UPDATED 11 December 2006
Copy of the article in Hemmings, January 2007
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I first met Carl Swebilius a huge number of years ago I think at Mid Ohio at one of the early Elva meetings and his enthusiastic Elva ownership is second to none. He recently sent me an email reproduced here ...

I had an interesting afternoon last Friday. A photo journalist from Hemmings Motor News spent the afternoon with me and my forty one year old Elva Courier. Last year I showed the car at the Greenwich Concours in Stamford (Carl didn't mention that he took a trophy).

At that time I was approached by Hemmings to see if I would be interested in providing my car for a photo shoot. They wanted a car that had been restored for an article they were considering. I naturally have a lot of pictures from that time so I could supply them with pictorial details of “Elvira’s” rebirth. Last year the weather and schedules did not co-operate so I was contacted again just recently.

We met Friday afternoon. David Traver Adolphus showed up right on time at noon in a somewhat conspicuous van. Even the license plate said Hemmings. The first order of business was to drive around looking for a place to take pictures of the car. While there are many beautiful places in the area, the picture is supposed to be about the car, not the beautiful background. What he chose was the boat launching ramp in Milford Harbor. David liked the pattern on the ramp. He checked it out from several perspectives. Once the site was chosen, it was time for pictures.

We drove back to the shop and he spent a half hour taking pictures of the car’s interior, engine, and other details. For those of you who know my shop, the back room is now getting more machines installed. I need to find a new room for the toys.

After several runs “At Speed” for action shots, we drove down to the harbor. David wanted to wait for sundown for the dramatic colors and shading available at that time. He must have taken 100 pictures from several angles. He stood on top of his ladder out in the water for several of them. He sent this picture to me this morning. I don’t know if it’s a winner or just one of several. Whether or not it is actually published is still up in the air. It sounded like a “definite maybe,” sometime in January or February. We’ll see. Carl"

I am of course very aware of 'Hemmings' but did not know that they produced three new magazines as Dave Adolphus explains ...

Hello, Roger, Please don't feel obliged to provide anything more if you post Carl's story (I've already put it on our blog). Carl has made it abundantly clear that when the time comes, you're the one to whom I should turn for technical and historical help with the Elva.

For your background: From 1970 through 2004, Hemmings published a magazine called Special Interest Autos. It was highly regarded and authoritative, if somewhat scholarly and dry. In 2004, we ended SIA and divided its content into three new magazines, Hemmings Muscle Machines, Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car, introduced on an annual basis in that order, with Sports & Exotic appearing in the summer of 2005.

They are each glossy, full-color books, Sports & Exotic competing with titles such as Classic & Sports Car, Practical Classics and their ilk. You can browse the archive here: http://www.hemmings.com/hsx/stories/; everything from March or before should be readable.

It was my first ride in an Elva, incidentally, and I found it delightful. I do understand that Carl's car may be an exceptionally well screwed-together example of the breed. Dave

Great news that the Mk.IV Courier T-Type is to be featured with a bunch of great photographs as Dave confirms ...

We'll be running a feature on your Elva for the January issue of Sports & Exotic Car; my deadline will be sometime by the end of this month. Please advise about your schedule, as I'll be wanting to speak with you in some more depth, probably toward the end of next week. This will be a restoration story, five or more pages, fairly technical. I've just started looking at your restoration shots; they're fantastic!

So make a note to buy a copy of the January issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Cars magazine ... it promises to contain a superb Elva feature.