story of my track car, well upto now anyway

[Mike.]

Thought i'd make a new post in the new section that way i can keep updating this one rather than making new ones.

I bought the car just over 2 years ago, it was a 1.2 luxe on a j- plate, the car was bought for 350 quid with a mot and nothing else

first i did the usual lowering, fitting a sportex back box, and alloys, the car stayed that way for about 5 months, then i wanted to do something with it, because i had passed my driving test and bought another car to use as my everyday driver, that ment the nova was now a 100% project car. last november i went to a track day at Cadwell park ( my local racetrack ) i went with work to see Martyn bell ( the now british touring car driver ) driving around, ever since that day i wanted to try that it looks amazing.

The first thing to do was to completely strip my nova's shell out, the whole car was gutted carpets, door cards seats, and eventually the dash, i then sourced some bucket seats and harneses, the seats were from Epo's old sri i got them for a bargain 50quid with the harnesses.





i then started to lighten the shell, i bought a FG tailgate and binned the bumper irons in favour of some bonnet pins





bracket for the bumpers



FG tailgate




the car then sat like this for sometime, ue to lack of money, then the car had to be relocated to my house rather than my dads because he had bought a boat

[Mike.]

When the car did get to my house it was in a bit of a state, it sat redundent in the drive way for some time, it survived afew break in's. After a few break ins to many i decided to pull my finger out and crack on with the project.

i started to tidy the interior, the dash came out, the floor was painted and i hollowed out the doors



.

i then fitted a second hand steering column, minus a steering wheel thank god, i fitted the new steering wheel and it was starting to take shape :D



i then ordered a cage and a rear strut brace the cage was painted BMW bright red and trail fitted.





then we went to fit the rear strut brace......

[Mike.]

pics from fitting the rear strut brace







pics with the cage and brace in





i bought some new wheels from Andy aka hendrix, they looked nice but unfortunatly one of them was damaged and can't be repaired





another part i bought from andy was a 1400 sr engine complete with vernier pulley, fast road cam. skimmed head and a weber carb, that engine is curently getting rebuilt

pics of engine

[Mike.]

the car then sat in my garage for a while, untill i was told there was another shell for sale in cleethorpes, the car was a white j reg merit plus, the bloke wanted 200quid for it, the car was straight, ok, it had some repair work on it i.e welding to the sills and battery tray, but the arches inner sill boot floor and slam panels all look great

rear view


front view, the bumper still needs pinning


rear panel, that has been trimmed for some reason


inner arches


front arches


rear arches

[Mike.]

i then fitted everything from my old shell to the new one. Suspension and wheels were already fitted now it was the turn of the cage seats harnesses, and rear strut brace







cage put back in after painting the floor

[db_1.2]

Doesnt that mean people can rob your bumper though?!

[Mike.]

the FG tailgate was then added still toying around with the idea of using the original hinges though



i made a custom dash pod made from the top half of the dash board


and the old shell went on its final journey





the car now sits on some corsa c alloy wheels, they look huge on the nova , other than that the cars pretty much the same, but i do have some plans for the interior that i'll be carring out this week.

i'll keep you lot posted

[Mike.]

Doesnt that mean people can rob your bumper though?!

not really because its going to be a track car not a grocery getter

[hendrix]

looks good that mike! some good parts going in/on it
ill have to take a journey over soon!

[Mike.]

looks good that mike! some good parts going in/on it
ill have to take a journey over soon!

cheers andy i'll have too come see you anyway, want too see the collection of nova's youve got now , let me know iff you have any parts for sale