Euro-Nova started back in July of 2007, after the demise and closure of Nova International.
When we first started, I built the temporary site and got it online as quickly as I could, there were only 2 members when we opened, myself and a good friend from the USA, called Richard Milne.
Euro-Nova was online within 2 hours of Nova International closing, but it was only a temporary measure.
We started life on a temporary free server, and had to email everyone we could remember from Nova International to get them to join the new site, and tell everyone that they knew from the old site.
It started slow, but within a week of opening, we had about 20 members on the free server.
We (the administrators and the members) decided to take a vote, as the free server was full of pop ups and advertisements which made the site difficult and annoying to view.
The vote decided that the members wanted to send in donations to Euro-Nova, so that we could afford to host the site with its own domain name (
http://www.euro-nova.co.uk), on a real web hosting server.
Since we opened at our new location, with our real domain name, the growth has been terrific.
At the beginning it started slowly of course, but things soon picked up as more and more people heard through the grapevine that there was another Nova resource to use.
When Nova International closed down, a lot of the valuable information that was stored on the server was sadly lost forever.
We at Euro-Nova, with the help of the members have managed to recoup a lot of information including build manuals, magazine scans and useful information if you’re building a Nova.
We also have an online gallery with over 700 pictures of various Novas and their build progress!
With the help of the manuals, downloadable literature and forums together, I believe that it’s possible to start out with a VW Beetle, and end up with a Nova with very few problems.
The beauty of forums like ours, is that if you encounter a problem you can pretty much guarantee that someone else has had the same problem and solved it long before.
We now have well over 150 members and we’re approaching our 16,000th post on the Euro-Nova forums.
Our member base spans the globe; we have many members from all over the UK, many dotted around the United States, Austrailia, France, Spain, Singapore and more.
We are now averaging over 400,000 hits per month.
We’ve had to upgrade the hosting package of Euro-Nova twice so far, as we keep busting through our bandwidth and storage limits! Excellent progress for a site that started with only 2 people.
The staff team at Euro-Nova now consists of 3 individuals, who help out on a completely voluntary basis.
These people are Richard Milne (administrator), Alex Thompson (administrator & Euro-Nova/Club Nova spokesman) and I, Dan Giddings (Administrator & Founder).
Between the three of us, we keep Euro-Nova running behind the scenes on a day to day basis.
Everything on the site, even down to the home page design has been influenced by the members.
No one really owns Euro-Nova; it’s a public resource that’s paid for by its members.
We also have our own line of merchandise as of recently, these include t-shirts, mugs, caps, wall clocks, stickers, key rings, tax disc holders and air fresheners.
We also send out a little gift to our donators each year, just to show our thanks and appreciation.
As of June 2008, we affiliated with Club Nova/Avante at their request.
The Club’s MSN site was dying slowly, and was difficult to maintain and use.
They now have their very own slot on the Euro-Nova forums, and a Euro-Nova email address for all club business.
We believe (Rick, Alex, Myself & the Club Nova officials) that affiliating together can only help to strengthen the Nova knowledge and keep this glorious kit alive for many generations to come.
Euro-Nova is the online meeting place for all and is our web presence, whereas Club Nova/Avante is our real world presence at shows throughout the year.
So, that’s the Euro-Nova story so far.
We all hope that Euro-Nova will continue for many years to come, to help and give advice to new and old owners of the Nova, Sterling, Eureka, Avante, Cimbria, Eagle, Puma and every other variant worldwide.
