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Perhaps I could firstly present you with views which show where the cars
were built over a period of some twelve years.
Frank G. Nichols had a small garage business in London Road, Bexhill-on-Sea,
East Sussex, England, and this was to become the birthplace of 'Elva'
cars during 1955. The early cars were built in the garage workshop and
business activities included the nearby 'fish & chip' shop which was run
by Frank's older brother John.
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| First
Factory - Bexhill-on-Sea |
As the demand and interest in the cars built by the Elva Engineering Co.
Ltd increased, it became necessary to expand the workshop premises, and
further lock-up garages were found behind the 'York Hotel' a few yards
away. All these buildings still exist.
The popular L.R.G. and Elva o.h.i.v. conversions and first sports racers
were conceived and built in these rather cramped premises, but there were
soon even more pressures on space following the suggestion that Elva should
produce a road-going sports car.
The Elva Courier soon proved to be in great demand, and was an immediate
race winner particularly in the States. Despite additional space being
found in the Old Drill Hall in Ore, it was obvious that much improved
and enlarged workshops would be required. Surprisingly, Bexhill council
were not very helpful and so Frank obtained finance and supervised the
building of a purpose built factory in Sedlescombe Road North, in Hastings,
East Sussex, and the new factory opened in early 1959.
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| Main
Factory - Hastings |
It had every facility and Elva Cars Ltd. produced several hundred cars
before disaster struck in 1961 when an American distributor failed to
pay for cars received and on route. Elva Cars Ltd. was forced into liquidation,
but limited production of the Courier and development of the Mk.6 sports
racer continued through into 1962.
Frank Nichols was able to regroup and establish a reformed company (Elva
Cars 1961 Ltd.) in a smaller factory unit in Rye, East Sussex. The Elva
Mk.6 through to the Mk.8S sports racing cars were built at Rye together
with the early production McLaren cars.
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| The
Rye Workshops |
The Elva Courier production had been taken over by Trojan Ltd. and the
various Courier variants were built at their massive factory in Purley
Way, Croydon, Surrey, until Trojan finally took control of Elva completely.
Gradually the name was dropped following the tragic death of Bruce McLaren
and the Trojan entry into Formula One etc.
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| Croydon |
(The various factory views are from my own collection of Elva photographs
and are but a few of the large number in the Elva archives. If transferred
to another web site or copied, I would ask that the source is acknowledged.)
In the next part
The very first 'Elva' and the start of production
following the experiences gained in the C.S.M ... click
here to continue
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