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lt'a lmpossible to give a fair and accurate
d&Kription of any kit cor, os hs perform·
ance on the road depends almost entirely on
how well it's boon screwed t ogether and
w hat spef:lol extras hove been added t.o lm·
provo the engine, chauis or suspension. or
Indeed, the interior. A large manufacturer's
vehicles hove a certain corul&tencythey're either consistently good with variations or consistently bad w ith vetlations.
Not so the specialist builder. p.af11cularly If
t he base unit Is a Volkswagen. No way will
t here be eny kind of consistent standard
when virtuelly everything. from the engine
to tho instrument panel, is choa.en by each
Individual o.wner. And w ith that neat copout I shell drift into a comparison betw&en
the ADD Novo, produced successfully by
Richerd Oaks in t he wild:;; of Aeerlngton
(how. do you do it, Stonley?), end the Group
Six which John M itchell mekes in darkest
Clortcenwell.
As yeworl know, the VW kit boom Is In
its death throos. No longer can you or I walk
into a breaker's yard and come away with a
Bug In an acceptab le &tot e of dilopidation
for fifleen quid or so. These days you can
think yourself lucky If you get any small
chenge out of £60, and that for a wanked·
out 1200.
Getting yoursel f a chassis that's neither
k lnked nor rusted through Is only t he first
&tOp. Beach buggy builders generally
choppod o bit out of the eha.ssls, but for an
ordinary road car this is neither nee~ry
nor desirable. What you do need t o reduce
is the number of leaves In the front torsion
bars. Dam.pors will almost een.atnly have to
be replaced, with whatever takes your fancy.
Hopefully. t he steering will respond to ed·
Ju.st ment; If not you'll find yourt.elf paying
another £30 or so f or a replacement .
When you've sorted out all t he fiddly bits
at eoeh corner. you then find yourself with
two t ricky dooisions. One is which kit you're
going to buy, about w hich more below. The
othot is whether to have t he rough old
bear's behind of an engintt renovated and
tuned or to go right out and buy a fourcylinder Porsc::he motor. Either way you' re
liable to part company with a larg&-al:r:ed
handf ul of note:&.
While most of the beach buggy companies have gone the way of all temporary
fads, the engine tuners are still alive and
well and doing a great deal of very profit·
able business. A utoeavan are perhaps the
boat-known. ond If t heir prices seem in~
credibly high. so ore those of VW GB f or
ordlnt~~ry
replacement spares. A tuned
Autocavan engine, complete with twin
40DCOE Webers. for example, can co.st
anything up t o about £476, depending on
the condition of the m01or you hand over to
them. This Is hardly surprising In view of
the fact th.at the crank alone costs some
£140 and the pistons and barrels about £88.
The Nova in component form-which is
the only way you'll buy it--eosu £990 In·
cluding VAT, w hich means it's olready more
expon.aive than a fair number of rouonably
desirable small cars. Then you've got to get
the chassis and engine. But you do receive
quite a lot for your money, and the glass
fibre is unquestionably of the highest
.. quality.
:
In your box of bits you'll find the main
f body section, headlights with perspex
t covera, indicators, locking bonnet, locking
~ engine cover. side pockets, Inner wh&el
.. orehos, fitted rear window, footwell. battery
~ cover. r&ar suspension mounting brackets,
AUGUST 1974
t he roof section with windows installed.
wiper with blade and motor (all from a OAF
truck), hinging mechanism, lower front section, sills, dashboard, Instrument pod, steering wheel with boss. $Oats, a sot of five
Wolfrace wheels (14 x 7) with German
Ounlop SP57 tyre& (205 x 14 with o 70 per
cent aspect ratio) plus tubes and wheel
bolts, this sentence Is getting a bit long,
let's have a new paragraph.
That's better. Other bits include exhaust
system with silencers, and fresh air vents
end pipes. Extras you can buy are floor Md
cockpit carpet sets (all reody for glueing).
wheel adapters f or early chassis (so they
can take the four-bolt wheels). fresh air
elec1ric blower. halogen Bright Eyes headlamps, el~ric windscreen washer, sun·
shine roof, and a roa.r louvre so thllt your
rearward vlilon is even worse than usuttl
(they were all the rase in 197 1 when tho
Nova first wont Into production).
At the time of writing, 149 Nova kits had
been sold, and t o t hat number mu.at be
added 40 Sterllngs, the US equivalent sold
under licence over there. Not an earthshattering total perhaps. but still fairly lm~
prenive. Richa1d could have chosen two
very difl'erant courses. He could have sold
the cat a.s a fully·mode-up vehicle, but he
hasn't the time to go chasing afler VW
wreclts, and the resulting price would be
ju&t too high to find any customers. outside
of t he oeca.sional w ell-heeled village idiot.
