Elfin Type 100 monocoque

The first two numbers of the serial number indicate the build year and they really just evolved suspension wise over the journey, Mk 1 was 1964 and 65. 1966 saw Mk 2s arrive - though I think the first of the Mk 2 s still had inboard suspension all around. 2C saw out board rears and 2D saw outboard fronts as well. I don't believe engine size had anything to do with type designation. I reckon the tubs for all of them came off the same jig and they built them in batches of four to six, depending on who's memory you're relying on

Bob Mills' car - described as a Mk 111 had type 600 suspension fitted from new and can definitely be viewed as a one off of sorts - Bob was one of Garrie's right hand men at the Elfin Works and as I understand it, the car was built on the premises, after hours with Garrie's blessing a couple of years after the Mono had been superceded by the type 600. I'm assuming that it and the Milton car may have been built up on tubs that were on hand after they got going with the type 600s and 300s for that matter. I guess the Mills "Mk3" is a" Friendly Foreigner".

The "crate" car is Mono M6442 -a mk1 originally owned by Bill Pile. Deane Clough was the next owner during 1966 - 68.
By late 1966 the mk2C rear suspension had evolved and I suspect Clough had the rear modified during this
period. The next owner was Tony Maw and I agree with Paul Hamilton that the posted photo was taken as the car was
being crated for shipment to South East Asia. The car is currently owned by Graham Hoinville.

The "crashed" Mono is post 97 is MD6755 which was Garrie Cooper's third Mono. The next owner was Deane Clough.

The Mono mentioned in post 90 - Alfredo Costanzo at Warwick Farm in 1971- is MD6756 , which was originally owned by John Ampt.

Brian Lear
Elfin Register

That photograph of the crashed Dean Clough car is interesting.

I recall seeing that incident unfold in the braking area approaching the Northern hairpin at Mallala. It was quite a scary sight watching that car cartwheeling down the track and off into the dirt on the outside of the track. With that image in mind it is amazing to see how limited the damage was.

As I recall it started as a consequence of a touch between Clough and Cooper. That Queens Birthday meeting in 1968 was all a very long time ago.

Excellent ID of the crate car fellas. Brian points out that the shockies are actually mounted upside down!!!

Here's another couple that I reckon are easier, sorry about the photo quality, I've increased the contrast and mucked around with what was a fairly badly overexposed slide.

Graham Howard's article that appeared in Racing Car News in June 1967 dealt with all the competitive open wheelers of the day down to ANF 1.5 Litre. It read in part in dealing with the 1.5 litre class

"The 1967 season will see many new competitors in this category. Of last years 'names' only Mike Champion, Ian Cook, Glyn Scott and Garrie Cooper are still running 1 1/2s - Harvey, Bartlett and McEwin have gone on to 2 1/2s. Perhaps because they are running Elfin Monos, the most popular of the twin-cam 1500s, the majority of the 1 1/2-litre boys are southerners.

Elfin Monocoque

Elfin refer to this car as the Type 100. It is a very slim monocoque reminiscent perhaps of a Lotus 27 on first sight, but altogether smaller and sharper. Great effort has been given to reducing drag, and to this end both front and rear suspension units were originally placed inboard and operated by pushrod struts from the wheel hub carriers.
A further item of design was Elfin's method of of locating the rear wheels to the rear of the monocoque unit, which ended before the bell-housing: a trailing wishbone with very wide base at the chassis end, replaced by the orthodox radius arm and single transverse kink for the top member of the suspension.
This caused a few raised eyebrows and has recently been the subject of modification, both unofficially and officially (in the new Mk 2 and Mk 2b type 100 in the last case). The Mk 2 also has many other detail chassis changes. If the Elfin Mono is, in fact, a tricky car to drive, the Mk 2 series will presumably be better - and the Mk 1 is obviously being driven by some talented pilots.
The finish of Elfin cars has always been of world class and their workmanship is legendary. The Monocoque- at least as far as this writer is concerned - is also one of the most successful racing cars from a simply styling point of view, managing to be at once both a delicate lightweight masterpeice and a deadly serious high performance machine.

Garrie Cooper's present car is Mk 2b, with outboard front coil/shocks and an Elfin/Hewland four speed gear box. It runs Firestone tyres on 7 1/2" and 9 1/2" Elfin 13" wheels. The engine is an Elfin-built Lotus twin-cam unit, still with a cast crank, and is modified to yield 160 h.p. at 7500 r.p.m. The car was completed in April '67, and has so far had one race, finishing third. It is painted red and silver, and, like all works Elfins, uses BP fuel and oil.

