Elfin Streamliner
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Elfin Streamliner
First Drive: 2007 Elfin MS8 Streamliner
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...hotopanel..1.*
Quick! To the Shrimp-on-the-Barbie Mobile!
By Michael Stahl, Contributor Email
Date posted: 10-04-2007
Don't expect us to list every option for this mad Australian roadster, the 2007 Elfin MS8 Streamliner. There is a long list of options, though you shouldn't go looking for your TruCoat paint sealant or factory mud flaps. It's more along the lines of racing-spec Koni dampers, ball-jointed front antiroll bar and dry-cell racing battery.
It's the way people go about ordering their cars that says the most about the whole made-in-Australia Elfin experience. It usually goes like this:
Nick Kovatch, Elfin technical director: "What do you want to do with it?"
Customer: "Well, weekend drives in the country. And I want to do track days with my mates."
Nick: "Uhh-hunhh. What have your mates got?"
Customer: "Oh, y'know. Porsche GT3s, BMW M3s."
Nick: "That's all I need to know."
First, You'll Want the Big V8
It's not that these self-confessed playthings for sunny Sundays and occasional terror at the test track are minimally equipped. Both the 2007 Elfin MS8 Streamliner and the cigar-bodied 2007 Elfin MS8 Clubman are fully street-legal, and base prices of around $87,000 and $74,000 respectively include full leather upholstery, air-conditioning, ABS brakes, traction control and even cruise control for the Streamliner.
But it all starts — as an Aussie car must — with a V8 engine, a 5.7-liter Chevrolet LS1. The stock output for the Elfin's version of the LS1 is quoted at 330 horsepower and the torque is rated at 343 pound-feet.
Yet this is just a starting point for Elfin. This particular MS8 Streamliner has a 412-hp V8, and it's said that the boss' racecar makes 450 hp. And at least one of the five limited-edition $99,000 50th-anniversary Streamliners has been equipped with a supercharger, so it makes at least 470 hp and about 480 pound-feet of torque. (Someone's mate must've had a Porsche GT2.)
Remember, we're talking about a lightweight sports car built around a tubular space frame. The Clubman weighs in at 1,985 pounds and the Streamliner tips the scales at 2,426 pounds, which gives them power-to-weight ratios in the league of production supercars.
Remember When?
The Streamliner nameplate dates to the first Elfin in 1958, a similarly voluptuous fiberglass-bodied special built around two seats and a tubular space frame. Garrie Cooper, a 22-year-old self-trained engineer working at his father's truck-body business, became Australia's unlikely answer to Lotus' Colin Chapman when he established Elfin near Adelaide in 1957. Elfin went on to produce around 250 cars in 27 models, including Formula Fords, Chevrolet-powered Can-Am sports-racing cars and even the ground-effects MR-9 Formula 5000 racing car.
Cooper died young at 46 in 1982 from a heart attack blamed on injuries sustained in a F5000 race shunt two years earlier, but the company's fortunes were revived in 1998 when it built a replica of its 1961 Clubman. Mike Simcoe, now executive director of exterior design for GM North America, became a fan of Elfin and literally volunteered to design the Clubman and Streamliner, which first appeared in 2004.
"Elfin" Means Small and Sprightly
Stand over the Streamliner and you'll realize it's really a small car. It measures just 137.8 inches from its bullish nose to its tire-hugging tail (the Clubman is 11.8 inches shorter), and the wheelbase is only 90.2 inches. With a comparatively wide track of 57.5 inches in front and 56.3 inches in the rear, the squat Streamliner has more of a palm print than a footprint.
The LS1 V8 is wrapped in a web of square section, 8620 steel tubing flanked by ball-jointed double-wishbone suspension front and rear. The standard suspension package combines Eibach springs and non-adjustable Bilstein dampers. The brakes come from AP Racing, with six-pot calipers up front and four-pots in the rear.
There's a Tremec T56 six-speed manual gearbox (race cogs and a limited-slip diff are available), yet the heavy-duty drivetrain still leaves enough room in this small package for a two-seat cockpit that has about the same interior space as a Mazda MX-5. The leather-trimmed seats are both supportive and supremely comfortable, and you can find a good driving position with the tilting steering column.
The spring-loaded doors open upward, allowing a surprisingly easy step over the tall sills and onto the floor, rather than the seat. The carved-from-billet-aluminium switches and slides give a Latin look to the humble ventilation controls, while simple chrome buttons activate electric solenoids to open the doors.
Room for golf clubs? Well, the fabricated 17.0-gallon fuel tank leaves a narrow channel that can take, oh, as many as four or five clubs. Forget the bag.
Elf Yourself
Hmm, how to describe an Australian-engineered, American-powered roadster to folks whose experience is limited to either the heavyweight Chevrolet Corvette or Dodge Viper, or featherweight, screamer-engined track cars? Fact is, the Elfin muscles right in between, with the polymer-frying power of the former housed in the chassis rigidity and responsiveness of the latter.
