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By
EWAN KENNEDY
1 January 2007
The Elfin is finally going to hit the big time in the Australian
car market. Well, big time by the standards of relatively rare sports
cars.
Unless you are into motorsport, the name Elfin may not mean a
lot to you, yet the Australian automotive company, founded by
racing car driver Garrie Cooper, has been around for close to 50
years. It built its first Streamliner in 1959 and introduced the
Clubman model in 1961.
Now Elfin is to be run by the same people as HSV, giving it a
huge boost in the behind the scenes work needed to make any
product a success in this day and age. Tom Walkinshaw, famed for
the hot Commodore that proudly carries his name, operates
Walkinshaw Performance and that company has just acquired Elfin
Sports Cars.
A full dealer network is still to be established, with first
option being offered to current HSV dealers.
Today's Elfin MS8 Streamliner uses a Holden V8 5.7-litre engine
and six-speed manual gearbox and is a tiny lightweight sports
machine with a body designed by the famed Michael Simcoe, the guy
who penned the third-generation Monaro. The MS in the Elfins’
names aren't taken from Simcoe’s initials, it’s simply a
coincidence as the cars have previously used tags like Elfin ME
and Elfin MR, shame about that, it seemed like a nice tribute to
Simcoe.
So there's has been a strong connection between HSV and Elfin
for several years, one that has now really come to fruition. Let's
hope this can really work for Elfin as the company has hopes of
big exports as well as sales in Australia. It would be great to
see Aussies make a name for themselves in overseas markets.
For those of you who feel the Elfin Streamliner is a bit soft
(even namby pamby!) there's also the open-wheeler MS8 Clubman. A
minimalist car if ever there was one.
The chassis and suspension beneath these pure sports machines
were done by Elfin itself, very much to racing car standards, with
adjustable settings and huge brakes.
Holden's 5.7-litre alloy Gen III V8 engine offers huge
performance in a car weighing just 1100 kg, so the Elfins can do
the zero to 100 km/h sprint in a brain-sizzling four seconds.
One of the first things the new Elfin organisation has done is
to trim the prices of both models. The Streamliner MS8 has a
recommended retail price of $119,990 and the Clubman is now
$98,990.
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Marque Publishing Company
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