$2750 book celebrates iconic Aussie auto brand

Elfin has long been one of Australia’s great, unsung success stories in motor sport competition, despite building just a few hundred cars between 1959 and 2012.

Steered by famous F1 drivers and touring car racers alike during the golden era of Australian motoring racing, Elfin sports cars have scored some remarkable wins in sports-car and open-wheeler categories both here and abroad.

Now, a new book documents the history of Elfin. Named ‘Elfin: The Spirit of Speed Ultimate Edition’, the tome sets new standards for production values, according to the publisher, and packs 704 pages of information and images of historic importance between the covers.

The book is the third edition of an existing work, ‘Elfin: The Spirit of Speed’, but this ultimate edition goes beyond the norms of printed media. Packed along with the book in its wood and aluminium presentation box, fastened with leather straps, are collectible items such as a presentation plaque taken from Aussie driver Vern Schuppan’s Elfin MR8A-C, which he drove here and in North American ‘Can-Am’ events.

The case also contains a selection of tools used by Elfin founder Garrie Cooper and his designer John Webb. Cooper died of an aneurysm back in 1982, at the age of 46, but Webb had lived until as recently as last year, when he bequeathed his body-making tools to Elfin Heritage Centre founder Bill Hemming. The tools were actually used to build Elfin bodies between the 1950s and the 1970s.

“I was lucky enough to visit Elfin employee John Webb in Adelaide one year ago and he gifted these tools to me. Later that night he had a heart attack and died. This unfortunate event has become part of the Ultimate Edition story and those lucky enough to purchase this book will have genuine tools used by Mr Webb and Garrie Cooper to build the aluminium versions of almost all the models constructed under Cooper’s ownership. It’s an incredible and unrepeatable story,” Hemming says.

In its specially-made case, the book weighs nearly 20kg and costs $2750. You read that right, $2750 is the asking price for this item, which was limited to just five units for sale. All five units have been sold.

However, Elfin fans can also purchase the previous editions: the Limited Edition – priced at $425 and aimed specifically at those who already own an Elfin sports car – and the Standard Edition, which seems positively affordable at $198.

The author of the book is well-known journalist David Dowsey, who has devoted much time and effort to capture the essence of the brand and document every Elfin model built between 1959 and 2012, after the company was acquired by the Walkinshaw Group.

“David Dowsey took five years to write this book, interviewing over 50 people who were intimately connected with the Elfin story,” says Bill Hemming.

“Members of Garrie Cooper’s family, employees, mechanics, designers, body-builders, and drivers – including Vern Schuppan, John Bowe, Kevin Bartlett, John McCormack and Larry Perkins – tell their stories in the unforgettable tale of the tiny Adelaide company which became the second largest racing car manufacturing business in the world,” Hemming is quoted as saying in a press release.

While the Ultimate Edition is sold out, the other two editions remain on sale, but are available in relatively limited numbers. Buyers can purchase either the Limited or Standard editions online at elfinspiritofspeed.com.au.

Picture courtesy of falcadore/Wikimedia Commons