Countdown for two Elfins

Holden Special Vehicles and Elfin owner Tom Walkinshaw has confirmed two new Elfins are on their way, the first being unveiled in August with a coupe following a few months later.

Apart from the race-track bred model, the larger coupe will have improved interior room and a proper boot. They will join the existing MS8 Clubman and Streamliner, which have sold strongly in Australia, the UK and the Middle East.

Elfin will not only target local sales but is also preparing a big export push for its new cars, which have been designed with European safety requirements in mind.

“Because that will be a big market for it,” Walkinshaw says.

Neither Walkinshaw nor Elfin executives are talking engines but it is believed to be the 2.0-litre turbocharged engine already in use in the Astra VXR. The engine develops 177kW and promises lightning performance like the lightweight $84,990 MS8 Clubman V8. However, the new car should be about $20,000 cheaper than the MS8 to present an entry point into the Elfin brand.

Walkinshaw says the MS8 Clubman V8 and Streamliner will still be available but the company is focusing in the smaller-engined cars for the European market.

“If people want them and if there is a demand for the V8,” Walkinshaw says. “The new car does not have a V8 in it.”

Elfin has sold 50 MS8 Clubmans and Streamliners to date.

“We always thought that what we bought had a limited life and restricted demand,” he says.

However, he acknowledges there will still be core buyers who want the brawn of the V8 for track days.

“There would always be some people who wanted it for track work and that's proven to be the case,” Walkinshaw says.

“But to get volume we would have to design and make a new car, which is what we have done.”

Despite the focus on the new cars, Walkinshaw says the existing models would not be forgotten.

He says the V8 Elfins were never designed to be sold in Europe.

“The Australian public, like the American public, have a love affair with the V8,” he says. “That was the rationale behind the MS8 Clubman.”

“There is not the same affinity in the UK. They buy cars for other reasons.”