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Thread: Jons Nova Sport Project C318YRW

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    Default Jons Nova Sport Project C318YRW

    As a few people know from the thread in the Sportzone I have brought my old Nova Sport back, 10 years after I sold it. I am going to fully re build / restore it, quite to what spec remains to be seen and this has been the crux on the thread in the Sportzone, I have valued people opinions which have made me look at the project in a completely different light. However I do have allot of time before these finer details need to be set in stone. Before we get onto the project good and proper I thought I would put up a history of the car up to now as even before the Clarkson VBH video it had an interesting past, and also why I have such a soft spot for Nova Sports.

    1986, I had just passed my driving test and I was working for the local Vauxhall Opel Dealer Courtenays Ltd. One morning standing in the service manager office a car fired up in the workshop making the most gorgeous burbling barking noise, I rushed into the work shop only to find the source of this rude noise was a white Vauxhall Nova with some Dealer Sport style stripes complete with a bright red tail box! Enter the Nova Sport and I was in love! Unfortunately being 18 with zero no claims my insurance company saw this differently!

    1999 A16VTB had been sold a few years before and PNG founder Matt Searle comes for a weekend in Norfolk. He arrives for a meal at my house in his Nova Sport, a few bottles of wine later he leaves in a taxi for his hotel, entrusting me with the keys to the Sport to drive back the next day. Fantastic! I think I made that 4 mile journey last about 40 minutes! Let the search for a Sport begin.

    Fast forward a couple of months to September and Trax, my luck was in, Mark Watts & Matt Searle were approached by the boy friend of a girl from Luton who had a Nova Sport for sitting in her Dads garage. The Sport had been stolen and chased by the Luton Police, much to the Police’s surprise the Sport managed to outrun the area Omega, the culprits had been eye balled and were well known to the local police who promptly dispatched another car to their address. On arrival they found them in the process of a number plate swap! I understand the Police were a little relieved when they lifted the Sports bonnet and saw the Irmscher goodies sitting there it certainly explained its pace, but were not initially convinced that it was all properly insured. Unfortunately (but fortunately for me) spooked by the theft and the amount of time the car was in the police compound, the girl did not want the car anymore so there it sat in her Dads garage for quite some time.

    A few days after Trax Ian Archer myself and Matt Searle tavelled down to Luton, there sat C318 YRW a deal was done and I was driving back to Norfolk on trade plates in a Nova Sport complete with appalling brakes, misfire,non existent idle and makeshift polythene quarter light....I loved it.



    Back home with make shift quarter light glass



    Police case number on mirror!







    Ignition lock smashed / by passed!



    Twin 40's



    Solid rear seat, parcel shelf gone..



    For its first role the car was called into service to be used as the pattern for the Nova roll cage we used to sell, so the interior was striped out bar the driver’s seat. With the idle and misfire sorted I drove it was driven down to Cambridge. A week later the drive back was great the shell being noticeably stiffer and I even managed to out run Ian’s Cavalier 16V ecotec off a few round abouts. After this the car was covered up awaiting a proper strip down for a full restoration, or so I thought..

    To be continued...
    Last edited by A11VXL; 08-06-13 at 10:19 PM.

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    Fantastic! Awaits next instalment.......

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    Nice bit of history there.

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    Nice write up there Jon

    I look forward to the next installment

    Edd

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    What a great amount of history with this sport mate and an amazing way to start the thread off ! I will be keeping an eye on this thread and look forward to its updates

    All the best with the project Jon

    Iain

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    Nothing better than some nostalgia

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    Looking forward to see this one finished, keeping my eye out on this

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    Part 2..

    In late spring 2000 out of the blue I get a call from Jeremy Clarkson’s production company. They want to do an ironic type of feature about buying a couple of old cars and modifying them. They were very up front about the whole feature in that there would be some races and the Nova driven by Vicky Butler Henderson would lose to Jeremy in a powerful but ultimately un cool Rover.
    The original brief was to find a cheap Nova GTE so that we could turbo charger it. Unfortunately having looked at a few dealer trade in’s etc it soon become apparent that we just could not buy a car and do all the work to within their budget. So we suggested that we use our Nova Sport and some bits we had, then blag as much as we could using Jeremy’s name and they put their budget to just cover the bodywork, this way they saved a load of money and we got the body work sorted. The one proviso that it was kept Polar White but they could do what they wanted in vinyl, this would come back to haunt me when Vicky came up with her plan!
    The one thing with this whole project was that we only had 6 weeks to do this including all the filming which was all scheduled and booked and therefore could not be moved Omg. This meant that on a couple of occasions we could not carry out work until certain parts had been filmed. We also end up doing something’s twice. For example we had to fit the engine to make sure it all ran okay due to lack of time only to take it out for some filming of it being fitted, all good fun!



    This first bit of filming took place in London in a Taxi firm’s garage behind Piccadilly station. They only change to the car was The PNG’s (Matt Searle’s) lone wheels! They had previously been on C888 HEV Matt’s Nova Sport and also on Walshies Red Twin 40 Nova. This just before Vicky announced her “vision of pink”


    After this the car was straight back to the workshop for all the bodywork to be undertaken before being painted.



    When I was looking at this picture recently I couldnt understand why we had left the stickers and mirror on the RH door, but in the pictures further down you can see this door leaning against the wall in the background, so we did fit a new door back in 2000, bonus!











    In the body shop




    You can see the old door in the background, wish I have kept that door now though I still have the mirror with the case number on it!

    To be fair due to the very tight time scale of the project, this was not in any way a proper restoration, however on the cars return from the body shop I spent a several evenings going through the shell cavity’s and under body with a waxoyl gun which is probably why despite its quick refresh it has lasted quite well.

    Now it was a case of fitting the car out




    Glass in no cage yet!




    Some filming in the workshop "This is how you fit a wheel"




    Filming the stickers going on the roof





    Filming some interior bits

    With this done the car was up and running on a base file, then straight down to Webcon in Sunbury for it to be properly mapped.





    In the dyno cell at Webcon.


    After this it was back to North Walsham for the remainder of the stickers



    Last of the stickers fitted then final finishing touch's ready for the next part of the filming where the Nova and the Rover would meet and do battle..


    To be continued..
    Last edited by A11VXL; 15-11-12 at 04:14 PM.

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    What a fantastic story!

    I only saw the top gear footage a week or two ago by accident, wondered what happened to the car and then it pops up again!

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    Looks and sounds interesting can't wait to hear and see the rest

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