66 replies to this topic

[xbgs351]

A few years back at a historic race meeting at Winton Motor Raceway, I saw an Elfin sportscar from the early 70's and it was powered by a 302 Cleveland.

Any idea of what model it is and who owns it? It was parked next to the Holden powered MS7 which was newer and far faster.

I haven't had much luck in chasing down "Australia's Elfin Sports and Racing Cars" by John Blanden. Apparently it will be republished, but nobody seems to know when.

[Dale Harvey]

Maybe the ex Noel Hurd/Globe Products Elfin 400. It was fitted with a Ford engine.
Brian Lear should know.

[Brian Lear]

The only "big banger" Elfin Sports car originally fitted with a Ford engine as Dale pointed out
was the Globe Products Elfin 400 - which lives in Tasmania and I am uncertain if it is in
running order. The only 400 of the four built that I know is in running order is the Ex Matich,
Allen/Gibson etc car currently owned by Peter Brennan but this car is Chev powered and is currently painted dark blue. A Google Images search for "Elfin 400" shows a number of pictures of this (and other) 400's.
A copy of the Elfin book is currently on Ebay (# 8387564541) if you really want one.

Brian Lear
Australia

[Ray Bell]

The Globe car, of course, had quad-cam heads at one time, made by Globe Products...

But it wasn't a Cleveland, either. Probably a 289.

Where is the Bob Jane/Ken Hastings car? It probably doesn't have a Repco V8 in it any more (that left it way back when, going into Janey's Torana SS, I've forgotten what Ken ran in the car)...

[SR781]

I think you will find that it was called 'the Graduate m8f' it had body work like a McLaren

[SR781]

Sorry it definately was not a Elfin,i beleive it originated in Western Australia and it was owned by the owners of the MS7.

[Ray Bell]

The Graduate belonged to Stan Starcevich...

[xbgs351]

Yes it was owned by the same owner as the MS7 and it had a Canam style body. I believe that it had just been restored when I saw it. The Cleveland may have been a good choice for power, but it came at 50lb penalty compared to the 302W and 25 lb compared to the 302Boss. Was/is Aaron Lewis the owner?

I could have sworn it was an Elfin, perhaps because the M8f name was similar sounding to the MS7. Hence my difficulty in finding out what the car was.

Does anybody know anything about this car?

[Vicuna]

Aaron Lewis has sold all his Elfins.

The name Stan Keen comes to mind when Ford V8 and Elfin are mentioned

[Ray Bell]

Stan Keen indeed... he must have got the Globe car next...

[Bondy]

I think Aaron still has the Graduate??? raced by Derek Vince in the early 80s in WA. There were a couple of Boral Fords, Eric Board and Stan Keen raced them and then later Peter Middleton..... One of the Borals was still running in SA in the late 90s...

[Terry Walker]

"The Graduate" had a complicated history. I believe it was built by John Harken for Don O'Sullivan as a sports car version of O'Sullivan's Cooper Climax, using lots of assorted spares, and a Cleveland 302. It was run as a Cooper Ford. Stan Starcevich bought it and raced at as the SS111 (111 was his racing number), then the SS111B, then the Graduate, and it was variously panelled, including Matich SR3 panels. It was sold to Derek Vince, who only raced it occasionally.

Just to confuse the issue, there was the Matich SR3 owned first by O'Sullivan and then Stuart Kostera, which later aquired Elfin-like panels, before Stuart bought the MS7. And the Lola T70 later became the McLaren LT170, which had McLaren Can-am style panels.

I don't know what became of them all but I remember being in love with the Lola T70 when it arrived in Perth in 1968.

[Ray Bell]

Most likely it wasn't a Cleveland at that stage, Terry...

[Terry Walker]

Just checked my database - in '68 the SS111 had a 4.7 litre engine, ie a 289 Windsor.

[mickj]

The car was a Boral Ford raced By Stan Keen from SA

[Terry Walker]

Is this the car? Stan Keen, Wanneroo Park, '70s.

