Story of the Elva Courier
During its short life, the Elva company headed by Frank Nichols (1921-1997) produced many interesting and successful racing cars. It is one of the few British companies to have made an impact on the American motor racing scene.
Racing enthusiast and garage owner Frank Nichols, began by modifying his own race car, a British CSM (Chapman Sports Motor) in 1954. With the collaboration of Harry Weslake, Nichols successful overhead inlet valve conversion of the Ford flathead engine started his garage in Bexhill England on to even more success. Enthusiasts thru out Britain not only wanted his engine kit but also his race car, which was developed to show off his engine kit. Thus Elva Engineering was born, the name, suggested by his partner Bill Murphy, coming from the French "elle va" or she goes!
By 1957 Frank Nichols and his company campaigned and sold many sport-racing cars not only in Britain, but also in America. The U.S. Elva importer, Walter Dickson of Continental Motors Ltd convinced Nichols that a road going sport car would be successful. Backed up by the guarantee of purchasing the first year's production, Frank agreed!
Designed by Peter Nott of Elva Engineering and freelance designer Tim Fry, they produced a rather handsome car whose overall appearance did not change greatly over its lifetime. While the prototype was made from aluminum it was sacrificed as the mold for laying up the fiberglass bodies. Elva was one of the early users of fiberglass body construction. Using common British components the Elva Courier was designed around a tubular steel chassis dual wishbone independent front suspension and the live axle from the Riley 1500. A variety of engines were used at first but most were powered by the 1500cc MGA unit. As agreed upon, virtually all of the first year's production went to America.
The engine sits quite far back in the chassis and quite frankly intrudes into the passenger area. This ergonomic price is made up for in the nearly perfect 50/50 weight distribution. This coupled with its light weight made the Elva Courier successful on the race track if not the street. Creature comforts were not necessarily a requirement for sport cars of the day and the Courier pushed this exemption to its maximum. The split window, marginal weather equipment and stiff ride make the Elva Courier rather impractical for everyday use. Frank Nichols acknowledges; "It was designed to attract the die-hard enthusiast..." It became a very popular car in American production car racing where it set many drivers on their racing careers. Mark Donahue, who later went on to win the Indianapolis 500 and many other races, was National class champion on the US Road Racing Championship (SCCA) in an Elva Courier at the start of his career in 1961. Today it is exceedingly difficult to find one of these early Couriers that has not been used for racing.
The much improved Courier Mk2 appeared in early 1961. The most visible change was the curved, single-pane windshield. The improved 1600cc MGA motor pushed the Courier to over 100 mph. Disc brakes became standard up front. A major change was the new backbone tubular spaceframe chassis. This allowed improved interior comfort along with coil springs on all corners. These modifications were a major improvement over the previous design. Also by now the Elva Courier was made available in Britain as a kit. Even a coupe version was designed and announced at the 1961 London Racing Car Show.
Elva Engineering was proving itself as a successful company creating about nine Couriers per week. This was in addition to several race cars that they continued to produce. However the American importer of Elvas, Walter Dickson had run into financial trouble that eventually landed him in jail, leaving Nichols' bill unpaid for shipment of Mk2s. Unable to get his cars back from American courts forced him into bankruptcy. When Carl Haas and Chuck Dietrich took over as Elva importer Frank Nichols was able to re-establish Elva Cars Ltd, albeit to a lessor degree than before. The Elva Courier represented an attractive proposition to the liquidators of Elva's assets so in 1962 Trojan Ltd. bought the entire manufacturing operation.
This freed Frank Nichols to pursue the design and building of racing cars. He went on for several years building some very successful cars such as Formula Juniors, the Mk6 and 7 sport racers, Elva Porsche, the powerful Elva-McLaren Can-Am cars, and even Carol Shelby's King Cobra.
Meanwhile back at Trojan, they introduce the Mk3 roadster, coupe and fastback in 1962. Options such as wire wheels, independent rear suspension and rear disc brakes were all available. The chassis had been revised to move the engine and gearbox forward. While much more civilized this produced a horrible understeer. Frank Nichols and his team were brought in to rectify which he did so by moving the engine/gearbox back in the chassis.
To further improve the handling more work had been done on the chassis. Dubbed the Mk 4 T type, the front suspension and steering used Triumph Vitesse components. The independent rear suspension shared parts from the TVR and now the engine options included the much more powerful 1800cc MGB motor. Even the body was redesigned to use the Triumph Spitfire doors that provided roll up windows!
At the 1964 Racing Car Show came the announcement that Trojan would take over Nichols' Elva in total. Nichols had become frustrated by the lack of real funds for development. Sadly Courier production under Trojan had not increased, they were producing only about one car per week. Even a special Sebring version, a lightened Mk 4 T type with a 1600cc Lotus-Ford engine could not revive sales. Carl Haas was becoming increasingly frustrated by Trojan's efforts at updating and producing a car he could sell in volume.
The union of Trojan's business sense and Nichols technical ability produced one more interesting car, the GT160. With its Italian styling and powerful 2 liter BMW engine it was sure to be a hit. But production plans called for sending the chassis to Turin Italy where bodies would be fitted and the completed cars sent back to England for final details. This along with other factors doomed what might have been a wonderful car to a total of only three.
By 196? Frank Nichols left Trojan to pursue other interests. Trojan was eventually absorbed by McLaren, and since Courier production never matured under their control in 1965 they agreed to Ken Sheppard's terms for his Customized Sport Car company to take over production under license. Ken Sheppard completed assembly of about 40 Couriers (Mk 4 T Type roadsters) and even tried to promote the GT160 with little success. Tony Ellis Sport Cars Ltd worked the U.K. market and actually built a Ford V6 powered Courier coupe. But this prototype was crashed in 1969 and alas the Elva Courier passed on.
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