The MS8 Streamliner is a seriously fast motor car. It gets to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds (0.2 second quicker for the Clubman), and that's just with the standard 330-hp V8. Our test car's 412-hp V8 (a $4,350 option) includes a new cam and roller rockers, plus induction package, different exhaust manifolds and computer remapping for the ECU. It's fast-er.
For all its speed, the Elfin instills plenty of confidence when you're at the wheel. With traction control left on, the tail squats only a little when you stick your boot in the gas pedal, and you're enveloped by the delicious induction snarl ahead and the barking exhaust immediately behind.
Switch the tracky off and you can add a tsunami of white tire smoke curling over that rounded rump behind you, but you're still unthreatened by the expected sensation of this short-wheelbase car trying to swap ends.
Corners Ahead
The clutch and the six-speed shifter move confidently but easily, and the same is true for pretty much all the control feel in this particular Streamliner, which has been tuned for the road, not the track.
The unassisted manual steering has been hugely tweaked from early prototypes, and the effort is now barely more than supercar-firm at speed and naturally very direct in feel. Around town, though, you definitely notice the high steering effort and the car's sizable turning circle.
Likewise, the brake pedal feels rock-solid unless the brake pads have been working hard. We're told Wilwood brakes that are standard equipment for these Elfins have been retuned to deliver a more familiar road-car impression.
Whether hard on the gas or hard on the pucks, though, the Elfin impresses you with its confident stability — well, in the context of something the size of an overgrown dessert cart with a V8 stuffed into it. There's massive grip from the 235/40ZR18 Yokohama tires, yet the chassis has a combination of compliance and communication that distinguishes it from unforgiving, stick-till-you-stack-it-up track specials.
Basic math and previous racetrack experience do, however, remind you that the Streamliner requires quick reflexes when the tail steps out. At more sensible road speeds, there's an impressive refinement that elevates the Elfin beyond your rough-riding, butt-over-axle roadsters. Certainly the BMW Z4 M Roadster doesn't steer or ride this well.
Away With the Pixies
Elfin has had lots of inquiries from the U.S. about the 2007 Elfin HS8 Streamliner, but it's focused on the right-hand-drive market in Britain that is showing incredible interest in track-day specials like this. The Mideast is another likely market, notes Elfin director Chris Payne.
The project got a major boost last December when motorsports entrepreneur Tom Walkinshaw added Elfin to the Walkinshaw Performance Group, which sells high-output Holdens in Australia. He wants to transform Elfin into Australia's answer to Lotus, and this means more statements of pure Aussie outrage like the 2007 Elfin MS8 Streamliner.
By Michael Stahl, Contributor Email
Date posted: 10-04-2007
Don't expect us to list every option for this mad Australian roadster, the 2007 Elfin MS8 Streamliner. There is a long list of options, though you shouldn't go looking for your TruCoat paint sealant or factory mud flaps. It's more along the lines of racing-spec Koni dampers, ball-jointed front antiroll bar and dry-cell racing battery.
It's the way people go about ordering their cars that says the most about the whole made-in-Australia Elfin experience. It usually goes like this:
Nick Kovatch, Elfin technical director: "What do you want to do with it?"
Customer: "Well, weekend drives in the country. And I want to do track days with my mates."
Nick: "Uhh-hunhh. What have your mates got?"
Customer: "Oh, y'know. Porsche GT3s, BMW M3s."
Nick: "That's all I need to know."
First, You'll Want the Big V8
It's not that these self-confessed playthings for sunny Sundays and occasional terror at the test track are minimally equipped. Both the 2007 Elfin MS8 Streamliner and the cigar-bodied 2007 Elfin MS8 Clubman are fully street-legal, and base prices of around $87,000 and $74,000 respectively include full leather upholstery, air-conditioning, ABS brakes, traction control and even cruise control for the Streamliner.
But it all starts — as an Aussie car must — with a V8 engine, a 5.7-liter Chevrolet LS1. The stock output for the Elfin's version of the LS1 is quoted at 330 horsepower and the torque is rated at 343 pound-feet.
Yet this is just a starting point for Elfin. This particular MS8 Streamliner has a 412-hp V8, and it's said that the boss' racecar makes 450 hp. And at least one of the five limited-edition $99,000 50th-anniversary Streamliners has been equipped with a supercharger, so it makes at least 470 hp and about 480 pound-feet of torque. (Someone's mate must've had a Porsche GT2.)
Remember, we're talking about a lightweight sports car built around a tubular space frame. The Clubman weighs in at 1,985 pounds and the Streamliner tips the scales at 2,426 pounds, which gives them power-to-weight ratios in the league of production supercars.
Remember When?
The Streamliner nameplate dates to the first Elfin in 1958, a similarly voluptuous fiberglass-bodied special built around two seats and a tubular space frame. Garrie Cooper, a 22-year-old self-trained engineer working at his father's truck-body business, became Australia's unlikely answer to Lotus' Colin Chapman when he established Elfin near Adelaide in 1957. Elfin went on to produce around 250 cars in 27 models, including Formula Fords, Chevrolet-powered Can-Am sports-racing cars and even the ground-effects MR-9 Formula 5000 racing car.
