Jon Walsh write up

 

“It was quicker than the GTE, was on sale four years before and only had a 1.3-litre engine. Behold, the Nova Sport, or should we say HS?

It was a time when building cars was fun. It wasn’t all about crash testing, emissions, passenger safety cells or airbags and it certainly had naff all to do with polluting the environment. Back then, manufacturers could do pretty much what they wanted and get away with it.

Need convincing? Check out the lairy Nova Sport. Simply take a mere 75bhp, 1.3-litre Nova, add some fuel-guzzling Weber carbs, a couple of trick bits and you have a car ready to be an instant rally and race winner. Two fingers up to lean-burn legislation.

The Nova Sport was built for many reasons, but mainly because Vauxhall wanted to win at rallying. It didn’t just want to take part and make up the numbers (like Peugeot in the BTCC?). Winning a rally is a huge marketing and advertising opportunity and on that sells a lot of cars. It was win or not bother.

Vauxhall was already rallying the Nova SR – driven by Harry Hockley – but it wasn’t the most powerful car out there and it was decided to do something about it. The rules stated that an evolution model could be used as long as it was on sale to the general public – a special model could be produced with a minimum run of 500. The plan was forming.

Under the eye of Andrew Duerden at GM Dealer Sport, the Nova Sport was born. Irmscher UK (then known as Steve Thompson Cars, one of the last Opel dealers in the UK) was involved, as were Weber UK, Ashley Exhausts and ENEM Cams in Sweden. They came up with a mix of ingredients which, when added to a 1.3-litre Nova, would boost the standard 75 bhp to a whopping 93 bhp.

OK, 93 bhp and 0-60 in 8.5 seconds may not sound impressive, but you have to remember it wasn’t until 1988 that the Daddy Nova arrived. When it did, the 1.6-litre, fuel-injected GTE managed 98.6 bhp and 9.5 seconds. Impressed now? The Nova Sport brochure published in October 1984 laid it all down. It was an impressive package, including a pair of 40mm Weber DCOE carbs specially produced in Italy, an Irmscher air-intake box, optional lairy Irmscher camshaft, an Ashley back box, uprated brakes, modified coolant hoses, a set of body graphics and – shocker – a five-speed ‘box! Well, everything was pretty much four-speed, then.

Vauxhall had created a double-edged sword. Deep within the add-on package was the ability to boost the power a whole heap more. Adjusting the carbs would make for a real rip snorter, capable of going flat chat on the gravel, eating and beating bigger and more powerful cars.

The 500 or so cars went on sale in 1985. There were 600 Vauxhall dealers in the UK who all wanted one, hence a lot of disappointed dealers and customers. Whatever, the plan worked. The first few Sport kits went out to privateer rally teams and racers using the Nova and provided a much-needed boost to Harry Hockley and – on the race track – James Kaye (who went on to win the Uniroyal Production Saloon Car Championship). Vauxhall, thanks to Harry, bagged the up to 1300cc class in Group A in that year’s British Rally Championship. The prize? Novas sold by the bucket load.

A lot of Sports went rallying and never returned, ending up in a tree/hedge/ditch. Some went on the road. Some people found the 40 mm Weber carb’s too expensive to runs and ditched them in favour of a single 32/34 DMTL Weber or a boring Peirburg from the SR.

The air box’s went missing too, people believing it choked the engine. It was designed to gain more torque and only slightly to hush the carbs huge bark when the throttle was given large. Eventually, as the exhausts rotted, they were replaced with standard Charlie Brown specials. Accidents took their toll on the graphics and some were never replaced. Numbers dwindled and prices dropped.

Now motor sport is cool again, the Sport is the coolest Nova to own, since it’s quick, rare and the hard ******* on the block. Scabby buckets can be had for between £50 and £500. They might need a shell, but all the essential parts – carbs, airbox and inlet manifold – are still there. Some have been restored, some are mint and the best fetch between £1,500 and £3,000. Not bad for a C-reg Nova.

We’ve been digging, contacted friends, rattled boxes and generally been nosey. We’ve spoken to the people who helped make the Sport happen, designed the package and drove the sport in anger. We’ve also dug up the old tech specs and discovered new part numbers. So if you’re seriously looking to get your Sport back into tiptop shape, you’ll need this info.

If you don’t have a Sport, or don’t want one, take a look at what you’re missing. It’s hard to believe this car is responsible for so much and let’s face it, everyone wants to drive a rally winner, don’t they?”

