1964 Elva 7S BMW Race Car FIA

This particularly attractive Mark VIIS is widely regarded as the most successful example of its type

Raced extensively with great success in Europe from 1998 to 2002

Current FIA Papers; Period F. Class TSRC 10 valid until 31/12/2026

Laranca-prepared BMW engine currently fitted with around 12 hours running time. Hewland box

Recent success in the 2016 Guards Trophy. Qualified 2nd and (race) fastest lap

Has achieved several class wins during our vendor's ownership

The Elva Mk.VII was designed by Keith Marsden, being built during 1963 and proved to be a great success, particularly the fantastic win for the "out-of-the-box" Porsche engined car at Elkhart Lake for the Road America 500. There were 19 of the Elva-Porsche cars built, other engines included Climax, Ford DOHC, Ford 1100 & 1600, and Osca, and two cars were supplied without engines.

The Mk.VIIS was the upgraded car for 1964 when the BMW power unit became the engine of choice, and this included modifications to the chassis (particularly to strengthen the engine bay area), larger brakes with Girling AR calipers, wider wheels to 6" & 7" rims, modified bodywork to accommodate, and various other mods. The build list suggests 15 BMW powered cars were factory built, however, a number of earlier cars have subsequently been modified to BMW power and to Mk.VIIS spec. The BMW engine was developed in junction with BMW by Nerus Engineering under the control of Frank Webb based on the 1500 unit. It was offered as a race engine in 1600 and 2000 format, the dry sump system being designed by Ted Martin. Only one 1600 appears to have been factory fitted, for a hill climb car, the rest being the 2000 units giving around 182bhp. These engines are now producing more than 220bhp cleverly built by engineers like Lester Owen. It is likely that nearby Weslake Engineering would have had input into the combustion chamber design in conjunction with Nerus.

We understand that this Elva-BMW is the ex-Alain Mahé/Quinlou, Szyndelman car which was widely raced until 1997. It was acquired from Mr Szyndelman in November that year, after which the car was completely restored except for the body panels themselves which were judged to be “too good to replace”.

This car was a class winner in the Oldtimer Grand Prix meeting at Nurburgring in 1998, before being prepared to compete in Historic long-distance events. As offered here, it now features two custom-made Uniroyal moulded safety fuel tanks, a long-ratio Hewland Mark 8 transaxle, and other desirable technical features.

The car competed in the last "V de V 2 Tours d"Horloge" 24-Hour race at Ricard-Castellet, in which we are informed it set third fastest time overall. On that occasion, its drivers were forced to abandon their race after 14 hours due to nothing worse than a lost exhaust pipe. While it was running, this Elva-BMW had proved to be very quick indeed, its performance superior to that of several Chevron B8s for example which must be regarded as an important yardstick of relative market value.

In the 6-Hour race at Spa-Francorchamps, the car won its class and finished second overall in both the 1999 and 2000 events, having set a faster practice time than the monster American V8-powered Bizzarini and GT40s. Its fastest lap time at Spa was 2 mins 55.512secs.

The car then finished third overall in the 2000 Jarama 12-Hours in Spain and second overall in the Gran Premio Storico at Jerez de la Frontera prior to. winning its class in the 2001 Oldtimer Grand Prix meeting back in Germany.

Purchased by our vendor in 2016, the Elva showed its potential at Silverstone in October 2016 in the Guards Trophy for Pre-'66 GT Cars when Martin Stretton qualified 2nd fastest and was leading the race when a faulty rear brake forced a retirement. The pressure of business has meant that our vendor could not spare much time to race the little Elva but both outings (one each in 2017 and 2018) have resulted in class wins.

It comes with its FIA HTP (Class TSRC10 valid to 31/12/2026) and a mass of invoices and set up information, race results etc.

The car looks particularly attractive in Baby Blue, is evidently highly competitive, and is widely regarded as the most successful example of its type. Superbly prepared and on the button, we welcome any inspection.