Cooper died young at 46 in 1982 from a heart attack blamed on injuries sustained in a F5000 race shunt two years earlier, but the company's fortunes were revived in 1998 when it built a replica of its 1961 Clubman. Mike Simcoe, now executive director of exterior design for GM North America, became a fan of Elfin and literally volunteered to design the Clubman and Streamliner, which first appeared in 2004.
"Elfin" Means Small and Sprightly
Stand over the Streamliner and you'll realize it's really a small car. It measures just 137.8 inches from its bullish nose to its tire-hugging tail (the Clubman is 11.8 inches shorter), and the wheelbase is only 90.2 inches. With a comparatively wide track of 57.5 inches in front and 56.3 inches in the rear, the squat Streamliner has more of a palm print than a footprint.
The LS1 V8 is wrapped in a web of square section, 8620 steel tubing flanked by ball-jointed double-wishbone suspension front and rear. The standard suspension package combines Eibach springs and non-adjustable Bilstein dampers. The brakes come from AP Racing, with six-pot calipers up front and four-pots in the rear.
There's a Tremec T56 six-speed manual gearbox (race cogs and a limited-slip diff are available), yet the heavy-duty drivetrain still leaves enough room in this small package for a two-seat cockpit that has about the same interior space as a Mazda MX-5. The leather-trimmed seats are both supportive and supremely comfortable, and you can find a good driving position with the tilting steering column.
The spring-loaded doors open upward, allowing a surprisingly easy step over the tall sills and onto the floor, rather than the seat. The carved-from-billet-aluminium switches and slides give a Latin look to the humble ventilation controls, while simple chrome buttons activate electric solenoids to open the doors.
Room for golf clubs? Well, the fabricated 17.0-gallon fuel tank leaves a narrow channel that can take, oh, as many as four or five clubs. Forget the bag.
Elf Yourself
Hmm, how to describe an Australian-engineered, American-powered roadster to folks whose experience is limited to either the heavyweight Chevrolet Corvette or Dodge Viper, or featherweight, screamer-engined track cars? Fact is, the Elfin muscles right in between, with the polymer-frying power of the former housed in the chassis rigidity and responsiveness of the latter.
The MS8 Streamliner is a seriously fast motor car. It gets to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds (0.2 second quicker for the Clubman), and that's just with the standard 330-hp V8. Our test car's 412-hp V8 (a $4,350 option) includes a new cam and roller rockers, plus induction package, different exhaust manifolds and computer remapping for the ECU. It's fast-er.
For all its speed, the Elfin instills plenty of confidence when you're at the wheel. With traction control left on, the tail squats only a little when you stick your boot in the gas pedal, and you're enveloped by the delicious induction snarl ahead and the barking exhaust immediately behind.
Switch the tracky off and you can add a tsunami of white tire smoke curling over that rounded rump behind you, but you're still unthreatened by the expected sensation of this short-wheelbase car trying to swap ends.
Corners Ahead
The clutch and the six-speed shifter move confidently but easily, and the same is true for pretty much all the control feel in this particular Streamliner, which has been tuned for the road, not the track.
The unassisted manual steering has been hugely tweaked from early prototypes, and the effort is now barely more than supercar-firm at speed and naturally very direct in feel. Around town, though, you definitely notice the high steering effort and the car's sizable turning circle.
Likewise, the brake pedal feels rock-solid unless the brake pads have been working hard. We're told Wilwood brakes that are standard equipment for these Elfins have been retuned to deliver a more familiar road-car impression.
Whether hard on the gas or hard on the pucks, though, the Elfin impresses you with its confident stability — well, in the context of something the size of an overgrown dessert cart with a V8 stuffed into it. There's massive grip from the 235/40ZR18 Yokohama tires, yet the chassis has a combination of compliance and communication that distinguishes it from unforgiving, stick-till-you-stack-it-up track specials.
Basic math and previous racetrack experience do, however, remind you that the Streamliner requires quick reflexes when the tail steps out. At more sensible road speeds, there's an impressive refinement that elevates the Elfin beyond your rough-riding, butt-over-axle roadsters. Certainly the BMW Z4 M Roadster doesn't steer or ride this well.
Away With the Pixies
Elfin has had lots of inquiries from the U.S. about the 2007 Elfin HS8 Streamliner, but it's focused on the right-hand-drive market in Britain that is showing incredible interest in track-day specials like this. The Mideast is another likely market, notes Elfin director Chris Payne.
The project got a major boost last December when motorsports entrepreneur Tom Walkinshaw added Elfin to the Walkinshaw Performance Group, which sells high-output Holdens in Australia. He wants to transform Elfin into Australia's answer to Lotus, and this means more statements of pure Aussie outrage like the 2007 Elfin MS8 Streamliner.
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