I purchased Elva MK7S 70/041 on September 2012 and decided that I wanted to know that every part of the car was checked for cracks or bends and replaced before I raced her. We replaced radius arms that were cracked or bent, fixed cracked welds, replaced wheel bearings, one magnesium upright, brakes, wiring and I made a new dashboard switch box. I made new bridge tubes for the brakes, and replaced the pads. I made a custom seat with a lower back bolster and set the seat at the angle of the pedals (so it points toward the center of the car). Bought a new windscreen from Lee Chapman along with side windows and wheels. Next I sent the motor and trans out to be rebuilt along with new half shafts. The body had 6 coats of yellow paint that were just resprayed over the original during the 50 years that the car has raced. The paint was 3/16" thick so that needed to be scraped to bear fiberglass. I was not sure about the spring rates that I would use, so I bought 350# for the rear and 250# for the front. After one race weekend I knew that these were too heavy so I changed to 275# rear and 225# front. This past winter I changed again to 225# rear and 200# front. I will find out this season if these are also too heavy.

Once I had the body completely bare, I had to paint her red. The curves of the body just needed to be seen. I raced the Elva in 2 VRG events last year and I am currently making handling adjustments and getting seat time to learn the handling characteristics. This winter I raced with HSR at Palm Beach International and met some new enthusiasts and enjoyed the track. Especially because it was 80 degrees in West Palm and snowing at home. I would look forward to any advice on spring rates, tire pressures, driving technique. I'll post pictures from each event and write about my progress.

Nice car, good colour and out front!

MK7 on track

My Elva at Lime Rock. Great track for this car, but it takes many laps to be quick here. The guys that I am racing have hundreds of laps under their belts. I got down to 1:04 flat, and next year I hope to shave 2 seconds. Great group of cars, Mark7s BMW, Lotus 11, Lotus 17, Lotus 7, Ginetta G4, Brabham Sport Racer, Lola MK1 etc.