Originally Posted by
Dan Vincent
Arne’s first “Made in England” case was a perfect copy of the original Elfin but he used metric threads instead of the original British threads.
T he UK guys would be hard to fool but other parts of the world might be easy to fool.
Even if it’s an AH engine it’s finely made and in fewer numbers than the original so it is still a very valuable engine for nostalgia models or keep NIB for ,display in a collection.
In this specific case-the only time it would likely be apparent would be if people tried to fit original UK made parts for some reason-and even then-given the tolerances -the threads might still engage. the reason the original Elfin 50 is so rare is that Elfin's production machinery was worn out war surplus-and unable to hold adequate tolerances on a repeatable basis-leading to very few of the Elfin 50s being usable-and many being returned by purchasers and dealers under warranty. Had the tolerances been tighter-based on Elfin's other engine models-the 50 might have proved a real winner in the 0.5cc diesel class-which of course was hotly contested in the UK and Commonwealth for market share between DC, ED, Frog and Elfin......Elfin lost that battle hands down-and even Frog badly underestimated the criticality of fits in that engine size-dropping out after several years-and three different models-of the Frog 50, leaving the market in the hands of Davies Charlton and ED....I personally consider it unfortunate that ED did not survive in their original form, as the ED Baby was a lovely handling little engine...
ChrisM
'ffkiwi'