[xbgs351]

I found a picture of the Graduate M8f on the following page:

http://www.motorsnip...p?ArticleID=285

[Peter Brennan]

This was indeed the Boral Ford,was owned by a good friends of mine Mary and Peter Middelton.The Boral she owned was never a complete car,it was the front half only.They also owned the Stan Keen Elfin MR5 F5000 with the Ford fitted.During the off season F5000 races they took the back off the F5000 and fitted it to the Boral,we all called it the plug in special.Then reversed it for the F5000 races,great concept.He had great success with the Boral.He later sold both and bought Garrie Coopers MR8,which i later owned.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Terry Walker
Is this the car? Stan Keen, Wanneroo Park, '70s.

Nope... that's Niel...

[SR781]

The Boral Ford is in Sydney in Parramatta and has been for a few years,even when Jack Lewis drove the Graduate.

[Terry Walker]

I'd always assumed that the Cooper Ford / SS111 / Graduate had been built up from spares.

This article in the Visor magazine has a kick in the tail. Down the bottom right hand corner under "chassis" it reads:

"tube steel space frame front and rear sections ex Cooper from broken frame..."

It looks like the Cooper Climax chassis that O'Sullivan crashed was "Zerexed"... If so, is ther a clone of the wrecked Cooper Climax around?

[Vicuna]

Originally posted by Ray Bell


Nope... that's Niel...

And it's the ME5, not a 400

[xbgs351]

I emailed Aaron Lewis and he said that the Graduate MR8 was sold and would be racing at the Eastern Creek meeting that has just passed.

[Leo D]

[QUOTE]

Ray Bell Where is the Bob Jane/Ken Hastings car? It probably doesn't have a Repco V8 in it any more (that left it way back when, going into Janey's Torana SS, I've forgotten what Ken ran in the car)... [QUOTE]

My source on the Ken Hastings Elfin 400 tells me that the "complete" damaged car was purchased off Bob Jane including Repco V8 engine. The car was rebuilt retaining its Repco power source which continued to be used until the car was sold.

Weren't both cars competing at the same time.... roughly 1971/72... in Repco V8 trim....
Is it not impossible for the same engine to be in 2 cars at one time?
The Torana V8 was from another source other than the Elfin 400?

[cosworth bdg]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ray Bell
[B]The Globe car, of course, had quad-cam heads at one time, made by Globe Products...
These heads went to a new owner in Sydney, along with the casting patterns, and were fitted to a racing boat / skiff........

[Peter Brennan]

The Jane/Hastings car went onto Terry Southall , from memory fitted a ford 302 small block,then ended up in Gavin Sala's shop as a bits car.There was an owner between which could have been Chris Hocking.Was sold to Western Australian Alex Rorrison who had Graeme Brown rebuild the car to the Jane /repco spec.The car resides in Western Australia.

[Brian Lear]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Leo D


Where is the Bob Jane/Ken Hastings car?

Elfin 400 #BB67-3 is currently owned by Alex Rorrison in Western Australia and AFAIK is
slowly being restored to its original specifications.


Weren't both cars competing at the same time.... roughly 1971/72... in Repco V8 trim....

In the 1971/75 period it was owned by Terry Southall and ran a Chev V8 engine.

Brian Lear
Elfin Register

[275 GTB-4]

Brian....it would be very interesting if you could also expand on the history of the Milano family of racers sometime.....lightweight bodies and reasonably powerful in-line six engines are a good combination

[Leo D]

Brian,

Out of interest, what dates do you have regarding Ken Hastings owning/running the car?

[Peter Brennan]

Brian was right on,the car ran a chev with Southall in the early 70's.Hastings traded the 400 RepcoBrabham on a McLaren M4A that Ray Gibbs had,Ray sold the Repco to a boat racer.Terry Southall bought the car off Gibbs less engine and trans.What happened between Southall and Sala's workshop i have not been able to establish yet.

[Leo D]

Peter,

So does this mean that the Repco V8 that ended up in the Jane Torana S/S is not the Repco V8 that was in the Elfin 400?

[Brian Lear]

Originally posted by Peter Brennan
...............What happened between Southall and Sala's workshop i have not been able to establish yet.

