985cc Turbocharged Nova Sprint Car

Mitsubishi Warrior?!

I weighed one of my doors today, which came out at 8kg.

Bear in mind that this is a door that has been completely gutted out of its internals, and skinned in aluminium sheet instead of steel.

I have asked Chris at CM Composites to make me a set of his fibreglass doors, which should come in at a shade under 10kg for the pair, which will give me a useful 6kg weight saving.

Total Weight soon to be 556kg.............

fibreglass doors are probably my best buy for my nova so far, is there not a weight limit for car or car+driver for class your in Colin ? also what are the sizes and offset for wheels as wheels will soon be next on my list.

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Originally Posted by calibra-keith

fibreglass doors are probably my best buy for my nova so far, is there not a weight limit for car or car+driver for class your in Colin ? also what are the sizes and offset for wheels as wheels will soon be next on my list.

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I might be calling on you Keith for help with fitting them, it looked like an excellent job you did on yours!!

There's no weight limit at all in hillclimbs/sprints, so the lighter I can get the better. I was talking to a Mini owner at the weekend and he's got his legally down to 480kg!

Difficult to comment on wheel offsets as I haven't got the ideal combination on mine at all.

At the front I've mostly used an ET38 on a 7" rim with a 10mm spacer, so I would say the optimum is probably a 7" with an offset of around ET20 to avoid use of a spacer.

At the back I've got 7" wide with an ET of 11mm, but my rear track is also a lot wider due to the KAD alloy hubs I have fitted. In actual fact the ET11 is a little too wide for mine, so I will eventually get some higher offset wheels made to suit.

You might be better off speaking with other wide-arch Nova owners, as mine has been messed about with so much that comparisons may not be very useful.

Many years ago I had an orange XE-engine wide arch Nova that I am sure had ET0 wheels fitted all round (7" wide I seem to recall), and they filled out the arches just perfectly.

Of course finding the right wheels for the job is tricky, although if you're going for bigger diameters it's not so much of an issue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mazz

mitsubishi warrior?!

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16v n/a pinto engine.....

I'll be on with making you the doors asap ;)

Keith did an outstanding job on fitting his :thumb:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 16xe_chris

I'll be on with making you the doors asap ;)

Keith did an outstanding job on fitting his :thumb:

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Thanks Chris.

I was trying to find some photos of my Nova in action, with little success, but I did find these 5 pages of photos of other motorsport Novas, some of which are cars I know, but others that are new to me;

http://www.zipp.co.uk/search/gallery/nova

Some interesting cars there.

Not a great photo, but these are the wheels I am planning to order;

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...untitled-4.jpg

I'm going up to see the chap who makes them next week, so he can take some measurements and start on machining.

If I sell all the other wheels I own I can just about afford a set!

Nice "Nova" tyres on them wheels! lol

All looking very very good mate, and nice link to them other nova's, i like what looks to be a standard SR in them.

Scott

This is a good link to see the sort of Mini-based competition I'm up against;

http://www.carbonweezel.co.uk/projects/index.html

My fiercest rivals are Neal Masters and Jim White, both of whom use carbon fibre stuff from this company.

Carbon Weezel produce some stunning carbon fibre work, including bespoke stuff for Sunseekers and Princess's, for those that are simply too wealthy for motorsport.......

would you be interested in selling that rear diffuser that didnt fit? and i know you dont normally reply to threads or pms but have locked myself out of my e-mail!

John

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Originally Posted by brake-dust

would you be interested in selling that rear diffuser that didnt fit? and i know you dont normally reply to threads or pms but have locked myself out of my e-mail!

John

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Hi John.

Spooky coincidence alert.........I was literally just writing out the advert for the diffuser to go on EBAY.

I've had a fair bit of interest from people in it, so I thought it best to stick it up for auction.

Any questions feel free to raise them on this topic thread, I seem to be on here regularly, but I do dislike PM's!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by novarally

It's crossed my mind a few times, especially now that the guy who always used to win that Class has retired (he was running an ultra-serious Warrior engined Mk.2 Escort).

