Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

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  • novadave
    Bodger
    • Oct 2011
    • 94

    Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

    Well I thought it was about time I posted details of my car up here, sorry its not a Ford!

    We compete in the Sportway Tyres Endurance championship, were now in our third full season. Last year we finished 5th overall and won the 1300 class, so we don't do too badly. Endurance rallying is for saloon cars up to 1400cc and using standard engines and gearboxes. Basic safety equipment is required, cage and harnesses plus extinguishers etc. You can upgrade brake linings etc and modify the suspension so long as you don't use rose joints or change the mounting positions. Thats about it in terms of modifying the car, although obviously there are a few tweaks you can do within the rules. There is also a control tyre so no advantage can be gained by those with a large wallet.

    The events themselves consist of day leg using special tests (stages) where basically you go as fast as you can. The average speed is set at a max of 40 mph, which doesn't sound much but is virtually impossible to achieve! Typically there will be between 50 and 120 miles of these tests, followed by a road rally overnight, or early hours depending on the event. The longest single test of the year is an 18 miler through Worthy Farm, the site of Glastonbury festival. The toughest event starts around lunchtime saturday and finishes around 6am the next morning, and you definitely now you have done a rally! At the moment Rover 200's are the car to have, there pushing 120bhp with aftermarket management, my Nova is lucky if its got 80brake!

    This year we have struggled a bit with some inconsistent handling that has got worse through the year and a very tired engine! So over the summer, no events since the end of June and because of tree disease cancelling an event only one left at the end of November, I have been rebuilding the car and trying to find the source of the strange handling. I'll update below on progress.

    Heres a couple of pics of us in action.



  • novadave
    Bodger
    • Oct 2011
    • 94

    #2
    Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

    So first off over the summer was finding the handling issue. This has been scary at times with sudden understeer or an inability to keep the car in a straight line on the loose. Back on the south west endurance rally in March it was scary bad and was shortly flowed by a bolt falling out of the the ball joint on the tca. I replace the ball joints every two or three events as they are a known week point on the nova and we are not allowed to run the usual metal joint upgrade. So had a spare on board which definitely improved things but still not as it used to be. So this TCA was suspect number one, on taking it off it was obvious what the issue was, the loose bolt had ovalled the holes, so much so that however tight I thought I had this done upo it wasn't tight enough to stop the joint moving, hence the dodgy handling.



    New tca all painted up complete with new bushes, they were worn as well.



    Stripping the suspension revealed a further issue, well two really! Firstly the damper inserts, bilstein grp A forest inserts where totally shot. I had an issue with the strut bodies already as a previous owner had filed the lower mounting holes to adjust camber. Unfortunately wrongly so I could not get the correct camber without using offset bolts. So a nice new set of bodies and inserts required. I had been wanting to change the spring rate for a while so ordered up new springs at the same time. Strut bodies proved to be in short supply so I only managed one initially, then had a comedy fortnight with comp brake who sent three incorrect bodies before I gave up! Luckily I found an almost new pair on ebay complete with springs mounts etc. So fitted my new inserts into these and now have some spares. The second issue was that the original inserts were plainly not the Grp A ones they were supposed to be, the new inserts being much beefier and stronger around the top mounts! The rear dampers were the same when the new ones arrived they are much thicker and beefier than what I had before. So I am expecting a transformed car when I get it all back together again.

    Comment

    • danknight72
      Mechanic
      • Nov 2011
      • 584

      #3
      Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

      Good work mate, hopefully will be a lot better now

      Comment

      • M11rf
        Pole Position
        Decade Plus User
        • Apr 2004
        • 4346

        #4
        Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

        Looks like a lot of fun for not a lot of money...

        Comment

        • GavinR
          Pit Crew
          Decade Plus User
          • Jun 2004
          • 1494

          #5
          Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

          Hi Dave,

          Good to see a thread on your car, hope it goes well on the Great Bustard next month

          Gavin
          GavinR

          sigpic

          Comment

          • MCURZON
            Mechanic
            • Nov 2006
            • 743

            #6
            Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

            Car looks fun! I've rallied quite a few Novas over the years and still have a soft spot for them.