Peter
This is the history of 400 #BB67- 3 as best I have been able to ascertain. The dates may not
be exact and there is a grey area prior to Sala. What we need to know is - who did Sala aquire it from..

Original Owner Jan 1967 Bob Jane [Vic] Repco V8 4.4 litre
During Jane's ownership it was driven by Spencer Martin, Ian Cook, Allan Moffatt, Bevan Gibson.
[70] Ken Hastings [Vic]
?? Tony Osborne /Ray Gibbs [Vic]
[71] Terry Southall [Vic] Chev V8
[75-78] Rod Dale [NSW]
[78-83] Ted Dunford [NSW]
?? Barry D’Hoedt [NSW]
???
[86] Gavin Sala [Vic]
[91] Chris Hocking
[95 - Current] Alex Rorrison [WA]

Brian Lear
Elfin Register

[Peter Brennan]

Leo
My informant said that the Hastings RB went into a boat.I know that Jane had a number of Repco engines in the shop in Melbourne.He was flooded some years ago and most of the engines were badly damaged.I will ask Don Halpin,he may be able to help.

[Eshe]

Brian,

Regarding Elfin 400 #BB67- 3, I can confirm that Barry D'Hoedt purchased the car from Ted Dunford. Barry ran a genuine small block 304 cubic inch Chev motor coupled to a 5 speed ZF box that came from a Lamborghini. He fitted a triple plate clutch and changed the nose and a few other things but he didn't specify what they were. He sold the car to Gavin Sala who he believes changed it back to original Elfin spec.

[cosworth bdg]

Originally posted by Vicuna


And it's the ME5, not a 400

If i have my facts correct, the late Tony Alcock ex Birrana Cars, had a lot to do with the ME5 for Neil Allen ,when it was in his possession..........

[Leo D]

So the restoration of the Elfin 400 in question has not been completed yet?

It will be again Repco powered on completion?

Just going of on a slight tangent.... Another thread talked about the ME-5 being for sale... Has it changed hands yet?.... If so does anybody know if it will be returned to original spec?

[Brian Lear]

Originally posted by Eshe
Brian,

Regarding Elfin 400 #BB67- 3, I can confirm that Barry D'Hoedt purchased the car from Ted Dunford. Barry ran a genuine small block 304 cubic inch Chev motor coupled to a 5 speed ZF box that came from a Lamborghini. He fitted a triple plate clutch and changed the nose and a few other things but he didn't specify what they were. He sold the car to Gavin Sala who he believes changed it back to original Elfin spec.

Many thanks for that information - Another small mystery solved thanks to TNF.

Brian Lear

[Peter Brennan]

Leo,
BB67-3 is almost restored to original spec with the RB.The ME5 is still for sale in Germany.
Peter

[Leo D]

Thanks Peter....

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by 275 GTB-4
Brian....it would be very interesting if you could also expand on the history of the Milano family of racers sometime.....lightweight bodies and reasonably powerful in-line six engines are a good combination

You could check this out... from Motor Racing Australia's Fast that's Past series:

Fast That’s Past – Milano GT2 Holden



Built to prove a concept, these cars put their owners ahead of most in the fields and won enough prize money to pay their own way.



JWF Fibreglass Industries built a lot of kit-car bodies through the late fifties and early sixties. Most popular were the Milanos, which initially came as open cars, but were joined later by the Milano GT model as well.

These bodies found their way onto a whole range of chassis, were powered by many different engines, were used on both road and track. But JWF changed course and no longer built sports car bodies as other business proved more profitable.

The partners in JWF were Ian ‘Sam’ Johnson, Geoff Williams and Grant Furzer. The others had all gone their separate way by 1962, so Sam continued with a team of workers building the bodies and making other fiberglass products.

In time, work of a more industrial type took over. Engine covers for concrete mixers, underground power boxes and liferaft boxes for ships became much more common around the factory than car bodies.

