The ELVA Race Support van, a Morris Commercial PV (1947), modelled as no. S6000, has been manufactured by the highly respected SPARK company, known for their accurate and extremely high quality products in 1:43rd scale, with the detailing accurately reproduced; colour red, 11cm/4.3” long, and presented in a display case.

Many of you will be aware of the full sized van that I had carefully recreated with the help and support of classic vehicles engineers Tony Brooks, Gwyn Sparrowhawk and bodywork guru Dave Cooper, resulting in the eye-catching vehicle which has been enthusiastically seen at many UK Historic motorsports events, including Goodwood and Silverstone plus ELVA ‘home ground’ being Bexhill-on-Sea and the Hastings areas.

Long story short, as part of research for the ELVA book, published by Bull Publishing, I became fascinated by the various support vehicles that had been employed, initially by ELVA Engineering and later ELVA Cars. The mid 1940’s built ‘PV’ with registration no. ‘CDY 857’ had been bought ‘used’ by the team at ELVA Engineering from Joe Davis Motors of Bexhill in the mid 1950’s as the company workhorse alongside a Ford E83W pickup, both vehicles seen in ‘works’ photographs from that period. I decided to explore the possibility of finding a ‘PV’ and by huge good fortune one was advertised in the north of England, and most importantly it was exactly the same model type as used by ELVA. The lovely couple who were of ‘mature’ years had been using the van for visits to local Sunday car-boot markets, but were about to lose their garaging for the ‘PV’ which needs storage rather bigger than a domestic garage due to the height and overall size of the vehicle.

Once the van had been overhauled, repainted and carefully sign written using the period images for accuracy, the ‘PV’ received much attention; it has subsequently featured in many magazines, appeared at Race Retro plus a trouble free entry in the famous London to Brighton run for historic Commercial Vehicles.
The ‘PV’ is now with a new caretaker who has an important family link with the ELVA story.

This excellent model can be found at specialist model dealerships or visit http://www.spark model.com or contact via models@sparkmodel.com
I understand that the initial batch of this model has been allocated but do appear on eBay .. maybe sufficient interest could persuade Spark/Minimax to produce more. Not agreed but maybe! Do express interest as surely a ‘must have’ for your model collection!

Roger,
Happy Easter,
What were the particulars of the Ford pickup? I might be more likely to see one over here than a large Morris van. I think I've seen a photo or two of it in the background of the team or works building. I even seem to remember a former employee recalling a near incident involving dodgey brakes. Any color pics available? We're there other works support vehicles?
BB

Hi Bill ... you asked about colour photos but ..” In the UK in the 1950’s, black-and-white snapshots were still the norm. By 1960, colour was getting more common but still tended to be reserved for travel photos and special occasions. ... Instant color film was introduced by Polaroid in 1963. “ I think colour film was more easily available Stateside and there is one period photo showing the vans with their red paint jobs taken when Walter Dickson visited Bexhill (page 223 Elva book), and an image of a rather more modern pickup from the Hastings era (page 231). There was also an Austin workhorse modified to transport two cars, plus another on a trailer. When the 1947 Morris Commercial PV was decorated to represent the ELVA Engineering van, there was much head scratching by the folk who had driven the PV many miles involving umpteen hours in period, over its colour .. when asked there were blank looks, but of course at the time these vehicles were just ‘part of the job’ and such details of little significance, however lovely Len Sayers gave me the “I am not really sure but I think it was red .. or was it dark green? Ummm”. Fortunately red was chosen and sometime later the image mentioned above proved the red choice was correct ... thank you Len!
There is plenty on the Net regarding the side valve three speed Ford E83W including http://www.e83w.co.uk/e83w_elva.htm I would be surprised if there are many, if any, in the States. You will have spotted the Ashley Laminates body shell strapped onto the Ford pickup having been collected from that company and to be fitted to a Mk.1B in due course. I did commission a very small number of die cast 1/43rd models of the E83W pickup.
Have a good Easter holiday.

Very interesting link, thank you Roger. I expect your right about finding one here across the pond. I still haven't found a replacement for my dearly departed Morris Minor pickup. I think the Minor and Anglia deliveries may have fitted into a niche for small LCVs but the market for full size pickups would have been filled by domestic products.
BB