            Hope the rebuild goes well and you have a great 2014

            Matt

            Comment

            • novadave
              Bodger
              • Oct 2011
              • 94

              #7
              Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

              Thanks for the comments everyone, much appreciated, Gavin we will hopefully be back on your's and Gary's pace with all the bits I've changed and everything working as it should. Spent the afternoon on the car today finally starting to put it all back together having spent most of the summer removing bits and pieces! One of the issues we had this year was inconsistent brakes, I upgraded to the later calipers last year which was huge improvement over the old sliding post type. However this year I have had trouble getting enough bite into the brakes and generally lacking confidence in them. So a strip down showed a failing servo, the second in 18 months, and also the end of the master cylinder was showing signs of fluid getting past the seals. So a new Master and cylinder and good 2nd hand servo have been fitted. One of the jobs I have wanted to do for a while is to move the brake lines inside, but there has always been a more important job to do! So finally doing this now as well. I have chosen to use aeroquip pipe throughout, mainly for the ease of fitting, picking up all the pipes next week from Speedflow who are local to me. No picks yet but will take some next week.

              One other cosmetic job I have done is to paint the wheels. I have five Compomotives I tend to use, but also use old Astra alloys, ala the works GSI's. Just painted six of them white. Just used rattle cans for primer and the white paint then a couple of coats of clear lacquer to give them some protection. I am sure they won't stay this good for long but its cheap enough to repaint them every few events.



              A couple of chips on the edge form re-fitting the tyre but not too bad.

              Comment

              • rwd2ltrfiesta
                Pit Crew
                • Jan 2011
                • 1731

                #8
                Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

                a nother damned handerling nova, i used 2 look after some novas for oval racing and that ovaling was a common thing on the ns tca the best way around that was a rosey joint (if your regs allow)

                Comment

                • novadave
                  Bodger
                  • Oct 2011
                  • 94

                  #9
                  Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

                  Regs don't allow rose joints unfortunately, just gonna keep a close on these after each rally now. That one probably did twenty rally's before it went though.

                  Comment

                  • rwd2ltrfiesta
                    Pit Crew
                    • Jan 2011
                    • 1731

                    #10
                    Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

                    another thing we tried was a billet insert,

                    Comment

                    • novadave
                      Bodger
                      • Oct 2011
                      • 94

                      #11
                      Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

                      How does that work? Drilling the hole out and fitting a weld in insert?

                      Comment

                      • rwd2ltrfiesta
                        Pit Crew
                        • Jan 2011
                        • 1731

                        #12
                        Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

                        yes mate, bigger i mean not billet

                        Comment

                        • Toymex
                          Pit Crew
                          Decade Plus User
                          • Jan 2004
                          • 1337

                          #13
                          Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

                          Could you fit twin 40, s and an Irmscher cam as per the nova sport for a bit more power ,the sports were around 100 bhp

                          Comment

                          • novadave
                            Bodger
                            • Oct 2011
                            • 94

                            #14
                            Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

                            Unfortunatley not, because there is a road rally element we can only use a max of two carburettor chokes, so I am stuck with the standard twin choke pier burg. Which to be honest isn't that bad once you work out how it works and get it set up correctly.

                            Comment

                            • novadave
                              Bodger
                              • Oct 2011
                              • 94

                              #15
                              Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

                              Took the rear beam off today for a quick paint and some new bushes. I mentioned earlier about the difference between the old and new Bilsteins, having them off the car just highlights it!



                              Not only bigger but more travel as well, a huge difference in the rates as well, hopefully they will stop this happening.



                              Had an ongoing issue with the beam trapping the handbrake cable against the exhaust, which physically won't go any higher. Hopefully won't be bottoming out these new bilsteins.

                              Comment

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