Alternat ively he could have t urned lt Into
much more of a kit than it Is; why, for
example, are the expensive who.ols and tyres
included? The reason Is simple--every
Nova Is a rolling advertisement for Richard,
and If moat of them hobbled around on slily
liHie skinny wheels and tyres. that'd be the
worst kind of advertising Imaginable. The
tvre~. incidentally, come ofl' t he larger
Mereedes Benz models, end they c ost something like £50 each t o replece. However.
they do lost quite a long time.
Richard lent us a test model for a week,
and it was one of tho.se unfortunate tales of
woo right from t ho start. The main problem
\'i'U In t he gear linkag.o-.e shortened vor·
sion of the standard item. Basically, it
didn't. end thltd gear was except iona.lly
elusivo. The trouble was finally traced to t he
Rewlnuts w hich aro supposed to hold t he
gear lover mounting plate in place--well,
that's one way of doing it. Aft8f these were
replecod,
goer-changing
was
slightly
improved.
'
The A utocavan two-litre w ith alngle
Weber wa$ in f eet excellent, fal.rly smooth
and much loss lik e a sewing machine than
mo;t of those toys. I'd say it 's essontle.l t o
have something at loMC as pokey as that in
order to obtain satisfactory acceleration and
cruising ability.
1 didn't get to grips with the handling
terribly well during my spell In the ear. lt
seemed to go round corners quite well, but I
fell Inclined not to push things anywhere
near the ultimate limits. One rea.son was
that t he stoerlng felt slight ly odd whenever
it was moved away from the d ead·ahoad
position-straight line stablllty was excel·
lent-end the beck ond seemed to be ready
to perform ell manner of cunning littlo
tricks. Obviously the koen priv·ote owner
couJd tu.m it Into a chuekable liHie ca.r with
a bit of care and attent ion In the r ight
ploce.s.
The otho.r reason for my caution wa$
physical discomfort. At six foot plus t here is
no way I could persuade my various limbs
and sundry related components to fit propor)y into the ear. I Imagine f or a shorter
guy it would be fine, a.s the seats were undeniably high quality product s. The st eerIng wheel was squashed somewhere
between my knees, and I was fu.st too tall to
be able to relax properly. Evon w ith t he sun·
roof off. 1 found it noceuorv to bond my
neck. Round lefthand bends the driving
mirror obscured my vision. and rasi1ing it
would have cut the olready limited view t o
the rear to virtually nil.
The pedals wore also awtward, as thoy
were stondard Veedub bits. The clutch
operation was o sort of up-and ~over movement, w hich becomoa very uncomf ortable
oftor a few miles, especially In town. What's
needed there is a hanging-pedal setup such
os is used In singl&-soator racing cera.
Brakes were &tondord-lss-ue drums all
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round, and pre.tty arorming they were.
Stopping roquire<l o earefully·balnnced com·
blnation of brute force and prayer. The use
of discs at the front would (to #aY the least)
be a desirable modification.
The intorior of the cockpit as lt arrive.s is
Ideally constructed for an e~~:cellont layout.
There's plenty of room for as many lnstru·
ments as you could wish for in your wildest
imagination, ond a few more If you era in
the habit of using hallucinatory drugs. There
were plenty of dials end gauges on the test
car. but unfortunately they d idn't all work.
You may be thinking that if the proof of
the pu..dding is In the eating, then there's
something amiss In the state of Accrington,
but having driven the car for a few days, I
reckon the Novo has lot& of possl.bllltles if
constructed properly, and that Richard
Oaks, amiable chap that he Is, does him.
self an injustice by employing an old nail as
his demonstrator.
On t he way up t o Accrlngton, returning
the car, I was considering what sort of guy
would be the ideal owner of a Novo.• having
decided that on nearly oil counts it wouldn't
be me. He'd have to be about 5ft 9Jn os an
absolute maximum, and he'd need to bo a
very good mechanic with experience of
sotting up su.spension properr·y. lt would
help if he was either on extrovert or even
pe.rhaps a bit of a show·off, and an under·
standing girl friond who took the pill every
day would come in very handy, a.s there's
no place for kiddywi.nka In one of thoso
toys. He wouldn't own a big dog. and prob·
ably not oven a small onct. He'd be a light
traveller. Ha'd have lots ol P4tiGnce. Finally,
he'd be very good ot spotting police speed
traps..
I can't think of anyone offhand who fits
this description exactly; Ric-hard Oaks him·
self has e very nice wife, no klddles, but ho
does have o medium-league dog. And he
travels around in a Renault 17. However,
there are et Toast 1 49 peopla In this cou.ntry
who've decla.recl thomsolvfJS. to bo some·
WhOle near that blueprint, and I'm sure there
are ple-nty of others lining up and waiting.
And don't get me wrong-f'm not really
taking t he plss, I'm quite sure thM a lot of
guys would get a great deol of pleasure out
of driving and owning a Nova. A ll I'm say.
ing is. include mo out.
