• Year of manufacture 
    1964
  • Car type 
    Single seater
  • Competition car 
    Yes
  • Drive 
    RHD
  • Condition 
    Used
  • Number of doors 
    2
  • Number of seats 
    1
  • Location
    United Kingdom
  • Exterior colour 
    Blue
  • Gearbox 
    Manual
  • Drivetrain 
    2wd
  • Fuel type 
    Petrol

Description

- One of only 12 Mk VIII ever built

- Ground up restoration by Simon Hadfield Motor Sport Ltd

- Fitted with Lester Owen 2.0-litre BMW engine – minimal hours

- Eligible for Goodwood Revival, Historic Sports Car Club & Peter Auto’s CER1

Introduced in 1964 the Mk VIII was the last sports-racer from Elva to be named without a hyphenated reference. Similar in looks to the Mk VII except for a number of small changes; updated bodywork, new three-spoke wheels and revised shock absorber / spring positioning, the Mk VIII was designed to be fully adjustable to suit the differing circuits at which it was to compete. Bar a small number of cars which were fitted with American V8 engines, most Mk VIII’s were mated to the well proven dry-sump BMW power plant.

Just twenty-one cars were built; 12 in Mk VIII guise and 9 in Mk VIIIS. Apart from some developmental changes the main difference was that the ‘S’ versions were built later in 1965 through to 1966.

Chassis 80/10 was built by Elva as a Mk VIII in 1964 but remained unsold until 30th June 1965 when Carl A Hass Automobile Imports, Inc sold the car to a Mr Sid Horman of Salt Lake City, USA for the sum of USD 6,100.

Raced in various SCCA events in the USA for many years, it is believed ‘80/10’ ran GT bodywork before it passed into the hands of Lee Chapman of Connecticut.

‘80/10’ was bought and repatriated to the UK by well-known racer and restorer Simon Hadfield whose workshops went about a complete ground up restoration of the car. New bodywork was fitted, and a fresh Lester Owen BMW engine installed before it was granted an Historic Technical Passport (HTP).

Acquired by the current owner in 2006, ‘80/10’ joined one of Europe’s leading race car collections and was used in a handful of blue-riband events co-driven by Simon Hadfield. Entered for the Madgwick Cup at the Goodwood Revival it proved to be extremely competitive by qualifying on the second row of the grid. Unfortunately, the car did not finish due to erroneous positioning of the rear bodywork in the collecting area prior to the race.

With the owner having numerous other racing commitments the Elva was seldom raced again and thus presents extremely well having had very little running time since the restoration was completed.

Eligible for many historic grids across Europe including the Goodwood Revival, Historic Sports Car Club and Peter Auto’s CER 1.

Photo Credit: Riiko-Andre Nuud, Riiko Photo