Rallying the Sport

“When talking about Vauxhalls in rallying, chances are the name Harry Hockley will crop up. He won the British Open Rally Championship in the Group A up to 1300cc class three times, all in Sports. “At the time I was driving a GM Dealer Sport factory car and it had a Pierburg carb on it,” he tells us. “It was a real problem on left handers, as the fuel would move about in the carb, the car would lose power and splutter. The float stuck on the side wall inside. And we were up against it – the Sambas and Skoda’s were taking time off us. Where I knew the roads I made time up, but they had much more power.”

To be exact, the Samba had a 30 bhp advantage and 15 per cent less weight to carry about.

The car needed a set of twin-carbs on it to make it into a convincing winner, and in January 1984, Andrew Duerden of GM Dealer Sport hatched the plan to create the Sport. Just over 12 months later, the kits were homologated.

At the same time, Opel homologated the 1.3-litre Corsa Sprint, which ran on Irmscher injection rather than carbs. Then there was some gamesmanship by other manufacturers which is still under contention today. For one reason or another, the Sport was late in production and Vauxhall missed its homologation date. The FIA spat its dummy out and Vauxhall ended up at the wrong end of a £25K fine for “homologation irregularities.” That was a heck of a lot of cash in 1985.

All thanks to manufacturer X (sorry, we can’t say who) throwing its toys from the pram. Obviously GM wasn’t Ferrari.

Since the Sports were delayed, the British rally cars had to run as Vauxhall-Opel for the beginning of the 1985 season so they could use the Irmscher injection. All the badging was changed to Opel and the results stacked up.

Eventually, the Sport was ready and the injection was ditched. The Sport carbs were fitted and the Griffin was back on the cars. Then the real business started and the pumped-up Nova was on the podium again and again.

It wasn’t just beating the rest of the 1.3-litre competition, though. In 1985, Louise Aitken-Walker (who went on to rally a MkII Astra 16-valve alongside Malcolm Wilson) was still in her Peugeot 205 days. The Nova was taking time out of the 1.6-litre Pug with no problems at all.

Harry didn’t mince his words when summing up the homologation special in competition:” The Nova Sport was one of the best packages ever put together for rallying. It’s still a good package today and we (Harry Hockley Motor Sport) still build them to pretty much the same specifications as we did then. It was one of the best handling cars ever.”

The Nova Sport Daddy

“After chatting to so many people, all the fingers point in the general direction of Andrew Deurden as the daddy of the Nova Sport. He worked for Vauxhall Motorsport, then called GM Dealer Sport. Roy Cook worked within Vauxhall and he was the guy who started the ball rolling at the Luton HQ. Andrew is still involved with Vauxhall, but for anyone with a Sport, he really is the man to thank.*

As Harry said, the Nova was up against the more powerful Talbot Samba and it was even suffering at the hands of the Skoda. Andrew and Roy came up with the idea of a limited edition performance version of the Nova to help boost motorsport success.

The proposal for a “performance derivative of the S-car” (as the Nova was known inside Vauxhall) called the Nova “HS” was presented in May 1984 with proposals to run the first off the line at Rallye Monte Carlo in January 1985. A number of options were discussed; one used a 1.2-litre block fitted with 1.6-litre pistons, another was a 1.3-litre with special head and inlet manifold. But the ideas to adapt an injection system to a 1.3-litre (which was used by Opel to create the Corsa Sprint and Sprint R) or use twin-40 mm Weber carbs seemed hottest. As per Vauxhall style, all the ideas were based on kit already in the parts bin.”

The firm had to make a certain number to meet the FIA homologation rules. At the time, to qualify for an evolution version of any car, Vauxhall had to build a certain number of one model/edition which had also ceased production. They needed a minimum of 5000 Novas, then the 500 specials were allowed. As it happens, 6000 1.2-litre Nova Swings were made, so it was decided that the Sport would be based on the Swing.

But the cars didn’t leave the Spanish factory in complete Sport trim. “In Vauxhall terms, the basic car was a delete code option vehicle – it had been specified with lots of parts deleted from it,” explains Andrew. “But it did have a few where it mattered. Crossed off the list was the tinted glass, SR front and rear spoilers, exterior side protection mouldings, remote driver’s door mirror, rear seatbelts, split/folding rear seat, radio/cassette, clock, cigar lighter and door pockets. But there were big ticks next to SR seats, rev counter, steel wheels, Polar White paint and brown check interior.

The Nova Sport brochure said Astra GTE ventilated disc brakes were to be fitted. In the end, 9.3 inch brakes were deleted from the Sport, purely for cost reasons. Besides, when the cars were going rallying, bigger brakes were guaranteed to be fitted.

