a two-liter Volkswagen engine, followed by the installation of a Volkswagen Type 3 engine by the next owner, in 1977.

In 1983, the Elva-Porsche was purchased by Ingo Zeitz of Germany and sent to Peter Denty in England for restoration. Denty converted it to right-hand shift and installed a driver’s-side-only roll bar. Another two-liter, four-cam, flat fan engine (#99108) was supplied and rebuilt by Jim Wellington. This engine was originally in a 904 that was run in the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 718 gearbox was removed and replaced with a Hewland unit in Germany around the same period. The newly refurbished Elva-Porsche was raced all around Europe from 1984 to 1986, seeing action at many different tracks, including Spa, Silverstone and Monza. It was sold to a buyer in New York in the early 1990s and shipped to the United States. It surfaced again in 2008, where it was offered for sale by a car dealer in San Diego, catching the eye of Gregory Campbell.

Back in the USA

After 19 years of vintage racing, mostly with Porsche 356s, Gregory Campbell was looking for a vintage racecar project. His criteria were the car had to be a Porsche (or at least Porsche-powered), not too expensive (a Spyder or 904 was cost-prohibitive, so it would most likely be a special) and the car had to be a good investment. A four-cam car was preferred. The last, but very important thing on his list was it had to be good looking. Campbell says, “There were an awful lot of ugly specials built in the day.” The car that checks all those boxes is the Elva-Porsche, but they are rare and are seldom offered for sale. After a thorough search, an Elva-Porsche was found on the Iinternet, located at the dealer in San Diego. Campbell bought the car and brought it home to his Vancouver, British Columbia, shop.

Although the car was running and driving, it was not race ready. “The biggest problem was the dry sump oil system, which had been cobbled together,” recalls Campbell “We ended up doing a practice day and got frustrated by so many items being substandard. We then realized we needed to go through everything before really racing it.”

Fortunately the engine was in excellent condition and the brakes were good. Various suspension parts needed replacement as well. Fortunately, parts supply was pretty good for the Elva, with most of the suspension parts being reproduced, as they are common with all the Elva Mark 7 cars. A few unique parts were sourced through word of mouth and friends and associates. Campbell installed a new seat to help fit his six-foot frame into the little car.

The body was another matter. After more than four decades of racing and the requisite repairs, the fiberglass body was still original, but in poor condition and was thick and heavy with paint. After stripping the many layers of paint the body had acquired over the years, the original yellow paint was discovered. Wanting to return the car back to as close to original as possible, many different shades of yellow were looked at, but interestingly, the color that ended up being a correct match was a modern Porsche color called “Speed Yellow.” After the body and wheels were returned to their original paint scheme, the original decals were sourced or reproduced to look exactly like the originals.

Driving impressions

Weighing in at just over 1,000 pounds, and with 185 horsepower on tap, the power to weight ratio is impressive to say the least. Driving the Elva-Porsche is a unique experience, even for a seasoned racer of vintage Porsches like Gregory Campbell, as he explains:

“The car is very responsive. It is quick to react to any input from the driver. Initially this is difficult to get used to, particularly after years of driving a 356 which is very forgiving. The car is very sensitive to suspension alignment, which must be done precisely. Everything is quick, whether it is turn-in, braking or accelerating. Originally the cars had relatively large steering wheels, which had the effect of slowing down the sensitivity to steering output. This was not possible for me since I barely fit in the car as it is. When racing you feel at one with the car. You are not ‘in’ the car, you ‘are’ the car. It performs much better on smooth tracks, as there is not a lot of suspension travel. ‘Turn-in’ is excellent, and it is sometimes difficult to make myself delay braking and keep my speed up sufficiently, especially if I have just gotten out of my 356, which is comparatively sluggish to respond. One must be very careful on throttle application as you go through the corner because, due to the torque of the two-liter, the light weight of the car and relatively small tires, the rear end wants to break loose. Braking is excellent, but it is important to get the brake bias set correctly.

“The engine is very forgiving and has a wide torque curve with useable rpm from 4000 to 7400. The shift point is 6800 to 7000 rpm, and the rev limiter is set at 7200 rpm. The Hewland transmission is not original to the car, but it is great for performance and parts, plus gear sets are readily available and inexpensive. I can gear the car specifically for each racetrack in an hour or so of work. I understand from others that the original 718 gearbox was slow and awkward to shift. The Hewland is a dogring box and shifts very fast. I only use the clutch for downshifts.”

Only 19 Elva-Porsches were produced between late 1963 and 1965, with 15 of the 19 delivered new to the U.S. Today, nine Elva-Porsches are still being raced actively, including Campbell’s car. Campbell is fun to watch on the track and he is always in the mix, running hard and competitive at tracks in the Pacific Northwest and California. At the 55th Elva Reunion at Road America in 2010, he placed 1st overall in the All Elva race. Porsche fans were treated to seeing this racecar run at the Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca in 2011. Campbell returned to Laguna Seca and Rennsport again in 2015 where he finished 5th overall and was the fastest four-cam Porsche on the track. Ahead of him were two 917s, a 910 and a 908. Among the cars that Campbell beat that day were two 917s, a 910, a 908 and a 906. The Elva-Porsche is still a force to be reckoned with on track, even today.

Specifications

Car number 70P/057

Engine: Porsche 2.0 liter horizontally opposed 4-cylinder, plain bearing crankshaft producing 185 bhp at 7,200 rpm. Dry sump lubrication. Dual-coil ignition firing two spark plugs per cylinder. Air cooled with horizontally mounted fan. Twin 46 IDF Weber carburetors.

Gearbox: Hewland 5-speed manual. (Originally equipped with a Porsche 718)

Brakes: Girling 9½-inch discs all around

Steering: Rack and pinion.

Suspension: Front: independent with unequal length leading wishbones, magnesium vertical links, coilspring dampers and anti-roll bar. Rear independent with parallel trailing arms, single top link, lower wishbone, magnesium upright and anti-roll bar.

Track: 50.5 inches front and rear

Wheels: Elva magnesium alloy. Six stud fixing. 6 x 13 front. 7 x 13 rear.

Wheelbase: 90 inches

Length: 138 inches

Width: 59 inches

Height: 28 inches (top of windscreen), 38 inches (Top of roll bar)

Weight: 970 pounds (dry)

Ground clearance: 3½ inches

Chassis: Tubular steel space frame

Body: Fiberglass

Electrical: Porsche-supplied except oil temp and oil pressure gauges which are Smiths

Click here to order either the printed version of this issue or a pdf download of the print version.