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Was that simon mckinley? or am i mistaken

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Originally Posted by _Jake

Was that simon mckinley? or am i mistaken

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No, the man I know is Andy Bascombe;

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/car9-g.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brake-dust

would you be interested in selling that rear diffuser that didnt fit? and i know you dont normally reply to threads or pms but have locked myself out of my e-mail!

John

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John.

Follow this link for the diffuser (and lots of other stuff);

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/hillclimbe...id=p4340.l2562

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Originally Posted by novarally

No, the man I know is Andy Bascombe;

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/car9-g.jpg

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That is gorgeous!

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Originally Posted by Ben

That is gorgeous!

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Trust me, it's far better in the flesh, it is unbelievably clean.

Bit of video footage here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4XNvYT-3P0

Quote:

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Originally Posted by novarally

I might be calling on you Keith for help with fitting them, it looked like an excellent job you did on yours!!

There's no weight limit at all in hillclimbs/sprints, so the lighter I can get the better. I was talking to a Mini owner at the weekend and he's got his legally down to 480kg!

Difficult to comment on wheel offsets as I haven't got the ideal combination on mine at all.

At the front I've mostly used an ET38 on a 7" rim with a 10mm spacer, so I would say the optimum is probably a 7" with an offset of around ET20 to avoid use of a spacer.

At the back I've got 7" wide with an ET of 11mm, but my rear track is also a lot wider due to the KAD alloy hubs I have fitted. In actual fact the ET11 is a little too wide for mine, so I will eventually get some higher offset wheels made to suit.

You might be better off speaking with other wide-arch Nova owners, as mine has been messed about with so much that comparisons may not be very useful.

Many years ago I had an orange XE-engine wide arch Nova that I am sure had ET0 wheels fitted all round (7" wide I seem to recall), and they filled out the arches just perfectly.

Of course finding the right wheels for the job is tricky, although if you're going for bigger diameters it's not so much of an issue.

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no problem, im sure you will manage but feel free to ask, and cheers for the info on the wheels i did put up a post while back and looked at a few of the wide-arched threads to get an idea.

Picked up my fibreglass doors from Chris in Keighley yesterday (thanks Chris).

Calibra Keith - you have a PM about fitting them! Thanks.

Today my carbon fibre diffuser arrived in the post. By pure chance it is a perfect fit on the Nova, which is certainly more luck than judgement as the guy selling it didn't bother to supply me with the measurements which I asked for several times.

It also arrived covered in sticky tape, which I was more than annoyed about.

Anyway, it cleaned up OK, and I replaced the ridiculously long and heavy duty bolts which were fitted to it with some mushroom headed alloy ones.

Fitting is obviously not complete yet, but here's a few photos anyway;

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/015-23.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/016-28.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/017-30.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/018-27.jpg

69 OPEL plate is a winner.

Any news on the wheels then Colin?! Didnt expect to see you lol

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Originally Posted by mk1nova_rich

Any news on the wheels then Colin?! Didnt expect to see you lol

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The wheels are ordered, and a deposit placed.

Carl reckons they will take him around 6 weeks to do, as he's got to get a man in to do some re-programming on one of his machines to change it to suit 15" wheels.

Can't wait to get them!

I'm having 7.5" x 15" for the front, and 7" x 13" for the back.

Them dub and euro boys would be confused by this idea Colin, they wouldn't understand the idea of drag reduction, (and slight bit less weight) sound like they will be very nice, but dam costly to.

Scott

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Originally Posted by scott.parker

Them dub and euro boys would be confused by this idea Colin, they wouldn't understand the idea of drag reduction, (and slight bit less weight) sound like they will be very nice, but dam costly to.

Scott

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They're costing a fair bit for sure, but considering the weight loss and looks bonus they give, and the fact they are complete one-offs, I think the price is sensible.

This is the style I'm having;

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...-dsy-wheel.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...-dsy-black.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...-wgeel-dsy.jpg

I'm probably going to go with the gold anodised finish.

A few more photos of the diffuser, now fully installed;

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/016-29.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/017-31.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/018-28.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/019-24.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/020-20.jpg

looking good Colin, is that a varis universal diffuser ?

i have just emailed you about doors.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by calibra-keith

looking good Colin, is that a varis universal diffuser ?

i have just emailed you about doors.

