One Nova I could live with...
- Thread starter Phil W
- Start date
actually, once i get rid of a couple of my cars ive been thinking about buying a nova, removing all excess weight and sticking 2 bike engines in the back for a laugh.
Once i get tired of it on the road i know a lad who'd buy it for racing in.
Once i get tired of it on the road i know a lad who'd buy it for racing in.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
burns said:
A Nova, tidy or not, is a faded early 90's banger. They are yet to be classics, and hopefully never will, but are too old to simply be a tidy small car.
That you think it's more than 'just another Saxo' is really rather amusing.
Where has this rather odd opinion that cars are like fine wines and get better with age actually come from?
Are we going to be swooning over 'tidy' Kia Rio's in 10 years time?
I take it from the comments that most people here haven't actually driven a quick Nova?
Let me tell you they regularly score class victories on road rallies and autotests etc. The steering has a slightly odd feeling at first, a bit like the Polo II but you soon get used to it. They outhandle the equivalent superminis of the time and make a good "blank canvas" for modification. Many of todays much vaunted rally drivers started off with the Vauxhall Nova including a certain Mr Colin McRae.
The brakes are poor, the power is not fantastic but they rev and pull well. It's all about conservation of momentum - in fast, touch the brakes to unsettle it, keep it flat and come out the other side with your spine tingling. I've driven a Nova SR absolutely flat out through erm, a private test track and at the end of it my heart was pumping and cold shivers down my spine because it was just so lovely and crisp whilst at the same time petrifying. And I'm not being rose-tinted, this was about 10 months ago.
No, it's never going to outclass a Civic Type R around Silverstone, but then it wasn't ever intended to - remember we are talking about a car released in 1982 here!
I would just like to end this post by clarifying that I am no Vauxhall fanboy (indeed, I was a staunch Ford devotee in my youth) and both the Novas I have owned personally were old worn out sheds.
Let me tell you they regularly score class victories on road rallies and autotests etc. The steering has a slightly odd feeling at first, a bit like the Polo II but you soon get used to it. They outhandle the equivalent superminis of the time and make a good "blank canvas" for modification. Many of todays much vaunted rally drivers started off with the Vauxhall Nova including a certain Mr Colin McRae.
The brakes are poor, the power is not fantastic but they rev and pull well. It's all about conservation of momentum - in fast, touch the brakes to unsettle it, keep it flat and come out the other side with your spine tingling. I've driven a Nova SR absolutely flat out through erm, a private test track and at the end of it my heart was pumping and cold shivers down my spine because it was just so lovely and crisp whilst at the same time petrifying. And I'm not being rose-tinted, this was about 10 months ago.
No, it's never going to outclass a Civic Type R around Silverstone, but then it wasn't ever intended to - remember we are talking about a car released in 1982 here!
I would just like to end this post by clarifying that I am no Vauxhall fanboy (indeed, I was a staunch Ford devotee in my youth) and both the Novas I have owned personally were old worn out sheds.
Lopéz said:
Well I speak from the experience of a 1985 C plate Nova Sport, it had twin 40's and worse fuel consumption than my current car! it went very well, but, my Escort RST was a lot better in every respect yet that was a torque steer nightmare in anything except a straight line!
Nothing Super about Novas!
I once owned a D-Reg 5-door Nova 1.2 'Swing', with (probably nicked) 14" Mk3 Cav GSi wheels on it, a Halfords exhaust trim, and across the top of the back window it had that massive yellow 'Max Power' sticker they gave away one month with the mag.
My 'fondest' memory was the interesting driving position, with the steering wheel offset to the left by a good couple of inches.
It was regularly full of teenage girls
My 'fondest' memory was the interesting driving position, with the steering wheel offset to the left by a good couple of inches.
It was regularly full of teenage girls
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Jul 2005
- Posts
- 17,616
- Location
- Bristol
Novas aren't that bad a car, my friend had a 1.5TD, and it was a very nippy littel car, clean, comfortable and much better than other cars my friends have owned.
For £2.5k though, no, not for a 16 year old hatchback like a Nova.
If the OP likes it though, why can't he buy it? If anybody else says what car they are buying then most people give them good feeback about it.
InvG
For £2.5k though, no, not for a 16 year old hatchback like a Nova.
If the OP likes it though, why can't he buy it? If anybody else says what car they are buying then most people give them good feeback about it.
