Elva Porsche

[gregorycampbell]

Elva Porsche 70P/057 History

As the owner of Elva Porsche 70P/057 and I am trying to trace the history of the car. It was built in August 1964 and sold through Carl Haas to Ollie Schmidt. Carl was the Elva importer and Ollie was a Porsche distributor, both were located in Chicago. The car left the Elva factory with no engine or transmission. I understand that Ollie installed engine # 99104 which is a 2 liter 4 cam. The car is one of 19 Elva Porsches and one of 2 which originally had a 2 liter motor.

Other distinguishing features of the car are a small duck tail and brake scoops on the rear fenders. I know these features were present in 1968 but I am not sure if they are original. The car was orange in 1968 but was originally yellow.

I have traced the history back from the present day to 1968 when it was owned by Joe Jann of Elk Grove, Illinois. I understand Joe blew the motor in 1968 but I have no other knowledge of his ownership. Joe was 2nd in the under 2 liter class in an Elva Porsche at the 1968 USRRC race at Road America but I believe this was in George Dickinson’s car.

Tracing the history from 1964 is difficult because my car was one of 4 owned by Ollie who ran the Elva Porsche racing team known as Scuderia Tin Can. Three of the team cars were yellow and one was white. The Team usually ran 3 cars per event in the USRRC series in 1964 and 1965.

Of course the most interesting history for a vintage race car is the period history, which is the part I am missing. I would greatly appreciate any applicable stories, knowledge, pictures or contacts which involve Ollie Schmidt, Joe Jann or any owners or drivers there may have been between them.

[Rich Behrends]

Mr. Campbell
Have you seen this site?
http://wsrp.wz.cz/usrrc1964.html
Ollie Schmidt is listed there as a Entrant for 2 cars
one being a Elva Mk.7 Porsche and the other Elva - Porsche
How about a pic of your Elva - Porsche
Living in the Chicago area all my life I love to finding history about
all local early Porsches.
Quite possible your Elva - Porsche may have raced at Meadowdale International Raceways
in Carpentersville, Illinois

[Dave Brenny]

Fellows,
You might also check with the 100MPH Club out of Milwaukee, lots of
old and current racers there and usually show amateur films of Road
America and other local races from the era at their gatherings. I can
drum up contact info if interested.
Dave Brenny
'64SC#219829

-----Original Message-----
From: Rich Behrends [mailto:grenadebaron@verizonmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 10:40 AM
To: 356talk@356registry.com
Subject: [356Talk] Elva Porsche

Mr. Campbell
Have you seen this site?
http://wsrp.wz.cz/usrrc1964.html
Ollie Schmidt is listed there as a Entrant for 2 cars
one being a Elva Mk.7 Porsche and the other Elva - Porsche
How about a pic of your Elva - Porsche
Living in the Chicago area all my life I love to finding history about
all local early Porsches.
Quite possible your Elva - Porsche may have raced at Meadowdale
International Raceways
in Carpentersville, Illinois

------------------------
61 T5 Coupe #116076




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[Rich Behrends]

Mr. Campbell
I found this since my last post.
Don't remember the site, have looked at to many.
Carl Haas (of Newman-Haas Indy Car fame) and a minority shareholder in Elva, a British manufacturer of the ultra-low tube-frame Mark VI Elva, approached Frank Nichols, who ran Elva, about building a Porsche-powered racecar. Schmidt approached the Porsche factory. The result was the Elva-Porsche. It took too many months for the car to come together (testing first occurred in August 1963 in England) and so it didn’t race (except for a minor race at Wilmot Hills near Chicago) until the sixth of seven USRRC events. At the Road America 500 at Elkhart Lake, in the car’s first long race, the Elva-Porsche finished first overall!
So could this be your Elva-Porsche?

http://wilmothills.homestead.com/photosMC2.html

[gregorycampbell]

Thank you for your responses thus far. The #25 car picture from Rich is an Elva Mk VI. Mine is a Mk VII, as are all of the "official" Elva Porsches. Apparently the first Elva Porsche was a Mk VI that was done privately. That car inspired the whole idea. I have attached a picture of my car circa 1979.

[Frank Barrett]

Gregory:

I'm looking for an Elva-Porsche to possibly feature in a book I'm working on. What's your car's history, and what is it like now? Please contact me off-line.

Thanks.

Frank Barrett
fbarrett@aol.com
303/237-0911

[Jack Walter]

The Motor Racing Museum at Watkins Glenn has a vast collection of old racing programs (I donated some programs that I inherited from Cecil Stockard some years ago). They are a great resource to use to try to track down racing histories.

[Jay Laifman]

Hello (I'm back after a 356 hiatus, though never without a Porsche).

And an update to this thread about the first Elva Porsche. There was in fact a factory Mk6 that was built for a 356 engine. This was not the Mk7 with the 4 Cam. I have a letter from Elva listing all 28 of the Mk6s, which lists how the factory built them. Most were 1100cc Coventry Climax. Some were 1500cc Kent Ford (not cross flow). A few were 1300cc Alfa Romeo (crossflow, overhead cam). Some had no engine, set up for the buyer to choose. And ONE was "1500cc Porsche."

The car was then sold by Rand-Porsche in Chicago. Then raced by James Diana, including at the 1967 SCCA Daytona USRRC. James then listed it for sale in 1969. I can't find anything since. I'm told there was a magazine article on it at one point. If anyone has a copy I'd love to know. I do have one lead and have been exchanging emails with someone who raced an Elva Mk6 with a 356 engine after 1969 - I don't know if that's the same car. But that one disappears in 1974.

We just bought a 1962 Elva Mk6. Ours was actually one of the ones that left the factory with no engine, for the buyer to choose. Ours then had a very successful racing career, first in Canada with a Coventry Climax, then in the US with an Alfa Romeo.

We are rebuilding it with a 356 engine - and we are doing 1500cc, just like the factory records. However, we're pretty sure that Diana raced it with a 1600cc.

Here are pictures of the Rand Porsche ad that I found in Autoweek issues,

Rand Ad.jpg (14.35 KiB) Viewed 1304 times

a picture of the car racing at Daytona USRRC - a little ragged, for sure. But glorious all the same:

Note the exhaust coming out the sides, the holes above the location where the carbs would be, and the lack of radiators in front.

Here is the listing from Daytona - note that Mk7 Elva Porsches were in a different class (DSR).

James' ad:

James Diana Ad.jpg (20.59 KiB) Viewed 1304 times

And here is our car over the years, now that bright green - although a Porsche family car color, we will likely paint it silver with 550 esque stripes on the top of the rear fenders.

[Jacques Lefriant]

great!! profile http://rennfilms.com/films/gregory-camp ... s-profile/
j