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It was an EBAY diffuser, apparently for a Honda S2000.

Yes, got your e-mail, thanks.

Might just be the angle but it looks like the front of it is pointed up? You want it flat, so it then curves away upwards. Besides that it looks rather sexy :d

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Originally Posted by MK999

Might just be the angle but it looks like the front of it is pointed up? You want it flat, so it then curves away upwards. Besides that it looks rather sexy :d

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For the moment I've just bolted it directly to the spare wheel well (or what's left of it). So the diffuser may well need adjustment to flatten the angle. I'm planning to look at some further aerodynamics such as a flat floor, so it's all work in progress.

You'd have to go a lot lower for a flat floor etc to be worth the weight imo, carbon diffuser is pretty light and easy to bolt up etc so fair enough, but to spend the time/money/weight on the whole hog you'd need to be able to get the best out of it (i.e be double figure mm off the floor rather than double figure cm.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MK999

You'd have to go a lot lower for a flat floor etc to be worth the weight imo, carbon diffuser is pretty light and easy to bolt up etc so fair enough, but to spend the time/money/weight on the whole hog you'd need to be able to get the best out of it (i.e be double figure mm off the floor rather than double figure cm.)

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I'm going to be taking the advice of Simon McBeath, well known race car aerodynamicist, and author of 'Competition Car Downforce' and 'Competition Car Aerodynamics', before proceeding with any further developments.

Simon is a friend of mine, so I can tap him up for free advice.

I'm well out of my depth there then lol

Shoddy update as there's nothing much to report at this stage.........all I can offer is that to my surprise when I took the tyres off them, the 13" Compomotive Turbo split rims I was using on the rear;

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/006-39.jpg

weigh in at 5.1kg each.

This is a bit of a shock, albeit a welcome one.

I had assumed they would be really lightweight, but clearly that isn't the case. The new ones that Force Racing are making for me at the moment will be 3.4kg, for exactly the same size of wheel, so that will be a very useful and unexpected saving of circa 3.5kg!

I'm now looking into the potential weight savings to be had from replacing the stressed bolts/nuts on the car with titanium ones.

The plan would be to replace the fasteners in suspension/steering/seat mounts. I've done some calculations and it could save half a kilo, although the cost could well be £200 without any bother. Very much into the laws of diminishing returns now........

£200 for 500g at the kind of stage you're at isn't too shocking imo, also not too bad for replacing that many larger bolts tbh. Normally about £8 each for little m6's etc for bikes.

Titanium or Alloy wheel nuts Colin :thumb:

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Originally Posted by 16xe_chris

Titanium or Alloy wheel nuts Colin :thumb:

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I got some alloy ones, but we're not allowed to use them.

The regulations specifically state they have to be of ferrous construction.

One of the guys I race with has a Porsche GT3 RS which has titanium wheel nuts fitted as standard, and he was told to get them changed......

Tbh, something as safety critical as a wheel nut/stud should be steel on a hill climber, its not like they have runoff zones/gravel traps on your average hill climb course

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Originally Posted by mowgli

Tbh, something as safety critical as a wheel nut/stud should be steel on a hill climber, its not like they have runoff zones/gravel traps on your average hill climb course

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Loton has none what so ever :S gravel trap = armco lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by novarally

I'm going to be taking the advice of Simon McBeath, well known race car aerodynamicist, and author of 'Competition Car Downforce' and 'Competition Car Aerodynamics', before proceeding with any further developments.

Simon is a friend of mine, so I can tap him up for free advice.

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jealous, i want a friend like that!

i have to agree though, from the pics of how its sits i would guess its just looking pretty

Quote:

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Originally Posted by burgo

jealous, i want a friend like that!

i have to agree though, from the pics of how its sits i would guess its just looking pretty

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As far as fitment goes, it is simply attached where both ends conveniently touched against something I could bolt to.........pure luck, but absolutely no science.

But it does look good.

I've started stripping the car down ready for its respray, and have found numerous things which can be altered to save small amounts of weight, and without spending any money, which is critical right now.