cumbrianchris
19-10-10, 01:16 PM
Hi guys, been lurking around the forum for a little while observing, and thought it was about time I got involved. Having spent all my spare time over the last four days reading all 290 odd pages of Adams project thread it has given me a kick up the backside to start my own.
So here goes. I actually have 2 nova related projects on the go at the minute (though one was started about 8 years ago). My first project is my Kreg 1.4 SRI which was actually my first car, 12 years ago. And my second project being a MK2 nova trip, with 1.3sr engine, which i bought on ebay a couple of months ago.
Like I say project one was started a long time ago, and due to a whole manner of things that seem to have got in the way since I first started it, hasn’t moved forward a great deal for at least nine years. My plans were then and still are to build it up for a bit of road rallying and maybe the odd track day. So I took it off the road stripped it down to a shell got it re sprayed in glacier white, put it on stands in the garage, spent thousands on bits. Then things just seem to come to a grinding holt due to work etc. And though I have no immediate plans to get it sorted out, it will no doubt start to feature more and more in my posts.
Ok so my second project is my nova trip/sr. Like I said picked it up a couple of weeks ago on eBay, for what I think was a bargain price of £650. Chassis is solid as a rock, with only the odd bit of (to be expected) rust on the rear arches. The 1.3sr engine is sweet as nut, though I have to say a little bit lacking in the power dept. It has been fitted with a full 1.3sr interior, astra sport alloys ( I think) and lowering springs and shocks of unknown origin.
Think at this point it maybe worth mentioning what I do for a living and my history. When I started my first project I was coming to the end of serving my time at a VW main dealer and getting slightly hacked off with it. I was involved in various disciplines of motorsport, both competing and spannering. So thought wouldn’t it be a good idea to this for a living? Quick search on the net found plenty of uni’s doing motorsport related courses, and I settled on one with uclan. However at the end of the first year I found that I had done far more mechanical work than I was ever going to learn on a uni course. I got cheesed off with going out on the lash all the time, so sacked it out in favour of a job in industry. I spent the next 6-7 years working in various mechanical/ design roles within the motorsport industry. And in the winter of 2007 thought enough is enough and I wanted my own business. At the time I was running a series 2 lotus Elise as a road car and I had been asked by a few people on the lotus forums to give them a hand running there cars in the lotus Elise trophy and lotus cup Europe. So kind of on a whim i thought to my self yeh that’s the basis for a good business I’ll do that. So with the financial backing of a fellow lotus owner/racer I did just that. However due to several personal and business reasons I ending up selling my 49% share of the business about 3 months ago after some two and a half years of solid graft. I am currently in the middle of moving all of my personally owned equipment ( which seems to be a bl**dy load) from Banbury back up to Cumbria. Where I have already got new workshops, and plenty of our existing customers. My plan for the future is to carry on with the lotus racing. We have had a lot of success over the last couple of years and have been on the podium at pretty much ever round we have been to. So would be silly to loose the industry reputation that I have personally built up. But I also would like to branch out a little bit more into other Marques and through my love of the little nova thought Vauxhall may as well be one of them. Albeit for the time being I think due to the level of work we have booked in my time will be mostly spent on my own cars.
What’s my plans I hear you all ask? Well to be fair I’m not to sure what I want the car to be. I’m thinking maybe be a clean b road basher that may see a bit of action in the odd 12car rally or such like. I have managed to gather up a few bits and pieces that can be put to one side for my own projects, though its mostly mundane things like steering wheels etc. I have always had a bit of a perversion for small blocks and more particularly 8v. So having found a 1.4sri engine, box, loom, ecu, and fuel pump on eBay last week, I stuck a poultry bid of £50 on the lot. Which I won for £31.05 on Sunday night and has been picked up this morning by a friend of mine. So I’m thinking this weekend I may whip the 1.3sr lump out and lob the 1.4sri in. But will give it a quick gasket and belt change/ health check when I am back at work on Thursday. Also have a 6pt OMP cage which may as well go in along bucket seats and harnesses. Then I think maybe run it for a couple of months doing other little jobs, i.e. bits of body/chassis work, suspension etc. Then take it back out and go to town on it machine it all up and see what I can get out of it for a bit of winter fun.
I do have a full corsa GSI which took the c16xe out of with view to dropping it in but after spending ages re working the head for some reason I decided that I wanted to be a bit more of a purist and stick to an original fit motor.
