Part One ...
Tony Ellis: the Courier and the Elva 3000 "Cougar"

From this relatively simple beginning, the Elva Courier progressively developed into a potent 'street' car that almost every owner eventually raced. Mark Donohue described the Courier as being "perfectly balanced with no understeer or oversteer characteristics. Four-wheel drifts could be set up and maintained with ease". Sales of the Courier increased in the States, with just a small number remaining in the UK, until enough cars could be built to offer them in the UK as 'kits', thus avoiding purchase tax. Various additions and modifications were made during their development at Bexhill and later in the new Elva factory in nearby Hastings. However, there was a serious setback in 1961 when the Importer was set to gaol for some financial misdemeanours, and a catastrophic cash flow situation meant that the Rights to produce the Courier were sold to Trojan Limited of Croydon. Trojan went on to build further versions of the Courier, including a Mk.III built on a square section rather than tubular chassis, and the Mk.IV 'T-Type' which featured all independent suspension and the bigger MGB rather than MGA power unit.

Eventually the Courier became less attractive to Trojan, as in 1964 they had signed a contract with Bruce McLaren, and the Elva factory, now in Rye, was contracted to build the early production big-banger V8 powered sports racers to be called McLaren-Elva, together with the last of the Mk.8S Elva sports racing cars. A very enthusiastic and more than capable Ken Shepherd took over the build of the last of the 'T-Types' on behalf of Trojan, and these cars were very carefully and individually built to order as a one family business, helped by a friends and neighbours.

Ken bought the Courier back to its hand-built ancestry rather than the production line method of building the cars, which Trojan had tried to establish, and it showed.
Note ... the enlargements of this brochure are around 135Kb each.

Ken Sheppard continued his involvement with Elva, the GT160, James Bond and even a Werewolf, but more of that at another time! Slowly the available parts and orders for the Mk.IV 'T' Type Courier came to a halt. However, this was not to be the end of the story, as Tony Ellis had been responsible for supplying spares and generally helping to keep the various Courier models active in the UK, developing the 'SE' model and a turbo-charged car, but best of all, the 'Cougar'.

During 1960, the Hastings factory had built just one all-independent car as a 'reversed rear window' coupe, similar to the Ford Anglia of the time.

This prototype car was also the test bed for a new Lockheed braking system and was registered as '96 BCG'. I owned and restored this Courier in 1980, and it was this vehicle that had given Tony Ellis the inspiration for a design that was just waiting to happen.

His enthusiasm for the Courier gave encouragement to Peter Agg of Trojan to make contact and he asked if Tony would like to buy a 'pile' of the early Courier spares. A deal was struck in 1964 and Tony Ellis (Sports Cars) Ltd. became the official parts and service provider in the UK. Tony also had a close business relationship with Bob Henderson of Minnow-Fish carburettors, then based in Wallington in Surrey, and he undertook work on cars fitted with this carburettor conversion.

The first Courier to be converted to the 'SE' specification was the prototype Mk.IV 'T' Type registered as '8148 VB', and the modifications were quite extensive. The car had first been built in late 1963 and used by Trojan before being sold to Michael Edds, and then bought by Tony Ellis before being updated to the 'SE' specification. The 'SE' modifications were intended to give the car a more relaxed feel when high speed long distance cruising was undertaken, rather than just producing more power.

Up until 1968, a total of eight of the 'SE' version were produced, two as new cars, and the other six were built from existing cars. The cost of this conversion was close to £1000/0/0d, which was a lot of money in those days. However, the cars did benefit from a well-modified 1800cc MGB power unit fitted with a Minnow-Fish carburettor and manifold, electric fan and oil cooler, special exhaust system, all of which produced 112bhp at the wheels. The car had a competition clutch, a close-ratio gearbox, and a special high-torque overdrive unit (with hold switch). The suspension was as the standard Mk.IV 'T' Type but used double action shock absorbers with external adjustments for damping and spring seats. The brakes had special pads and rear linings, the wheels were 14" x 4.5" J. wire, and you also received air horns, a high output coil, a tonneau cover, ammeter, heater and a wood rim steering wheel. Body and trim colours were to the customer's requirement, but all featured the striking nose 'flash'.

The car was capable of 130mph with an average fuel consumption of 30mpg. Although time was fast running out for the Courier, Tony still had that design for a totally revamped car running around in his head, and he set about building what is arguably the ultimate version. His dream of a fast, stable and reliable car still proudly wearing the Elva badge was to become reality in 1969 as the Elva 3000 Cougar.

By now the Trojan Company had dropped the Elva name from the McLaren series, as their dream was Formula One under the Trojan banner. Tony knew that he should pay particular attention to the aerodynamics of the new bodywork, and found that the rather blunt rear styling achieved minimum reverse pressure, this being confirmed in tests when Tony admits to having achieved 140mph in the Cougar. Special pressure plates were used, and various tests made to produce the best airflow over, under and through the nose to ensure adequate cooling to the engine and transmission, and not to create lift at the intended maximum speed of 160mph in a turbocharged model. Once the design had been completed, and the 'buck' made on one of the lightweight 'Sebring' chassis frames, Arthur Rothan, a previous employee of Elva, was asked to make the moulds for the bodies.

Arthur was a dedicated craftsman capable of making nothing but the best, having worked with Frank Nichols at Elva from 1957, and later with Trojan Limited. The prototype was built during early 1969 and as a result of the aerodynamics, the Ford V6 powered car was extremely quiet and stable, with precise handling in all conditions. The engine gave a good torque and power response throughout the rev range, with very effective braking through twin servos, although the rears were later modified to inboard discs with a limited slip diff.

The snags? Tony admits that the carburettor would ice up on damp cold mornings, the fly-off handbrake was awkward, space was a little limited, and ground clearance might be a problem with the car fully loaded. The modified V6 gave over 140bhp at the rear wheels, via 2000E (Lotus Cortina) gearbox. When tested, the car shown to be almost as quick as an E-Type Jaguar to 100mph, and with little effort the Cougar could outpace almost anything else on the road. It was described as being a neutral well-balanced racecar for the road (heard that one before?), with shattering acceleration and road holding that has to be experienced to be believed. There were plans that up to six cars would be built each week and once again the majority would be destined for the States. However, it was not to be as the financial investment required would be immense, and was not forthcoming. Just the one car was built, but a cracker!

A turbocharged Mk.IV 'T' Type, originally built in1968, was tested 1973 for a magazine, again using the 1800cc MGB engine but this time fitted with the Minnow turbocharger system. The Minnow-Fish Company had moved to Scotland with Tony Ellis remaining as the southern distributor and he was very happy to fit the turbo unit to your MGB engine for £310/0/0d. The power increased from the standard 63bhp to around 103bhp at the rear wheels, and most of this gain was felt at speeds over 50mph and in particular in third and top gears when overtaking.

Eventually Tony decided that he needed to make changes and he emigrated to New Zealand. In 1974 the de-tuned test car joined him.

Sadly, the Elva 3000 'Cougar' was destroyed in an accident and the last of the Courier models was gone. In excess of 600 cars had been built by the Elva and Trojan Companies, and many survive to be hugely enjoyed today both on and off the racetrack.