But the bug wasn’t gone yet. Sam had been racing in a kind of partnership with earthmoving contractor Bruce Leer for years, they still went out to the race meetings and they still thought about going racing again. In fact, they still had some parts left over from when they ran their 179-engined Milano GTs.

These cars were built on a simple twin-tube chassis, a better option than some others that carried the Milano bodies were mounted, but hardly state of the art.

Not that ‘state of the art’ was a part of their musing. In fact, as their friend Moss Angliss raced his Lotus Super 7 at the Sydney circuits, they recognised how effective it was and how the fundamentals of this car and its ilk could be used with the more powerful Holden red motor.

Around this period Sam had a bit to do with Frank Matich. The SR3 program was well in hand and as Sam looked over the chassis of this car he saw the basic simplicity of it. So another component of the musings added to the final layout that would ultimately become the GT2.

Two cars were ultimately laid down. Bruce did the chassis work, Sam did the body, which entailed making almost twenty separate pieces, with some bonded to the chassis for additional strength.

Body styling started out ‘something like the Lola GT’, according to Sam, but with the major difference that they were to have a long nose and the driver sat right back in the same position he would in a Clubman car.

With modeling coming from the precursor to the Ford GT40, it’s easy to understand why some of that car’s lines are present too, but by and large the cars came out looking quite unique. Both of them were painted black, which possibly accentuated their appearance.

The one styling‘cue’ that might have been a departure from the ‘purely purposeful’ look was the dual headlights tucked in underneath Perspex covers at the front. The ubiquitous EJ Holden stop/tail/blinker lights at the rear were exactly what one would expect on a car of such a heritage.

Though it was right in keeping with the Lola GT theme – that car using the equivalent cluster from a 1963 Ford just as Johnson used his from the 1963 Holden.

The cars were completed by late 1970 and made their race debut at Oran Park on September 20. But the game plan had changed a little before that first race meeting was achieved.

“My wife didn’t want me driving any more,” he recalls, “and when we went testing we took young Mossy along with us.” Moss Angliss had been in England for 12 months, but on his return helped Bruce Leer with the second chassis.

The cars were very raw at this stage, needing some preliminary sorting. “I thought it handled like a pig!” was Sam’s feeling about the car. “Bruce got used to it but Moss was quick!”

Having come out of a very quick Lotus Super 7, Angliss was right at home with the car and reveled in the extra torque and power. Leer and Johnson had set out to build a ‘glorified Clubman’ with plenty of reliable power and had achieved that aim with good looks to match.

The balance was well addressed with the engine being fitted well back and the car was light despite the somewhat heavier hardware that it carried.

Behind the Holden 179 engine came a BMC gearbox. “We used the MG Magnette housing,” Leer recalls, “because it had the clutch slave cylinder up on top rather than down the bottom ready to drag on the road.” No doubt it also gave clearance in an area where space was precious.

The round tube chassis used wide outer beams to provide strength in the cockpit area. These were to be tested a couple of times in race use, standing up well both times, and were basically copied from the SR3 chassis.

It was in this area that the body was bonded to the tubing, but forward of the firewall the triangulated tubing carried all the loads.

The front suspension used HR Holden uprights and brake components, with fabricated wishbones linking them to the chassis. Spax adjustable shocks, just new on the market at the time, were used with home made ‘coilover’ fittings.

At the rear there was a simple Holden axle housing with a lower A-frame trailing from the chassis beneath the centre and a trailing arm at each end to brackets on top of the axle housings. Koni dampers and coil springs provided the suspension media.

Again, simple HR Holden brakes were used, the drums being complete with the handbrake mechanism unlike many sports cars of the period.

“Even the handbrake was standard Holden parts,” says Leer. “They used to have short cables out of the backing plates that linked up to a longer cable that went to the handle under the dash. We just used the standard rear cable setup.”

While the engines had some serious head work and were fitted with triple inch and three quarter SU carbies, very little else was done to them. They weren’t balanced, they didn’t have baffling in the sumps, there were no forged pistons or aftermarket rods. These latter items were very rare at that time.

The gearbox carried close ratio MGA competition gears, so first was good for a very high speed when combined with the revvy free-breathing 179 and the tall-ish standard Holden rear axle ratio.

