Vintage Thing No.73 - Nova

If you ever doubted that the seventies were not sensational, then you probably weren't there.

The first time I ever saw a Nova made a hell of an impression on me - one came into the harbourside car park in Falmouth when I was a student down there and raised its canopy to allow the driver to take his ticket from the barrier machine. No other vehicle had a "door" like this and, even after Lamborghini has popularised the scissor doors among the Max Power brigade, I think the Nova remains unique.

Rolling sculpture - I think there's provision for a handle to lift the roof from the outside but electric operation looks really flash. Obviously this owner's confident her system works

Of course, I knew it was a Nova - that's the original Nova, not the Vauxhall or Opel variety. they came later and I don't recall the same fuss over the name that Ford and Dutton created when both manufacturers wanted to call their cars Sierra.

I'd already poured over numerous pictures of Novas in the kit car mags. And it had that typically fruity zorst note of a warmed over Vee Dub, probably a 1641cc big bore, for with stretched Beetle engines you hear every cubic centimetre.

Even then, in 1982, it was not a new design but it was the standard by which all other "exotic" kits were judged and most were found wanting by comparison.

This is what knocks me out about Novas. The way the canopy lifts up on its electric rams is just sensational. There's probably a law against this, these days. That's owner Lauren at the back with Richard Oakes in the red cap. He liked what she'd done to her car.

Not only did it look good but the quality was good, too, and Phil Sayer, who developed the car and made its canopy work did as much to realise customer's dreams as Richard Oakes.

I can't remember the last time I saw one but at the 2010 Exeter Kit Car Show not one but two showed up. Not only that, but designer Richard Oakes was on his Blackjack stand in the main hall and came out to have a look at them where it was fascinating to eavesdrop on the conversation that he had with the owners.

When I sidled up unobtrusively, Lauren, who owned this tasteful green example, was explaining how she'd reversed her nostrils. This is quite a feat if you can do it successfully. Only the other day, I was reading about a species of Japanese monkey that has nostrils that point upwards. Apparently it sneezes a lot when it rains. This affliction does not affect Lauren's car. Richard reckoned this was quite a sensible modification. I think Darwin, or God, or whoever you believe in ought to take note.

Can you see the join around these reversed nsotrils? No, neither can I

A close looked at the bonnet revealed no indication of any fettling around the nostrils. They looked as if they'd been made that way. The quality of Lauren's modifications was superb.


They extended to fitting an Alfasud engine and gearbox and again Richard was most approving. He's obviously not precious about his designs and thoughtful modifications like this add to its already considerable appeal and make the car more desirable. If my woolly-hatted ears eavesdropped correctly, Lee Noble was responsible for the tubular chassis design. The trick with an installation like this is to use the mounting point on top of the engine as well as those at each end of the powertrain. Richard reckoned missing this out resulted in much worse "feel" and driving quality and Lauren agreed, saying that engine mount was there for a purpose.

Beauty isn't skin deep with this baby

I asked Lauren about the gear linkage and she said the trick was to reverse the linkage as it comes out of the box, as this makes connecting a rod around the engine and transaxle much easier.

To enhance the seventies technology content even further, Lauren's dashboard features vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs). I'd never heard of these but now I know what they are I see them everywhere and have fond memories of writing BIGBOOBS on a programmable Texas Instruments calculator that had these kind of numerals. (Come on, we've all done it.)

Spooling up big numbers on this dash must be addictive with these VFDs - vacuum fluorescent displays

Lauren chose these herself and while most drivers prefer analogue dials, VFDs sit very comfortably in a car like this. In an alternative universe these gauges would be more commonplace. Perhaps we are more fortunate to live in ours to appreciate them more. And she has some army surplus headphones for her handsfree phone - perfect!

This is a view of the canopy lifting mechanism towards the front. Imagine you're sliding across the sill to get in and this is what you'd see. Note the substantial peg that fits in the socket in the sill and locates the canopy in place.

This car is Lauren's daily driver and her only car, so a Nova seems eminently practical for use in the twenty-first century. It was ahead of its time and its time may be now. Recognition of this cars impact on design has long been overdue.

We were blessed with not one but two Novas at the show.

The other Nova present belonged to Mick, the Nova club's chairman, and was rescued from a Scottish garden. It was still unfinished but even what had been done had to undone if the result was to be worthwhile. It needed a new Beetle floorpan, for instance, and the engine had to be completely rebuilt.

Mick freely admitted to not liking louvres so modified the rear of his car but it retains its VW engine. There's a reversing camera, too!

Even keeping a Nova close to its original concept takes an awful lot of work but Mick knows that he's got a real piece of history.

The Nova wasn't the first design from Richard Oakes. That was the Tramp beach buggy, wisely held to be the best British design that did not rip off the original concept from the US. The Nova, was what made people sit up and take notice and although the original firm of Automotive Design and Development foundered in the late seventies it lived on through various incarnations and spawned a few offshoots - for instance, the Eagle SS was a spin off from the Cimbria, an American version of the Nova, and then there was the Avante, described by the club as the "Nova's little brother". The Nova travelled the world in many forms but the original design came to rest in Newquay in Cornwall, from 1995-8 with the obvious options of Alfasud and Porsche power, over and above the traditional Beetle engine.

People are still re-interpreting them as you can see from the radically altered Nova built by Steve McHugh.

Lauren's car is a celebration of (slightly) obsolete technology, high tech with a thirty (almost forty) year old aesthetic and celebrates the sheer "joy of making" in a unashamedly self-indulgent wallow.

Speaking of which, if you like Novas take a look at the club's website and Euro-Nova's fascinating, too. Meanwhile in the states, the Nova is still available as the Sterling.