But the name was still undecided. “Initially we’d always thought it was going to be called the Nova HS, to follow on from the HS Chevette.” Andrew reveals. “We thought about calling it the Nova 500 or Nova 500 HS.” That certainly carries across in the original drawings, which Les Allen produced inside the Luton HQ. Eventually, the Sport name was chosen.

Before long, 500 or so Sport-spec shells were made in Opel’s Spanish factory and shipped to Portbury Docks in Bristol. In reality, the Sport was officially called the Nova Swing Sport. “We’d shortlisted a few designs for the graphics. To test them, we physically pulled a Sport from the line-up and stuck the different designs on to see what we liked. Then we tried some of the 18 different wheel trims we could pick from the parts bin.” It was down to two designs in the end – the chosen graphics were from the Les Allen designs. These were made by 3M and fitted by a couple of blokes at the docks.

When the car arrived at the dealership, a box of bits was found in the boot. Everything needed to convert the Nova to full Sport-specification was included – carbs, bolts and even sheets of instructions. “This meant the car was available a full six to eight months earlier than if it had gone for full type approval with everything fitted. Essential for the rally programme,” says Andrew. “Some people accused Vauxhall of cheating and said that it wasn’t real homologation. But the only reason was to get it sorted as quickly as possible. Besides, Rover had already set the precedent. It made a special edition of the Rover V8 to help it along in the then Touring Car Championship. It had a very trick front spoiler fitted, but because they were so low, Rover said it couldn’t get the cars on the transporter to ship to the dealer. So they were packed in the boot.

Rather than being built in one long run, two large batches of delete code Novas were completed, with a few stragglers here and there – 308 in the first big run and 195 later on. There were four extras at the beginning, which were the prototypes for the Motor Show and the like.

In any case, Andrew still has a record of every Sport produced, including its chassis number, date of manufacture and even details of which dealer and date of delivery.

It’s long been thought that 502 cars were made. There were actually 503 Sports out there at one time and 514 Sport kits produced. Who knows how many are left?”

 

The Complete Kit

Have you ever wondered what was in a complete Nova Sport Pack? Here’s the full and unadulterated list:

Silencer tail box
Carburettor and manifold unit with inlet gasket
Airbox unit with breather connector and filter
Air pipe
Throttle cable
Heater hose (long) – manifold to heater
Heater hose (short) – block to heater
Fan belt
Bracket assembly (air filter mounting)
Dashboard sticker
Wheel house panel sticker
Eight M6 bolts
Eight washers
Tension lever
Alternator bracket
Circlip (air hose)
Tie wrap (air hose)
Tie wrap (small)
Four replacement black plastic blanking plugs (required for the 2000 mile carburettor service)

 

Plundered Parts

Some of the original parts are no longer available, some are. Here’s the latest list of parts and numbers you’ll need:

“In each Irmscher-designed airbox there are two black plastic blanking plugs. You can pop ’em out, giving easy access to the jets on the carbs. These were actually blanking plugs from an Irmscher rear hood spoiler for the MkII Astra. In the kit they were labelled ST816, but we’ve located the original Irmscher part number.To keep costs to a minimum, the kits were made up of all sorts of parts. The carbs, back box and airbox may well have been the major bits, but where did they find parts like the hoses or clips? There was no cash to make everything bespoke, so the Vauxhall parts bin was plundered, meaning 90044408 is actually a heater hose from a 1,2-litre MkII Astra and 94137686 is a smaller hose assembly from a Bedford Midi van!

The original throttle cable used on the conversion was taken from a twin-carb set-up produced for the Opel Manta. That’s no longer available, but you can use the cable from a MkI Astra GTE 1800 – the problem ball/cup on the linkage is practically identical.”

 

Exhausting Red Supplies

“The Nova Sport exhaust tailpipe was a huge (for its day) 2 inch job. Massive. It was also uniquely red, but nearly wasn’t. Brian Ashley (Ashley Exhausts) was approached by Steve (at Steve Thompson Cars) who was gathering the parts for the Sport package. It was October and the Motor Show wasn’t far away. The first Nova Sport was to go on display and it needed a back box. Brian received a call one Friday – three nicely finished boxes were urgently needed. They were made in mild steel and the powder-coating company Brian was using was only doing red that day. So three red back boxes were sent to Steve.

Not long after the show, Brian received a call from Steve’s brother, John. “Where are the other back-boxes?” He was confused at first, until an order slip came in later that day – “Purchase order to produce 500 Nova Sport back boxes (in red)”. Luck or fate?