InvG
Nova SR is a tidy little car, had some awesome drives in my friends back when I wasn't quite as sensible as I am now and most of the haters in this thread were in junior school. 
Nice to see some mint examples still around - most will have been barry'd into an early grave by now.
Personally I'm still after an original mint XR4i (3 door shell, non-4x4), but they seem to be ever rarer as everyone made them into cossie replicas.
Nice to see some mint examples still around - most will have been barry'd into an early grave by now.
Personally I'm still after an original mint XR4i (3 door shell, non-4x4), but they seem to be ever rarer as everyone made them into cossie replicas.
Last edited:
Novas are cool. Badly kevved Novas aren't, but road-rally style ones are. They're even cooler, and actually properly quick with XEs in, but it's a shame the shells can't take it (even when welded up) and the car starts to pull itself apart. A mate had a 170bhp XE (on bike carbs) in a Corsa, and the shell was splitting behind the B pillars...!
I must be a Nova fan on the QT. 
I've owned ,in no particular order, a 1985 1.3 Sport, 1988 1.3SR 1989 1.2 Diamond and a 1991 1.2 Flair.
Always fancied a GTE/GSI - Never got one though.
Thankfully, my time with owning Novas is over.
I've owned ,in no particular order, a 1985 1.3 Sport, 1988 1.3SR 1989 1.2 Diamond and a 1991 1.2 Flair.
Always fancied a GTE/GSI - Never got one though.
Thankfully, my time with owning Novas is over.
because cambelts shold be changed on a time basis as well as a millage basis, rubber perishes ya'know.-westy- said:If its only got 15k on it, why has it had the cambelt changed twice?
how many times i have seen "my cambelt snapped and its not due for another 10,000 miles" you ask them the service interval and its "40,000 miles or 4 years" they then tell you the belt is 7 years old
well duhhhh
I think it all depends what you want to do with your car. Never mind it is a Nova.
5 years ago I borrowed a 1.2L saloon Nova for 3 weeks to avoid going to work on the bus. 5 years later and 32000 more miles it is still sitting on my drive. I use to go to work at a secondary school, go to the tip or go to dodgy parts of B'ham for a curry.
Tucked up in the garage I have something German that pushes out 262bhp. That comes out to play at other times.
The "mobile shed" is kept going from parts from the local scrap yard so running costs are minimal. I do have to give it Shell V power cos it was made in the time of 4* petrol and V power stops it pinking without having to retard the timing.
So as I said don't knock the humble Nova, it all depends what you want to do with it!!!
PeterT
5 years ago I borrowed a 1.2L saloon Nova for 3 weeks to avoid going to work on the bus. 5 years later and 32000 more miles it is still sitting on my drive. I use to go to work at a secondary school, go to the tip or go to dodgy parts of B'ham for a curry.
Tucked up in the garage I have something German that pushes out 262bhp. That comes out to play at other times.
The "mobile shed" is kept going from parts from the local scrap yard so running costs are minimal. I do have to give it Shell V power cos it was made in the time of 4* petrol and V power stops it pinking without having to retard the timing.
So as I said don't knock the humble Nova, it all depends what you want to do with it!!!
PeterT
Associate
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 1,519
- Location
- Liverpool - UK.
timbob said:
Thats a common Corsa trait - even with the standard engine - so theyre hardly 'pulling themselves apart'.
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Oct 2003
- Posts
- 13,608
- Location
- Back with a Vengeance.
Associate
- Joined
- 8 Nov 2006
- Posts
- 1,444
Standard novas are not nice to drive by todays standards. I know because ive had one, good fun and all but just lacking. I owned a 2.0l 16v for 5 years and it was very nice as my daily drive, fast, quiet, comfortable, good on fuel, cost me about £50 a year to maintain! all good fun. I now drive (and have for 2 years) a 2.0l 16v turbo with adjustable boost, 220bhp upto 300bhp, I bought this as a finished project, had about £12k spent on it! fourtunatly it shows. The styling is that of the GSI, no silly wings or bumpers. Full leather interior, coilover suspension big brakes, 6 speed gearbox, everything uprated and modified underneath.
Comparing it to the standard nova its nothing like, I drove my dads 95 CDX Cavalier and found my Nova much nicer to just toodle round in. To the question "do you like Nova's?" i say "No...... but I like mine"
Comparing it to the standard nova its nothing like, I drove my dads 95 CDX Cavalier and found my Nova much nicer to just toodle round in. To the question "do you like Nova's?" i say "No...... but I like mine"