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...