Frank G. Nichols (Mr. Elva) was born on 29th August 1920 in Bexhill, East Sussex. The Elva company built their first car, a Mk.1 sports race car with a Ford E93A engine and an Elva cylinder head conversion in early 1955 behind the York Hotel in London Road, Bexhill. The town was named ‘The Birthplace of British Motor Racing’ in 1994, as it had hosted the first recorded motor speed event on 19th May 1902, which ran along the seafront from Galley Hill. Frank rented additional space around the town to build and store more vehicles as Elva became of interest to the motorsport community as a car to race, appearing alongside those from Lola, Lotus, MG and Triumph. ​

Cars built by the company in period included front and rear-engine Juniors, sports race cars from Mk.1 to Mk.8, road and race Couriers and the beautiful BMW-powered Elva GT160 which attracted much attention at the Earls Court and Turin Motor Shows, but never went into full production. The company also built the first McLaren Can-Am car, the McLaren-Elva Mk.1A.Elva.

Drivers of note include Graham Hill, Sir Stirling Moss, Bruce McLaren, Carl Haas, Tony Lanfranchi and Elvis Presley in addition to a comprehensive list of over 2000 other drivers.Elva later moved from Bexhill to Hastings, then Rye and Croydon.