Pete05
Premium
- 6,965
- Melbourne, Australia
Garrie Cooper's Elfin Sports Cars is one of the greatest successes of Australian motor racing history. After a series of specials in the late 1950's and then a highly successful range of sports-racing Elfin Steamliners starting in 1960, Cooper designed and built his first Formula Junior in 1961. This was followed by a first monocoque in 1964, built for the new Australian 1.5-litre racing category, and then the classic Elfin 600 in 1968.
Cooper entered Formula 5000 in 1971 with the MR5 and John McCormack won the Australian Gold Star in 1973. He followed this with a second title in 1975, this time driving the one-off MR6. The MR8 followed in 1976 but F5000 was starting to stagnate and it was three years before Larry Perkins won Elfin's next major honours, the 1979 Rothmans International Series.
The final Elfin, and indeed the final Formula 5000 car, was the ground effects MR9, the only ground effect F5000 car built, but by the time it was sorted, F5000 had less than a year to run before being replaced by the Formula Atlantic based, Formula Pacific.
SPECIFICATIONS
Engine
Repco tuned Holden 5.0-litre V8
Fuel feed
Lucas Fuel Injection
Gearbox
Hewland DG300
Wheelbase
2690 mm
Front track
1755 mm
Rear track
1630 mm
Weight
618 kg
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