Ian Cook's Mono is his second, the first of the Mk 2s. Engine output is the same as Cooper's, as are wheel sizes, although Cook uses Dunlops. Weight of the wheels is quoted as 11 lbs rear, 8 3/4 front! This car uses a five speed Elfin-built gearbox. Cook has won the '66 Lucas-Davison Championship, and is equal first with Clive Millis (in Cook's last year's Mono) in the '67 scoring so far. Cook has owned this car since December '66, buying it from Garrie Cooper. It is painted very dark blue and is supported by BP.

Clive Millis is demonstrating that the Mk 1 is still a very competitive car. Claimed power is only 145 b.h.p. The gearbox is the usual four-speed close ratio VW as converted by Elfin, and wheel sizes appear to be the same. This car is painted black, with a yellow and green nose band, and is also BP supported. Before being bought by Ian Cook it was owned by Granton Harrison. Millis began racing with an MG special, moved on to an FJ Holden, then a Lynx (which could have been Kevin Bartlett's) then back to an FJ, which was written off at Calder in 1965.

John Walker and Stan Keen are at present not very well known outside South Australia, but both plan to contest the Gold Star series this year. Walker's car ( in the published article the accompanying photo by Rod Gibb shows inboard front shocks) is a Mk 2, completed in September '66. It has a claimed 160 b.h.p. from its twin-cam Ford motor after Elfin modification, has the four speed box, and has equalled the Mallala time set by the Mk2b. Sponsored by Gilbert Motor Bodies, it is painted green and gold.

Stan Keen's is a Mk 1, similarly equipped to Walker's although having 10 b.h.p. less. It has, however, lapped Mallala in the same 1:20.0. This car uses Dunlops too, and the four speed gearbox. It is painted red and silver, and Keen himself pays all the bills. The car was first owned by Malcolm Ramsay, and until the t/c head was fitted had used both downdraft and conventional pushrod 1500 Cortina engines.

In Victoria, there has been no stronger Elfin supporter than Jack Hunnam, who now runs a Mk 2, though without the success he has had with some of his earlier cars. His Mk1 chassis, less engine, appeared at the May Warwick Farm meeting using a 1500 Lancia V-4 in place of the original 1100 Ford, entered by Jim McGuire and driven by Noel Riley.

Yet another twin-cam Mono is Dave Collins', which he bought from Bob Jane. This is a Mk1 with all the good gear, and Collins has made a promising beginning in such a demanding machine."




Edwardstown Elfin Works circa April 1967 - Dad's photo (not part of the original article shows Garrie's Mk 2D, I'm pretty confident that it's the car completed in April '67 and the newly completed 300 next to it tends to confirm it).

Edited by SJ Lambert, 26 November 2011 - 02:06.

I wouldn't make any bets on the shocks being 'upside down'...

Not something any kind of mechanic would do, after all.

I wouldn't make any bets on the shocks being 'upside down'...

Not something any kind of mechanic would do, after all.

I’m pretty sure they’re inverted......

Edited by SJ Lambert, 09 December 2017 - 08:58.

They had tapered tube extensions mounted on top of their shafts to extend their length without increasing weight by too much...

The irrepressible Brian Rawlings, probably at Elfin at that very time, later uses some of this material in one of his 'Mileage Marathon' entries. He related with glee about how the boffin types would look over each entry, and they all stopped and looked at his, in particular this tapered tubing section that was a part of its frame.

"Where did you get the tapered chrome moly tube?" they would ask.

Brian, of course, had to be honest with them. "That's not chrome moly," he'd explain, "that's Namco!"

And so they all went away believing there was some mysterious new material in use here.

That's probably where Garrie got the stuff too.

Garrie's Mk2 Prototype MB 6550 showing front top arm attachment point forward of the lower arm attachment point.

John Walker's MC 6652 - The first of the Mk 2C variants. John is seen here getting a race win with the car in it's debut meeting at Mallala Dec 28, 1966 at the South Australian Tourist Trophy meeting, where Noel Hurd won the Trophy in his Type 400 Elfin. Norm Pengelly didn’t have time to make up extractors for the Mono, so instead ran four pipes out the back. Thanks to John Lemm for supplying the pic. (Did you take the photo John???)

