Nova at Santa Pod

[BlueNova]

Found this on youtube ... Nova with 1914cc VW aircooled engine with turbo at Santa Pod in August 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z14SInFxoA

[steve]

Wow Nice!

[Mikemrb]

Found this on youtube ... Nova with 1914cc VW aircooled engine with turbo at Santa Pod in August 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z14SInFxoA

Ran mine at Santa pod in the early eighties at a kit car meet during a drag event and they let us have a few runs ,managed a 13.9 sec run even with the car full of camping gear ,never given it so much stick even got a yelp from the tyres changing up to 3rd

[BlueNova]

Ran mine at Santa pod in the early eighties at a kit car meet during a drag event and they let us have a few runs ,managed a 13.9 sec run even with the car full of camping gear ,never given it so much stick even got a yelp from the tyres changing up to 3rd

That's fantastic Mike!
Alistair

[Mikemrb]

That's fantastic Mike!
Alistair

Yes Alistair a fun weekend the only car kit car faster was a jag engine Kouger ,on the Sunday there was a Ferrari running ,the organisers asked if he’d run against me but he wasn’t having it ,don’t blame him really

Mike

[BlueNova]

Yes Alistair a fun weekend the only car kit car faster was a jag engine Kouger ,on the Sunday there was a Ferrari running ,the organisers asked if he’d run against me but he wasn’t having it ,don’t blame him really

Mike

[Spacenut]

managed a 13.9 sec run even with the car full of camping gear ,never given it so much stick even got a yelp from the tyres changing up to 3rd

Man, that is fast - I remember Nova Nigel took his car to Bug Jam one year and managed a 17 second quarter mile. His car had a 914 engine, albeit in standard tune.

But getting into the 13s... that's up there with some really crazy stuff

[Mikemrb]

Man, that is fast - I remember Nova Nigel took his car to Bug Jam one year and managed a 17 second quarter mile. His car had a 914 engine, albeit in standard tune.

But getting into the 13s... that's up there with some really crazy stuff

Hi Lauren
That was with the alfa 2lt engine, it had cleaned up ports re jeted carbs and a decent exhaust manifold but it used to go, 140+ on an autobarn once, I'm getting some stick from my wife over the current conversion thinks I'm nuts, that's going to be around 215/220 bhp with a few tweaks and the gearbox will make a big difference with nice close ratios

Mike

[Spacenut]

I'm getting some stick from my wife over the current conversion thinks I'm nuts, that's going to be around 215/220 bhp with a few tweaks and the gearbox will make a big difference with nice close ratios

Yes, it's the ratios that make all the difference - the turbo Nova in the video suffers from the same problem that almost all VW transaxles have - an enormous gulf between 2nd and 3rd gear. Rev out in 2nd, into 3rd and the engine just bogs down.

I used to have quite leisurely acceleration from my 1.5 Ti ratios, with 0-60 times around 9 or 10 seconds, but the close ratio 1.2 Ti gearbox I currently have provides much livelier performance!

All from just 95 bhp...

Can you get close ratios for the 164 gearbox? To fill those rear arches you will probably need to increase the diameter of the wheel beyond the standard fare, although hopefully not as much as I had to (Alfasud used a 13" wheel and I have 15" wheels, plus taller sidewalls to boot)

Lauren