Born in 1935, Garrie Cooper was a successful race car driver as well as a successful designer and engineer. His resume is impressive . . . and as a driver he won the 1968 Singapore Grand Prix, the Australian 1½ Litre Championship and the 1975 Australian Sports Car Championship. Incredibly, he achieved this success in Elfin cars of his own design.
Garrie Cooper, with the help of his father, Cliff Cooper, founded Elfin Sports Cars in October 1959. The company was based in Edwardstown, South Australia. The first car Elfin Sports Cars designed was the front engined Streamliner. The prototype was completed in October 1959 and in total 22 production versions of it were built between 1959 and 1963.
Elfin Sports Cars built a number of different race cars for many different classes. Some of the more significant Elfins are as follows. From 1961 – 1965 they produced Formula Junior and Catalina racing cars, the Clubman sports car and the Mallala sports racing car. From 1964 – 1969 they produced the Type 100 Mono Australian 1½ Litre Formula racing car, the Type 500 Formula Vee racing car, the Type 400 Group A racing car (V8 powered) and the Type 300 sports racing car. From 1968 – 1972 they produced the Type 600 open wheel racing car suitable for various formulas, the 620FF/620B Formula Ford racing car, the Type 350 & Type 360 sports racing car and the MR5 Australian Formula 1 (F5000) racing car.
Unfortunately, Garrie Cooper passed away at the young age of 46 on the 25th April 1982. His father completed the outstanding orders before offering the company for sale. In 1983 the company was acquired by Don Elliot, racing driver Tony Edmondson and mechanic John Porter. They sold the company in 1993 to Murray Richards. When he acquired the business he set out to build a new generation of Elfin Clubmans, the Type 3. Unfortunately, failing health forced him to sell the business in 1998. Elfin was then acquired by Bill Hemming and Nick Kovatch. They decided to relocate the business to Melbourne and over the next couple of years Elfin started collaborating with GM Holden which resulted in the concept MS8 Streamliner being revealed at the 2004 Melbourne International Motorshow. It wasn’t until 2006, after the business was sold to Tom Walkinshaw (HSV and Walkinshaw Performance), that limited production of two models of the MS8 were started. Walkinshaw passed away in December 2010 and the last Elfin was built in March 2012.
In the Garrie Cooper era, Elfin built 248 racing and sports racing cars in 27 different models over a 25-year period.
Elfin has won no less than 29 championships and major titles including two Australian Driver’s Championships (in 1973 with John McCormack driving an Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden and in 1975 with John McCormack driving a Elfin MR6 Repco-Holden), four Australian Sports Car Championships (in 1970 with Peter Woodward driving an Elfin 350 Coventry Climax, in 1973 with Phil Moore driving an Elfin 360 Repco, in 1974 with Henry Michell driving an Elfin 360 Repco and in 1975 with Garrie Cooper driving the Elfin MS7 Repco Holden), three Australian Tourist Trophies (in 1966 with Frank Matich driving an Elfin 400 Traco Oldsmobile, in 1976 with Stuart Kostera driving an Elfin MS7 Repco Holden and in 1978 with Greg Doidge driving an Elfin 360 Repco) and three Formula Ford titles (in 1970 with Richard Knight driving an Elfin 600 FF, in 1971 with Larry Perkins driving an Elfin 600 FF and in 1974 Terry Perkins driving an Elfin 620FF. Elfin also took out the 1968 Singapore Grand Prix with Garrie Cooper driving an Elfin 600, twice won the Malaysian Grand Prix (in 1968 with Hengkie Iriawan driving an Elfin 600 and in 1969 with Tony Maw driving the same car) and also won the Australian Formula Two Championship in 1972 with Larry Perkins in an Elfin 600B.
World Formula One Champion James Hunt raced an Elfin, as did the brilliant French Formula One driver, Didier Pironi.
One of Australia’s greatest motor racing success stories was the Elfin 600 of which 27 cars were built from 1968 -1971. Following the success Garrie Cooper had in South East Asia in 1968 he decided to return in 1969 with a more powerful and improved Type 600. This time the type 600 chassis was combined with the 2½ litre Repco-Brabham Type 830 V8 engine (Type RB830). The 600C became the first all Australian racing car designed to comply with Australian National Formula One regulations. Only 3 Elfin 600’s were originally built with the Repco-Brabham engine.
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