Ian Hobbs has supplied this shot of Mel McEwin's Mono - Stobie poles identify the setting as Mallala - we're strongly inclined to 1965 as the year, anyone care to nominate the meeting date??

My quest for colour shots of the Hotchkiss Mono continues too. It may have been a similar colour to this one...........

Edited by SJ Lambert, 22 December 2011 - 13:24.

Refering back to Ray Bell's post numbers 10 & 11 (?)

You are right Ray, Noel Riley was the first driver of Jim McGuires Elfin Lancia. Brian Page came along a bit later. (I believe Brian was able to contribute a bit of finance to the project.) Here (Hopefully!) are a couple of photos that I took of the cars first shakedown runs at Warwick Farm's Club Circuit. (In a previous life I helped Noel with his Honda sports car and I went along with he and Jim on this day.) I think that I have some more slides from that day. However they are somewhere in a 'safe place' hopefully I can find them and scan them.

Regards
AlanH

Thanks Alan , they're fantastic! Would love to see any more that you are able to turn up!!

What was the engine capacity?

Cheers James

Edited by SJ Lambert, 27 January 2012 - 20:27.

Thanks Alan , they're fantastic! Would love to see any more that you are able to turn up!!

What was the engine capacity?

Cheers James

I'm pretty sure the engine was a 1400 V4.

Regards AlanH

I'm trying to find the date for the McEwin Mallala pic... if it is Mel's car...

The colour is dead wrong! His was a pale blue. But he was at Mallala on June 14 with a newly-fitted Twin Cam, while October 11 he ran it again. All of which seem to be some time before he fitted the modified nose.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Alan, and I'm sure Carmen was there too?

Here's Stan Keen in his Mono at Mallala. I'm guessing that it's sometime during the 1967 season.

The car is as mentioned in Graham Howard's article reproduced in post #105.

The photo is courtesy of the Paul Dallwitz Photo Collection. (Thanks Paul, for letting it appear here!!)





Just getting back to the Mel McEwin car Ray (post #111), it's thought that that shot was taken early in the car's career before it was fitted with a Twin Cam head (I agree that I've certainly seen shots of it looking a great deal lighter in colour when sporting the Twin Cam).

The shot where it has the push rod motor does seem to reveal the "repaired" nose that I think you may have mentioned much earlier................

Cheers

James

Edited by SJ Lambert, 13 February 2012 - 01:42.

I'm trying to find the date for the McEwin Mallala pic... if it is Mel's car...

The colour is dead wrong! His was a pale blue. But he was at Mallala on June 14 with a newly-fitted Twin Cam, while October 11 he ran it again. All of which seem to be some time before he fitted the modified nose.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Alan, and I'm sure Carmen was there too?

Ray, the color in that pic is way too dark. The FC in the background is also way darker than it should be.

Originally posted by SJ Lambert
.....Just getting back to the Mel McEwin car Ray (post #111), it's thought that that shot was taken early in the car's career before it was fitted with a Twin Cam head (I agree that I've certainly seen shots of it looking a great deal lighter in colour when sporting the Twin Cam).

The shot where it has the push rod motor does seem to reveal the "repaired" nose that I think you may have mentioned much earlier.

No, that's not the altered nose. I just wish I could put my hands on a pic of the car as it was at that time, it was running a Twin Cam and it ran at both Oran Park and Lakeside like it... that I saw. Undoubtedly elsewhere as well, maybe Calder or Sandown.

And it was a very light blue. That photo shows a green car that's not so light at all. I will say here and now that this is not Mel's car.

Post #104 shows Mel's car in that characteristic very light blue, though it's a very poor quality slide, so the real shade can't be made out. He may have repainted it after fitting the Twin Cam head......

I understand that it was presented in a "duck egg" (very light blue) for a time and it's that light blue that one thinks of when having Mel's car in mind, not the green shade in post #111.

I don't know whether this was a race or testing day, but I see that full advantage is being made of the available shade!

I've already put this one up on the Mallala thread, but as it features two Monos I reckoned it could get a run here too! I wonder whether the fellow propped on Garrie's Mono is Bill Pile or not?? Did he use Golden Fleece fuel in those days??

Isn't that car green and gold?

And doesn't Graham Howard's story say that John Walker's car was green and gold?

It's not John Walker's car, it was very dark green with a gold stripe and always had a twin cam. It's also the "sister" car to ours, Walker's is a Mk 2C, number MC6652 and ours is the only other Mk2C, MC6653. Both left the factory with short top front arms. Walker's car is featured in post #3 (after being modified to Mk 2D specs) and in it's original form at it's debut meeting in post #110. (There's also a front on "on track" shot of it at it's debut meeting in RCN somewhere.)