So there you go a bit long winded and mostly gibberish I suppose but I think as long as I have committed myself to starting a project thread it will force me to stay late at work each night and get some bits done just to keep the updates coming.
Pics to follow once I get to 15 posts.
So here goes. I actually have 2 nova related projects on the go at the minute (though one was started about 8 years ago). My first project is my Kreg 1.4 SRI which was actually my first car, 12 years ago. And my second project being a MK2 nova trip, with 1.3sr engine, which i bought on ebay a couple of months ago.
Like I say project one was started a long time ago, and due to a whole manner of things that seem to have got in the way since I first started it, hasn’t moved forward a great deal for at least nine years. My plans were then and still are to build it up for a bit of road rallying and maybe the odd track day. So I took it off the road stripped it down to a shell got it re sprayed in glacier white, put it on stands in the garage, spent thousands on bits. Then things just seem to come to a grinding holt due to work etc. And though I have no immediate plans to get it sorted out, it will no doubt start to feature more and more in my posts.
Ok so my second project is my nova trip/sr. Like I said picked it up a couple of weeks ago on eBay, for what I think was a bargain price of £650. Chassis is solid as a rock, with only the odd bit of (to be expected) rust on the rear arches. The 1.3sr engine is sweet as nut, though I have to say a little bit lacking in the power dept. It has been fitted with a full 1.3sr interior, astra sport alloys ( I think) and lowering springs and shocks of unknown origin.
Think at this point it maybe worth mentioning what I do for a living and my history. When I started my first project I was coming to the end of serving my time at a VW main dealer and getting slightly hacked off with it. I was involved in various disciplines of motorsport, both competing and spannering. So thought wouldn’t it be a good idea to this for a living? Quick search on the net found plenty of uni’s doing motorsport related courses, and I settled on one with uclan. However at the end of the first year I found that I had done far more mechanical work than I was ever going to learn on a uni course. I got cheesed off with going out on the lash all the time, so sacked it out in favour of a job in industry. I spent the next 6-7 years working in various mechanical/ design roles within the motorsport industry. And in the winter of 2007 thought enough is enough and I wanted my own business. At the time I was running a series 2 lotus Elise as a road car and I had been asked by a few people on the lotus forums to give them a hand running there cars in the lotus Elise trophy and lotus cup Europe. So kind of on a whim i thought to my self yeh that’s the basis for a good business I’ll do that. So with the financial backing of a fellow lotus owner/racer I did just that. However due to several personal and business reasons I ending up selling my 49% share of the business about 3 months ago after some two and a half years of solid graft. I am currently in the middle of moving all of my personally owned equipment ( which seems to be a bl**dy load) from Banbury back up to Cumbria. Where I have already got new workshops, and plenty of our existing customers. My plan for the future is to carry on with the lotus racing. We have had a lot of success over the last couple of years and have been on the podium at pretty much ever round we have been to. So would be silly to loose the industry reputation that I have personally built up. But I also would like to branch out a little bit more into other Marques and through my love of the little nova thought Vauxhall may as well be one of them. Albeit for the time being I think due to the level of work we have booked in my time will be mostly spent on my own cars.
What’s my plans I hear you all ask? Well to be fair I’m not to sure what I want the car to be. I’m thinking maybe be a clean b road basher that may see a bit of action in the odd 12car rally or such like. I have managed to gather up a few bits and pieces that can be put to one side for my own projects, though its mostly mundane things like steering wheels etc. I have always had a bit of a perversion for small blocks and more particularly 8v. So having found a 1.4sri engine, box, loom, ecu, and fuel pump on eBay last week, I stuck a poultry bid of £50 on the lot. Which I won for £31.05 on Sunday night and has been picked up this morning by a friend of mine. So I’m thinking this weekend I may whip the 1.3sr lump out and lob the 1.4sri in. But will give it a quick gasket and belt change/ health check when I am back at work on Thursday. Also have a 6pt OMP cage which may as well go in along bucket seats and harnesses. Then I think maybe run it for a couple of months doing other little jobs, i.e. bits of body/chassis work, suspension etc. Then take it back out and go to town on it machine it all up and see what I can get out of it for a bit of winter fun.
I do have a full corsa GSI which took the c16xe out of with view to dropping it in but after spending ages re working the head for some reason I decided that I wanted to be a bit more of a purist and stick to an original fit motor.
So there you go a bit long winded and mostly gibberish I suppose but I think as long as I have committed myself to starting a project thread it will force me to stay late at work each night and get some bits done just to keep the updates coming.
Pics to follow once I get to 15 posts.