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Does anyone know how many riley elfs in any condition are in the country
Getting back to the original question, I did a feature on a MkII Elf about 10 years ago and at the time I located a chap in Greensborough, Vic, who had an Elf/Hornet register. At that time he reckoned there were about 30 Riley Elfs (Elves?) and 15 Wolseley Hornets in the country. Since that time the numbers have increased a fair bit, but I seriously doubt they would even be double those figures yet. I have not been able to contact the register guy again.
Whichever way you look at it, the Hornet is the much rarer in Australia.
Both were assembled CKD in NZ for a time, and many of the Aussie ones have come from NZ. They were never available new in Oz.
I will have a small feature on the history of the Elf/Hornet in Issue 25 of TME, as 2011 is the 50th anniversary of them.
I love both - as much because they are a bit different - but prefer the Hornet. I love the way the bonnet badge glows when the lights are turned on.
That car that The Throttle Shop has used to be owned by Ron Williams (he did the repairs after it was damaged in a minor crash) and then Gary McGrath. When I photographed it back in 1998 for a feature on Gary's collection (Mini Magic #3 and Mini Magazine May 1998) it had 28,000 miles on the clock (apparently original). According to the Classic Throttle Shop it still only has 28,000 original miles, so I guess it hasn't been driven much in the past 12 years.
Cheers,
Watto.