Edited by SJ Lambert, 14 February 2012 - 10:57.

Monos at Mallala, Garrie Cooper in car #2, is car #23 Bill Pile? John Walker splitting them on the grid, while awaiting his Mono, maybe. There's another Type 100 further back too.

Edited by SJ Lambert, 17 April 2012 - 10:01.

Monos at Mallala, Garrie Cooper in car #2, is car #23 Bill Pile? John Walker splitting them on the grid, while awaiting his Mono, maybe. There's another Type 100 further back too.

the Cooper car #6441?

No, it's the Mk2 prototype MB 6550.

Edited by SJ Lambert, 18 April 2012 - 13:46.

I posed a question in the 'Personal Photos' thread about Calder in 1965...

The Racing Car News report on the January round of the Joseph Lucas-Lex Davison Series, the true home of the Elfin Mono, puts Bib Stillwell on pole and in the race with an Elfin.

Is this right? I don't recall it... and if so, which Elfin Mono was it?

I'll ask around, but can't shed any light on Stillwell in a Mono at this stage, I can only presume that if he was behind the wheel of one that it was a guest drive..............

I'll ask around, but can't shed any light on Stillwell in a Mono at this stage, I can only presume that if he was behind the wheel of one that it was a guest drive..............

From memory I read somewhere that Bib was keen on taking on the sales of Elfins in VIC? Perhaps a guest drive but what chassis #

I posed a question in the 'Personal Photos' thread about Calder in 1965...

The Racing Car News report on the January round of the Joseph Lucas-Lex Davison Series, the true home of the Elfin Mono, puts Bib Stillwell on pole and in the race with an Elfin.

Is this right? I don't recall it... and if so, which Elfin Mono was it?

How about this for a good theory ? - he borrowed it from Granton Harrison and crashed it at that Calder meeting. Substantial damage sustained, particularly to the front. Borrowed it because his Brabham hadn't arrived -

Sounds more than plausible to me. Elfin Register says Bib drove it, chassis M6445, on 24 Jan 64 (though I suspect it's a typo and should say Jan 65) and another TNFer also confirms it.

SJ,have you a breakdown of which mark1 cars ran in the period with a twin/cam?
My little car I had for about 8 years,had so much fun in her,historics,hill climbs and 1/4 mile sprints,great little car once i worked out what oil to run in the VW 36hp box.
best bonus was i made a lot of friends in the historics,sadly many are no longer with us.

I reckon, without being sure, that almost all the Mark 1 cars ran a Twin Cam prior to 1970. Exceptions may have been the Tonkin and Hunnam cars.

This engine might possibly have gone into the Harrison car....

Originally posted by SJ Lambert
How about this for a good theory? He borrowed it from Granton Harrison and crashed it at that Calder meeting. Substantial damage sustained, particularly to the front. Borrowed it because his Brabham hadn't arrived.....

I think that's more than a theory, isn't it?

Granton Harrison was trying to help Elfin along, I gather. This is brought out also by Tania in her part in our book in relation to the 2.5-litre Repco-engined car driven by Malcolm Ramsay.

.....Sounds more than plausible to me. Elfin Register says Bib drove it, chassis M6445, on 24 Jan 64 (though I suspect it's a typo and should say Jan 65) and another TNFer also confirms it.

Yes, the clash with Bob Jane saw Bob as the survivor and Bib in a severely maimed car. I would wonder how serious Bib was about becoming Elfin's Victorian distributor when he had a Brabham on order... and the factory was just 400 miles away anyway.

I see it purely as Bib wanting to get some points on the board to help ensure he would win the prestigious series. I wouldn't mind betting that he already had his engine and it was in that car.

Which brings me to the picture above...

The clutch suggests that's a much later engine.

Regarding engines in Monos, I can think of the Lancia engine, I seem to recall that Jack Hunnam ran an 1100 pushrod engine. Dean Clough? I don't have any material with me to check, but there certainly wasn't many without Twinks.

That particular engine was on the workshop floor at around the time of the Clisby Mono build, I don't know when Elfins began using their "own" "Porsche" style modified in house clutches, but it's certainly possible/likely that they were doing it toward the end of 1964. They were still using them through 1967 and perhaps later. It looks the same as ours (clutch and Cosworth T/C) - It could easily be a 10 spline 7.25" clutch in the above shot. Weren't Borg & Beck ( & maybe others ) making the plates for Hewland boxes & matching flywheels as early as 1963 for Mk IV & Mk Vs?

