Aussie icon Elfin Sports Cars poised for a comeback!

After a 10-plus year hiatus Elfin Sports Cars, a name familiar to Australian racing and sports car enthusiasts, is poised to make a production comeback thanks to purchase of the brand and its assets by Melbourne-based classic car specialist Young Timers Garage.

Since its formation in Adelaide in the late 1950s, by racer and business entrepreneur Garrie Cooper, Elfin has produced competition cars for various open-wheel categories (Formula Vee, Formula Ford, Formula 5000, Formula Brabham) as well as road and race-focused sports and Clubman-type cars.

Across six decades Elfin has passed through multiple owners' hands, including sports sedan legend Tony Edmondson and the late Tom Walkinshaw, the latter extending the company’s mid-2000s collaboration with Holden on engine supply and engineering support thanks to his ownership of HSV / Walkinshaw Performance.

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Built in small numbers and retailed through selected HSV dealers, the fearsome 5.7-litre V8-powered MS8 in Clubman and Streamliner form, as well as the four-cylinder powered Type 5 Clubman, were the last Elfins offered before production ceased around the time of Tom Walkinshaw’s death in 2010.

Young Timers Garage, based in Keysborough in Melbourne’s south-east, has acquired Elfin Sports Cars and says it is assessing the feasibility of building up “multiple examples” of the Type 5 from the existing parts inventory still in container storage.

YTG owner, Shaun Baker says, “Elfin is a legendary Australian brand, and we are committed to bringing it back to life.” 

The company says it is in communication with original parts suppliers to fill potential parts gaps in the short term and support its aim of resuming Elfin production on a larger scale in the future.

It’s also likely “an assortment of spares from various makes and models” will be made available to current Elfin owners.     

As Shaun Baker says, “We know that there are a lot of Elfin enthusiasts out there who are eager to see the brand return. We are committed to doing everything we can to make that happen.”