Adjustable anti-roll bars were fitted, though Johnson doesn’t recall them ever being adjusted. The brake balance was achieved by boosting the front discs and leaving the rear drums unboosted, the tandem master cylinders also having a balance bar.

It was in this form, on 8” front and 10” rear steel 13” wheels and wearing standard (for the day) Dunlop racing tyres that the cars arrived at their first race meeting. That was at Oran Park on September 20, 1970.

They looked stunning, a pair of shining black GT cars with a high standard of finish (which extended into the car, with proper dashboard and console covering), and they showed up well in the racing.
Well, except for Leer’s spin that is.

In their class of racing at the time, John Goss had been doing very well with his self-built Tornado, which was a rear engined car using a Falcon six. It was only at the first couple of meetings at which the Milanos ran that Goss still had this car, otherwise they might well have developed into serious competitors for each other.

The racing wasn’t top level, of course. It was the kind of racing that attracted the now-aging Lotus 23s, Clubman cars and things like the Chevron B8 BMW. It was the racing that happened in support of almost every major race held at the time.

The Bruce Leer car was generally better equipped that the Sam Johnson/Moss Angliss car. It had a little more power, it seemed, and was first with add-ons like the Detroit Locker fitted to the diff at one point.

“Without that, coming out of a corner was like driving through a torque converter,” Leer remembers. “The inside wheel would be spinning, but with just enough traction to put some drive into the car until finally it would get grip to put all the power to the road.”

It has to be remembered, of course, that these were cars built for the purpose of giving a couple of old mates a chance to go racing. They weren’t aiming at championships or major race wins, just a bit of fun beating some of their other mates out there on the local circuits around Sydney.

That they did it so well is a tribute to their design and execution. Their power to weight ratio and gearing helped them get off the line ahead of most cars, certainly the cars against which they generally raced. Then their tactics kept them ahead through the first corner and enabled them to win more races than they lost.

“We made them hard to pass,” says Angliss. “We’d go into the first corner with one of us ahead, and then the leader would give enough room on the inside for the other car to come through and we’d go side by side into the corner. Anyone who wanted to pass us would have to go right around the outside!”

With lap times around 50-point something at Oran Park in those early outings, they were to be challenged by Ross Bond’s Austin Healey 3000 – and beaten a couple of times. But mostly it was the faster Clubmans which provided the competition.

The racing was fun, sometimes furious, never expensive. They became somewhat iconic, standing out at meetings at Amaroo, Oran Park and Warwick Farm. They were always at the front of the field or nibbling at the leaders, except when Sports Car Championship races came around and they became mid-fielders.

They were always driven hard. Despite that lack of sump baffling, it seems.

“The oil light would come on as soon as you entered a corner,” all three of them agree. And it would stay on until the car settled onto the next straight. Yet only one engine failure ever punctuated their progress.

They did have a deal with a local wrecker which provided them with cheap parts, but they didn’t consume so many that the deal would become too onerous.

There were requests from others to build more of the cars, but that wasn’t going to happen. “They were just too much work,” says Sam. “There was a lot of fiberglass parts and then so many of them were bonded to the chassis, it wasn’t going to be viable.”

They made just one exception. A cousin of Frank Matich wanted one and they built it for him. This car was later completed and raced by Mike Morris and today is in the hands of Scott Whittaker.

The ‘works’ cars, however, both went in one direction. Johnson sold his first, it going to Western Australia. Bruce Leer raced on in his, sometimes giving Moss a drive, until the word came through that John Blennerhassett had written off the Johnson car and wanted to buy the second car.

It was sold and the Milano GT2 presence in NSW sports cars came to an end. It was around the end of 1973 that this happened, so they had been there for three full years making their presence felt.

Today Bruce Leer looks back and remembers the ‘terrific torque’ that the cars had, torque that enabled them to run around Amaroo in just third gear with the exception of up the straight. The cars were constantly revved to 7,500 or 8,000 and the engines lapped it up.