Edited by SJ Lambert, 02 May 2012 - 11:04.

Alan Grice's mono had a pushrod with downdraft head.

Dale.

Indeed, Dale...

Of all of them I should have thought of that one!

Quite right Dale, it's a shame that the engine is long gone. Lola5000 asked which Mk1's ran Twin Cams in period. A number of those started off with non Twin Cams before "upgrading".

Alan Grice's car has been categorized as a Mk2 by all and sundry (though it's my suspicion that there was very little about it that was not Mk1. The earliest shots I've seen of it seem to show long front suspension arms indicative of a Mk1 tub. Perhaps, as it was completed after Garrie's Mk2 prototype it's become known as a Mk2...... ) and of course, it's original motor was one of my favourite Elfin ingredients..... A downdraft Holbay unit!

So, we could include Gricey's Mono with the Mk1s if we want to!

I'm not all that familiar with the differences between Mk 1 and Mk 2 Monos...

But I can tell you that Gricey's car didn't have the swept-back rear wishbones.

There's good news for all those in need of period Magnesium racing wheels.

Here's one Dad prepared earlier, new castings have been turned out in magnesium in the classic Elfin Monocoque wheel pattern style again of late and Dad is at work turning them up to finished specs again.

Apparently the same foundry has also been producing a number on Brabham patterns to.

Edited by SJ Lambert, 02 May 2012 - 10:30.

Just remind them not to let the tool get blunt...

For details, read our upcoming book.

This looks like a very, very early car to me. I think one of the images was marked "New Mono at Calder", looks like an OHV engine and there appears to be a card propped on the rear of it.
Looks like it's racing number is #30.







James

James

The "new Mono at Calder" is M6443 pictured at its debut on 30/8/64. It appears to be powered by a pushrod engine pending
the completion of a twin cam.
Hunnam usually ran with number 30 on his cars.
The RCN report of this meeting quotes "Hunnam had his beautiful new monocoque Elfin on the grid but still had some bugs to sort out on the car as he only arrived back from Adelaide a few days before the meeting"

Brian Lear

G'day Brian

Thanks for that, I was pretty sure myself that it was that car. Did Jack ever install a Twin Cam engine into that chassis? The Howard article that I've reproduced intimates that his move (up from an 1100) to a twin cam came with his next chassis, 6654.

Cheers

James

Anecdotal evidence shows that he most likely did...

His lap time in winning the Lucas-Davison opening round in January 1965 was a 49.3, not much slower than Jane and Stillwell had done (48.4) in practice, while a photo of the car at the March meeting shows the car to have carburettors on the right hand side.

Roger Waters in his (unknown possibly MD6756) Mono and MD6755 at AIR (posted for Mr R.B. Lear)

are those Firestones? biggest tread blocks I've ever seen on a race car....



Max Freeland - a happy chappy...

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 28 October 2012 - 23:02.

Putting motor size to one side how do you tell the differance between a Mk1, Mk2, Mk2d & Mk3 or any other Mk. ????????

Here's a list describing the salient features of the Monos as they evolved. Ian Hobbs put it together with some assistance from Brian and I.

Jack Hunnam Elfin Mono, Calder Raceway circa 1966-1968?
Image kindly supplied by Ray Sinclair.

Jack Hunnam has passed on in recent months according to the Elfin Owners and Drivers Club Newsletter.

As already mentioned here, Jack was the first protaganist to race a Mono, debuting his first chassis M6443 at Calder on 30 August 1964.

This, his second Mono (pictured) has been circulating very quickly at Sandown recently.

Edited by SJ Lambert, 11 December 2012 - 03:53.

There's a pic on the Autopics site of the grid of a 1965 Lucas-Davison race...

Stillwell on pole, Ampt alongside and then Jane on the outside. It says Stillwell's in a Brabham in the caption, I think we know better, don't we?

http://www.autopics....ibiznez?id=3247

Well spotted Ray. Mono for sure!

Looks like Hunnam in his behind Jane as well.


Edit - David Blanch has corrected the caption error.

Edited by SJ Lambert, 23 January 2013 - 12:09.

The Namco bits are very obvious in that shot...

Ssshhh... don't tell.