Investigating the origin of our Elva’s original rear brakes

Update by Tim Suddard to the Elva Mk VI project car
Dec 17, 2024 | Elva, Restoration, Kip Motor Compnay, Elva Mk VI

Photography by Tim Suddard

Rear brakes?

Our Elva didn’t come with any–at least when we bought the car.

We did know, however, that our Elva Mk VI originally came with inboard drum brakes at the rear.

While braking has improved since the early ’60s–when our car was built–we decided to keep our car period-correct. Should we ever enter an international event like the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the accuracy of this restoration would matter.

Sadly, all of the rear brake components were missing from our Elva. Let the investigation begin.

As the brakes were originally mounted to the transaxle, we first talked to people from Hewland. We also talked to other early Elva owners.

Same result: a dead end.

Finally, a lead. We saw a post on a Elva Facebook group from someone who had just acquired the sister car to our Sebring 12 Hour entrant. We made contact and while he wasn’t willing to sell any of the parts that came with his car, he was willing to loan us both the original backing plates and the transaxle housings that they mounted to.

While we thought that we could easily determine the source of the rear brake components, that proved nearly as difficult as duplicating the housings.

We knew–or at least assumed–that the components were British and, of course, they had to come from 1962 or earlier as that’s when our car was built. We also assumed that they would have been taken from the front of a car as we didn’t see any evidence of a parking brake.

We have a friend around the corner who plays with Sunbeams. He had some early backing plates that looked very similar to those from the sister car.

Assuming that the components were from a sports car, we ordered Sunbeam and MGA/TR2 parts. Close but not the same. The brake shoes did not line up correctly. Twice we had to return parts to Moss Motors, which was getting expensive.

In desperation, we finally reached out to Kip Lankenau at Kip Motor Company. He assured us that he is the king of wacky British sedan parts and that he could solve our predicament.

Sure enough, a few weeks later he had the answer: The brakes were from a 1959 Hillman Minx IIIA. And he had the parts in stock and would send everything out.