In 1947, Frank G. Nichols left the Army with a gratuity and some mechanical skills, he bought a small garage business at Westham. This was successful and he moved to another bigger garage in London Road, Bexhill where there was a good local following for motor sport. Bexhill (Sussex, England) was the town responsible for the very first road race on a public highway.
After gaining experience in a Lotus VI, he ordered a CSM from a Mike Chapman (no relation to Colin), achieved some notable successes particularly at Goodwood, and attracted attention from like-minded enthusiasts. He was shrewd enough to realize that this potent little car could be further improved and marketed, and very soon he was able to produce a similar chassis. "Elva" was in business! The name is a corruption of "elle va'" meaning "she goes" and, from this very humble start.
Having produced a series of sports racers and formula junior cars, many of which were extremely successful in the States, it was suggested that Elva Engineering should produce a road-going "sports racer" and the prototype Elva Courier was built in early 1958.
100 (1959)
Archie Scott-Brown had introduced Frank Nichols to a young ex-graduate called Peter Nott and, with the financial support of a distributor from the States, Frank and Peter designed the Courier with a ladder frame type chassis. It had to be a sports car that was relatively simple to manufacture, be competitive on the track, and easy to maintain or repair.
Much of the car was produced in-house by Elva - the power unit being the MGA 1500cc unit with matching gearbox. Three early cars were raced with considerable verve in club races in the UK, while most went to satisfy orders from eager customers in the States.
With an increase in demand, a new factory was built in Hastings and soon the improved Mk.II Courier appeared - together with the racing version named the Courier Spyder. There were many detail changes as production continued and providing the Courier in "kit" form, avoiding purchase tax, satisfied the home market. The car was supplied fully trimmed and wired, and required just eighteen hours to complete.
However, there were problems ahead when the expected Draft for the latest cars shipped to the US failed to materialize. It appeared that the distributor had been jailed for some financial misdemeanors and cars were both on route and awaiting delivery on the dockside in New York.
Despite desperate attempts to recover the situation, Elva Cars was forced into voluntary liquidation and as a result Trojan Limited bought the Rights to the Courier in 1961 and took over production.
At this time, Carl Haas became closely involved with Elva in helping to sell cars already in the States, and re-establishing Frank Nichols (and a much reduced staff at a factory in Rye) to continue producing the sports racing and formula junior models.
While some Couriers were finished at the Hastings factory, Lambretta-Trojan had massive facilities in Croydon and happened to be looking to expand at the time that misfortune had overtaken Elva. They saw the opportunity to mass-produce this pretty little sports car and soon had a revised chassis planned and a production line set up at their Purley Way works.
Courier (1962)
The Mk.III Courier and Mk.IV coupe prototypes were shown at the RAC Country Club, Epsom in September 1962. By April 1963, there were eighty cars on the order books, and it was not long before the Mk.IV roadster was on the drawing board.
This new car, with new chassis, different body styling and the option of "Tru-Track" all-independent suspension, was offered with either the MGB 1798cc or the Ford 1500GT units. In October 1963, this car was announced as the first 100mph plus sports car with four wheel independent suspension at under £1000 including tax.
Elva will surely be remembered for the beautiful ELVA-BMW GT160 coupes, of which just three were built, but were certainly the "stars of the show" at both the '64 Earls Court and Turin motor shows. Trojan had now turned its attention to Bruce McLaren, and a deal had been struck for Elva to build the first production McLaren cars. But over the next year, the "Elva" name was gently dropped as Trojan looked towards building their own F1 cars.
Courier (1963)
However, the Courier had not died. Ken Sheppard took on the production of the final thirty-eight cars, and these were probably the very best of the Mk.IV irs cars built. Parts and servicing was undertaken by Tony Ellis in Eaton Wick and he worked hard to produce his "ultimate" Courier - the Cougar, powered by a tuned Ford V6. It was extremely quick and stable at speed, but finance was not forthcoming and this proved to be the last Courier built in the sixties.