Brian says Ashley is more than happy to supply an original-spec back-box for anyone wanting the real thing. Any colour you like as long as it’s red. Still, it’s thought the exhaust was supposed to remain standard. This may be an urban myth, but while testing the first Sport engine on the dyno, things started going wrong. With the engine in full flight, the back-box rattled loose and fell off. The power output jumped. There was much scratching of heads, this resulted in the decision to have a performance back box. The rest is history.”

 

Weber Carbs

“The Nova Sport Weber carbs are certainly not standard. Weber has made hundreds of types of 40 mm DCOE carbs over the years – different applications require different specs. These were specially produced with a vacuum system linking to the advance on the distributor to give the carbs better road manners.

Each Weber carb has a model number located on the cover – pukka Nova Sport carbs are numbered 40DCOE144 (driver’s side carb) and 40DCOE143 (erm, the other one). Any Sport without these may be a Sport in name, but not in nature. Be sure to check ’em when buying, particularly second-hand carbs claimed to be from a Sport.

If yours are getting tired, don’t worry about changing them – the standard Weber 40 DCOE service kits will sort out the old buggers and bring them back to life. The kits cost about ?15 each and if you’ve got the time and patience, you could have them like new after a weekend on the kitchen table. We stripped and serviced a pair last year, replacing the butterfly spindles at the same time – well worth doing when the carbs are stripped.”

 

The Facts
1985 Nova Sport
Price new  – £5799.89

Body
Special Nova Sport decal kit made by 3M covering the front and rear wings, doors, rear hatch and with small details on the bonnet, front bumper/grille, single non-remote wing mirror*

Engine
1298 cc, 8-valve, four-cylinder, Vauxhall Family One engine (compression ratio of 9.2:1, bore 75 mm, stroke 73.4 mm), twin-40 mm Weber Nova Sport carbs, Irmscher inlet manifold, Irmscher airbox, modified heater hoses and special alternator bracket, Ashley Nova Sport red back-box. Optional – Irmscher 298 degree high-lift camshaft at ?210.97 fitted*

Gearbox
Five-speed -F10

Interior
Brown interior and dash with SR brown check seats, SR instruments, steering wheel from 1.2-litre Nova, clock, radio deleted, split rear seat and cigar lighter deleted.

ICE
You’re kidding, right?

Suspension
Nova SR*

Brakes
Standard Nova SR, brochure did show ventilated discs (the same set-up used on the Astra GTE) but these were not fitted.

Wheels and Tyres
5×13 inch steel Vauxhall wheels with white wheel trims and Firestone S211 175/70×13 inch tyres all round.

Performance

MPG
30 mpg (approx)

Optional
The only options for the Nova Sport were rear seatbelts, passenger door mirror, radio/cassette and sunroof. All were dealer-fitted.*

 

Nova Sport Facts
Colin Who?

The rallying Nova pictured on the back of the Nova Sport sales brochure (as per Brochures page) is being driven by Harry Hockley. That car was re-registered and became A681 DNT – the very same car sold to Colin McRae.

Swedish Action
The emissions regulations were pretty tight in Sweden, even back then. This meant the Swedes would miss out on the full-blown European version of the Sport, called the Corsa Sprint. Instead they had to make do with a 1.2-litre Corsa Sprint, which was a bit of a nutter motor anyway.

Brake-time…
The 9.3″ disc brakes from the Astra GTE were never fitted, due to cost reasons.

 

Nova Sport Features list

• Brown interior with Daytona check SR seats
• Rear seat is a one piece bench seat
• Basic dark brown dashboard with no outer face vents(Blanking plates in place)
• Usually no clock but most have had one fitted by now.
• Early orange needle SR 6 dial instruments
• Two speed heater fan
• ‘Floppy’ type drivers door mirror, passenger mirror was an optional extra! Passenger mirror is also a different size although most Sports now have later mirrors fitted.
• No rear seat belts, also an optional extra
• -Usually no radio although in recent years several cars have been identified to have radios.
• Early Round lock rear tailgate
• AC Delco 236mm Small solid disc front brakes were fitted even though the brochure describes Astra GTE 9.3″ vented brakes being fitted
• Irmscher inlet manifold
• Special Weber DCOE carburettors numbered 143 & 144 with vacuum advance take offs and manual chokes.
  -Irmscher UK air-box
• Special upper & lower alternator brackets.
• Base model front one piece bumper with white decals and stripe
• No side repeaters on the wings
• Did you know early door handles are a different size!
• Full decal set
• 13×5 et49 steel wheels with what were described as “Smooth aerodynamic” wheels trims.
• “Low profile” Firestone tires
• Carburettor stickers for hot air feed on wheel house and service instructions on dash.