Moss Angliss attributes the good handling to Bruce’s chassis design. He also recalls that they tried a 202 engine, but it wouldn’t rev and so they went back to a 179. “The best thing we ever did, though, was fit a wing,” he says.

This was an aluminium fabrication that sat up on struts over the rear of the car. “At first we had too much angle on it, but that made the car understeer and we adjusted it back. From then on we could go through that fast sweeper coming down the hill at Amaroo without lifting off. It improved our lap time there by 1.2 seconds!”

Another change in the latter period of the cars’ lives was the fitting of 15” wheels. This era was one of constant change in tyres, and with ever-lower profiles becoming the norm and slicks arriving on the scene, it was necessary to take this step.

Bruce Leer, again, did the work. He made up patterns and had alloy wheels cast up for the job.
His workmanship was most severely tested, however, on two occasions when the cars were crashed.

One was at Warwick Farm, and there the front of the chassis was damaged while the cockpit and rear were untouched, the additional strength from the bonded panels doing a good job.

A new front was welded on and the car was quickly repaired. But this wasn’t so when Blennerhassett hit the Armco in front of the old control tower at Wanneroo. He broke the front of the car clean off, with that strong cockpit section saving him from personal damage.

So it was that a very simple car came to be a front runner in a class of racing where virtually anything goes. Angliss kept the accounts as they raced the cars, banking the prizemoney (such as it was) and paying out the expenses.

When the second car was sold, the three of them pocketed the money that hadn’t been spent.

That was something one rarely saw in those days, and never sees today. Just as three enthusiasts getting together with a pile of tubing, Holden parts and some fibreglassing skills would never make an impact on racing as these cars did.

They were, certainly, a car for their time.

[seldo]

Thanks for that Ray. They were quite exceptional cars really and were verrrry difficult to pass....

[275 GTB-4]

Thanks Ray....the Milano's continue to look and go fabulously

[fredeuce]

Originally posted by Bondy
I think Aaron still has the Graduate??? raced by Derek Vince in the early 80s in WA. There were a couple of Boral Fords, Eric Board and Stan Keen raced them and then later Peter Middleton..... One of the Borals was still running in SA in the late 90s...

I recall attending at the Easter 1998 Historic Races at Mallala at which time one of these competed. It was then owned and driven by SA local Ric Bertshinger. At that time blue in colour and immaculately presented.

[cosworth bdg]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by fredeuce


I recall attending at the Easter 1998 Historic Races at Mallala at which time one of these competed. It was then owned and driven by SA local Ric Bertshinger. At that time blue in colour and immaculately presented. [/QUOTE ............................................................................................................................................................................ I understand this car has a new owner........

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by cosworth bdg

Originally posted by fredeuce


I recall attending at the Easter 1998 Historic Races at Mallala at which time one of these competed. It was then owned and driven by SA local Ric Bertshinger. At that time blue in colour and immaculately presented.

........................................................................... ................................................................................................. I understand this car has a new owner........

Peter... could you please put a break in the row of dots to avoid widening the post?

[Dallas84]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ray Bell
........................................................................... ................................................................................................. I understand this car has a new owner........ [/QUOTE]

Peter... could you please put a break in the row of dots to avoid widening the post? [/B][/QUOTE]

Better still, do not use any dots at all as they add no value to the post

[normbeechey]

I heard that the ex-Bob Jane Elfin 400 may now resides back in Victoria. Is that correct?

Does anyone have any period photos of the Graduate M8F wearing the body work that now adorns the car, as seen here in a 'current day' photo : http://www.motorsnip...p?ArticleID=285

I have never seen period photos of the Graduate in that configuration.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by normbeechey
I heard that the ex-Bob Jane Elfin 400 may now resides back in Victoria. Is that correct?

See page 3 of April/May 2007 Racer Magazine Australia, there' s an item there complete with photograph.

[normbeechey]

Thanks Ray.

Anyone have an old pic of the Graduate in that 'McLaren' type clothing?

[Peter Brennan]

The Boral /Ford resides in NSW ,same owner has the MR9 F5000,not sure of his name.