1963 ELVA PORSCHE MARK VIIS/L

Every car has a story but few can match this Porsche Elva’s tale!

This car is 1 of 19 production cars built and is the product of two firms that devoted their capabilities to produce a new car blending the air-cooled mid-engine and gearbox of Porsche with the lightweight chassis and slippery body of Elva Cars. Fitting between the last RSK and the upcoming 904, Porsche needed a car to fill the gap until there new 4-Cam model was production-ready, The Elva Porsche was born! The RS derived 4-Cam engine was fitted with a horizontal cooling fan ‘borrowed’ from Porsche’s F1 car. Elva’s Chassis was heavily modified to fit the Furman’s 4-Cam by lengthening and riding the rear of the chassis.

The Elva Mark 7 with the Porsche Spyder 1700 cc flat-four engine used dual 48 IDA Webers, twin plugs per cylinder and a dual ignition system. The Mark 7 had a tubular space frame construction with lightweight fiberglass bodywork. Elva’s own 13′ magnesium alloy wheels were fitted on all four corners, as were Girling disc brakes. The 185 hp 4-Cam coupled with a very low weight (Just under 1,000 pounds) made the vehicle a potent and effective race car.

This Elva chassis #P77/44L was ordered without an engine and transmission and left-hand steering by Swiss Hillclimb specialist Sepp Greger. Sepp had a close relationship with Porsche and ordered the drivetrain directly from the factory. Sepp campaigned this Elva in Hill Climbs throughout Europe in 1964 before selling it to famed Porsche Dealer Vasek Polack in February 1965. For the 1965 SCCA season, Vasek Commissioned Carol Shelby’s hired gun Jerry Tittus to drive the car. Vasek had mechanic Salvator Soto Track Side to prep the car for Tittus and Dieter Insenhoffer (Andial Fame) handling the 4-Cams rebuilds. The 1965 season came to an end and Vasek raced the car only 3 more times (5/66, 8/67, 9/69) driven by Orlie Pacheco. Orlie last campaigned the car and won the Aspen SCCA Regionals in September of 1969.  Ten years later (1979) Vasek blew the dust off the Elva and sold it to Ed Templeman of Charlotte, North Carolina. Ed restored the car to its present state and in 1982 Vasek brokered a deal with Ed to sell the car to the Fames Matsuda collection in Japan. Matsuda drove the car in the Monterey Historics in 1982 then shipped the car to his Porsche museum of Japan. Following his Death, Bonham’s sold the car to a collector in Germany before the Elva came back stateside a few years later.

There were 19 examples of the specialty Elva-Porsche Mark VIIS produced. One with left-hand drive and no other with an incredible documented history like this Car!