985cc Turbocharged Nova Sprint Car

[novarally]

I wondered where Graham's Nova had gone.. now I know... His "wide body" isn't as wide as some of the rally-x kits, and no where near as wide as I'm planning for one of my future projects.

The wheels - did they come from Col Rooney?

Your next project will be an interesting one no doubt, I shall look forward to hearing more.

Yes, I got the wheels from Col Rooney. A very interesting garage full of stuff he has!

[novarally]

I wondered where Graham's Nova had gone.. now I know... His "wide body" isn't as wide as some of the rally-x kits, and no where near as wide as I'm planning for one of my future projects

For anyone who might be interested in buying a fully race/rally prepped Nova bodyshell, I have this one for sale now;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/hillclimbe...p2047675.l2562

[novarally]

Nothing to update on the car unfortunately, but thanks to another change in safety regulations by the MSA, I've had to get a HANS device to be able to race next season;







So the driver is ready to go, just no car to race in currently.

[therealnovaboy]

very Nice. Scottish hill climb will be going the same way next year.

Cant say I agree completely with the use of Hans. Its the old how reasonably practicable does as safe as reasonably practicable have to be. yes it is safer, but is it reasonably practicable for can an entry level racer to be as safe as a high budget racer. when I compare my budget to a high budget single seat hill climb driver its not even close. so how can it be reasonably practicable for me to budget for the same safety devices as them.
the only thing will suffer is the number of people who Join the club/enter the races. which is a shame.

Its like expecting us to have the same spec safety gear as an F1 team because its safer.

[novarally]

very Nice. Scottish hill climb will be going the same way next year.

Cant say I agree completely with the use of Hans. Its the old how reasonably practicable does as safe as reasonably practicable have to be. yes it is safer, but is it reasonably practicable for can an entry level racer to be as safe as a high budget racer. when I compare my budget to a high budget single seat hill climb driver its not even close. so how can it be reasonably practicable for me to budget for the same safety devices as them.
the only thing will suffer is the number of people who Join the club/enter the races. which is a shame.

Its like expecting us to have the same spec safety gear as an F1 team because its safer.

I do agree with you, it's a shame there are very few youngsters coming into motorsport (unless they have hugely rich parents). When I started off you could realistically turn up with a very lightly modified road car and a helmet, and you'd be racing.

Safety has to move on but I think it's gone a bit far now, and the start-up costs before you get on track are phenomenal, out of reach for most people.

[C612DNM]

The safety issue is a big big part of the MSA's role these days. Mandating a Head And Neck Support system has been a long time coming. Dale Earnhardt perished in the Daytona 500 in 2001 due to a basal skull fracture, breaking C1. "but he was doing 200mph" I hear people shout. Steve Bell died at Silverstone the same year, in a Mini Miglia, hitting the pitwall at around 70mph. Same fracture. Same outcome. Others have suffered the same fate over the years, until the HANS (or similar) became mandatory for circuit racing. I raced at Rockingham in the ASCAR/SCSA/Days of Thunder/V8 Trophy (call it what you will!), we were mandated to a head and neck support system back in 2002. There were other devices back then, the Hutchings device was a harness that you wore over your suit and attached to the helmet via D rings. It wasn't as good as a pukka Schroth HANS device, but it was still quite effective. There are other types of "brace" available that are MSA/FIA approved, but all work in the same kind of way. F1 were behind NASCAR in implementing mandatory HANS as it happens....

I've had one since 2003, and won't go on track without it. You can't buy a new neck or spine on eBay.

I do agree with you on the cost of getting into the sport these days, it's horrendous compared to my first time out. I think it cost be about £600 to prep my Nova Sport for the track, which included the rollcage, fire extinguisher, race seat, isolator, my romper suit, and first helmet (which was open face).
My licence was about £33/yr (Race National B), championship registration was £50, BRSCC Racing Membership was about £75, and race entries were £58. If I finished the race I got £15 back from the series.

Nowadays, you have to do the ARDS course to get your licence, that's going to set you back about £600 on it's own. Then there the licence, and all of the mandated safety equipment, before you start to prep the car. I'd estimate the cost of getting on track now has to be around £4K to prep a car for basic road-going type spec. Though you can pick up ready to run bottom bucket cars for around £3K or less if you haggle!

I notice some serious machinery out there in the sprinting and hillclimbing world these days, much more than years ago. Though back then there were a lot of ex-F1 based machines, the odd F3000 based cars too. I see a lot of "redundant" Special Saloons from the 70's and 80's still being used (they can come back to the roundy roundies if they like as the CSCC has a friendly series for them called - oddly enough - Classic Special Saloons & Modsports).

Money makes the world go around... the world go around... (everybody sing...)

[Benn]

Safety should always be first in motor sport.

[therealnovaboy]

Safety should always be first in motor sport.

yes but it has to be practical, affordable, reasonable and available to the people using it. the easiest way to make it safe is to remove the hazard. why don't we ban it all together if safety should come first? next we will have to have air bags, crumple zones, ABS, side impact the list goes on fitted to our nova's just to allow us to race in a legally organised event and without risk to others. you have to draw the line somewhere, health and safety will be the death of us all unless "as far as reasonably practicable" is understood and considered appropriately.

novarally - will need to post more build pictures to get this thread back on track. apologies.

[Benn]

Well yes i guess your right in that way.

[novarally]

The end of a very long search today, when I finally got hold of some carbon fibre doors;







I had to buy the rest of the car to get them, but the effort should be worth it in the end.