For the same reasons and a couple of
d ifferent ones I wouldn't want a Grou:p Six
either. A lthough it's much more capable of
permitting the Introduction of my gangling
frame in something remotely resembling
comfort. it still ain't my klnda car. If I hact
the choice, which one ro.rely does in these
matters, I think I'd prefer to have my big
accident In the Group Six.. as ono of ita
features is the most massive roll cage I've
ever seen i.n any vehicle other than a stock
car. Incidentally. if you were unfortunate
enough to roll your Novo you wouldn't bo
trapped for ever by that canopy-which la
ltaelf the centre of some controversy In this
offlco--apparenlly all that's needed Is a
hofty bash at the side window.
John Mi1chell Is another very friendly
character, who Is rather anxious to hido his
light under a bushel as fer a.s building cera
is concerned. Ho's the boss of a company
which producea various substances ralated
to w indscreen tints. spray·on things and so
on. and he's e bit worried that his mates In
the trade might extract the Mlchael If they
knew he was Involved In such a relatively
uncommercial field.
John got Into the Group Six project via
the most circuitous route imaginable. Ho
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was intending to buy a GT40 and convert it
for road use. Somehow he drifted into the
even more daunting projoct of building his
own c-ar from scratch. A number of people
took en interest, and suddenly ha wo.s a co.r
constructor. So he went out and bought
himself a f actory.
That's more or le.ss where things stand at
tha moment. No Group Sixes have yet been
sold. although thera are a few firm orders.
including two from guys in Northern Ireland
whose Volkswagens were blown up by the
Army as suspeetOd booby-traps. That's the
oddest reason I over hoard for buying a VW
kit car.
John would be the first to admit t hat the
machine he brought to show U$ was In no
way a Ulleable proposition in itself. lt was
tho original prototype, and a.s auch e mobile
test bed In all departments excapt trim
and finish. The bodywork was rather rough.
the engine a very mild 1200. and the clutch
was definitely on the way out.
However, he assuro.s us the final product ion version w ill be very different indeed,
and he's promised to let us have a go in one
when the time comes. which shouldn't be
all that long now. Ho aiJo tells us that the
latest prototypo--the third actual car to be
built-is rattle·free. which the one in the
picture was not.
A fairly liberal uso of girders serve.s not
only as crash protection, but also to stiffen
up t he basic chassis considerably. along
w ith a steel plt'to welded horizontally at the
front. Tho glass fibre was at least very solid.
and tho new moulds are virtually ono·pieco.
apart from the doors, the tallgate and the
screen/roof section whereas the car in the
picture was modo up of three major sections. All thiJ of course adds con.siderably
to the weight, so a well-tuned engine
becomes oven more of a necessity.
Present plans aro to market the car in two
versions, one vorv basic, lacking wheels.
tyres, seats and steering wheel, and the
othor w ith everything Included In the prlca.
Buyers will receive the bodyshe.ll. doors.
locks and hinges, screen (from the Copri),
side windows, rotlover bar. tank mounting
f rames. side frame bar.s end t ailgate. The
'wheels w ill probably be Wolfrece, 84- x 15
at the back and 6i- x 16 at the front. The
roof Jection w ill be optional. Is there a fresh
air freak In the house?
The Group Six has more luggage apace
than the Nova, but since it's e ll behind the
seats, it'd have to consist of grip bags. On
the other hand, engine accessibility l.s:
slightly reduced. which Is unfortunate in a
cer of this typa--many owners will no
doubt wish to .spend wet evenings playing
with bits of carburettor and valve gear on
the living room floor.
There's a large console for your 5J0ugea
and dials in the Group· Six. as in Richard
Oaks' dream machine, although John
M itchell's test vehicle had only the stock
Bootlo speedo. The Nova. Incidentally, had a
speedo calibrated to 220mphl
So thoro you are, the VW kit car lives on.
Tho Nova Is not only the more dramatJc of
tho two. with Its very law sleek lines (most
peopla mistak.e it for o lambo and everyone
ia amazed by the unu.$Ual manner of entry
and exit), but it's been around for a while,
so lt's something o f a known quantity-you
may remember it featured on ou.r front cover
back in October 1972. We reckon lt' s sold
at a fair price and that it could be dos·
cribed as tha market leader.
The Group Six has potential, and we shell
be intero.tltod to see a production veralon
when we get the chaneo. At t he moment no
price is avallabla as ·tho cost of everything
is so volatile {that m~U~ns 'lively, spritely,
brisk or gay'; GAY?) in t hese times of un·
rest and deprivation. How's that for tread·
ing the tightrope?
PO
Addra.sses:
Automotive
Design r~nd
(Nova) Ltd.
Unit 03.
Huncoat Industrial Estate,
Accrington,
Lanc-.s.
Accrington 384124
Devalopment
Group Six.
MBA House.
Sans Walk,
Clortcenwell,
EC4
01-253 4882.
but tha Group Six, right ?
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TJR 956
CUSTOM CAR