Engine Punk

I've just heard from Graham Allen who tells me that his Elfin 300 has now been sold and has returned to Oz. "It arrived in Tasmania last week to the safe custody of a guy who was a young member of the original team that built it. I had promised him first refusal and after testing it at Brands I decided it was not quick enough to keep up with the sports racers of the same era in the historic class I was hoping to race in. Ironically it was the same lack of cc/hp that led to it being put away 40 years ago! Anyway, it has found a good home and I can start to look for a new project." In retrospect, my closing comments about how good this car looks (see Vintage Thing No.52 ) now seem vaguely prophetic. I still think it looks gorgeous, though, and am pleased it's back home in the sunshine (although I'd like to see one in the metal one day...)

The prototype Elfin 300 looks like a sports car should look like My blog entry on the ( MAE head prompted the owner of this car, Graham Allen, to get in touch. It's an Elfin, the prototype Elfin 300 in fact, and features the MAE head on an 1150cc block. (Photos by Graham Allen) "The car is an Australian make called Elfin who were the equivalent of Lotus for Oz, making over 250 racing cars in the 60's and 70's. "My car is the prototype 300 which has a Holbay S65 engine, essentially a Cortina block with their own head, similar to the MAE one but 1150cc. You will find a few makes of downdraft head, Lucas and Holbay amongst others and they were used in Formula Junior and Clubmans 1500 series. Thus you find some heads are 1100 and others with larger valves and chambers are 1500. "I'm not sure how much of an advantage they really were as the fastest Cosworth engined Juniors were sidedraft but for cool looks you can't beat a pair of twin Webers s...