LOTUS NOVA

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Forget your mega buck and mega bang Skyline, and your super-expensive Porsche that’s wider than it is long. What we have here is a true to life cheap thrill, a car to get the juices flowing, a car worthy of the hallowed front cover of Max Power magazine, yet a car that didn’t need more cash than the annual traffic police budget (ie a shedload) to put together.

This is all about some geezer called Marcus Plowman and his Nova SR (if you can still call it that). How can something that cost so little look so good? It’s so sweet that passers-by end up with a damp patch on the front of their trousers, and for those who peek too long, it’s worse to come.

As for Marcus, poor old boy, he’s been in such close contact with the car for so long that his eyesight has started to suffer. Proof positive that driving a top motor can make you go blind.

SIMPLY BLINDING

When you come across a car this sweet it’s worth a little sacrifice. As long as you can still hear the spine-tingling sounds it pumps out, you’re sorted. This is probably the only car you will ever hear that sounds like a biplane in a dive. The twin, 45mm Webers gulping huge amounts of air through the Pipercross filters, give off a throaty, warbling burble, while the Jetex exhaust (with competition tubular manifold and twin 4in tailpipes) forces out a more strained, high-pitch din.

All the fettling the engine’s seen has produced a lump that pushes out around 220bhp, which is a lot of horses to pull such a lightweight car. To ensure all those hefty hoofs don’t cause an uncontrollable stampede, he’s fitted some Spax adjustable dampers with heavy duty Chassis Dynamics springs and a Sparco front top mount strut brace.

The springs and dampers give the Nova its squat stance, keep it solid on the road and ensure there’s no danger of the wheels locking up in the ‘tight-fit’ arches. The strut brace helps ensure the suspension mounts aren’t moving about all over the place, a common cause of comments such as: ‘It handles like a drunk on a frozen lake.’ The brakes have been sorted too, courtesy of a Cavalier GSi which donated its calipers, along with 10.1in Black Diamond drilled and grooved discs and Mintex fast road pads. The wee car now handles like a dream and could stop on a dime.

HEAVENLY HELIOUS

Luckily for Marcus, he manager to get the styling sorted before his eyesight started going really fuzzy. The results you can see for yourself. The first thing to strike is the lush Helious Blue paint. The strange shade of metallic silver/blue was a standard colour on the Nova option list, but for some reason it was a rare choice – bizarre, as it suits the Nova’s shape perfectly.

The wheels, which are squeezed under re-flared and rolled arches, are the second thing to grab attention. A fine set of 17in BWA Jarama’s wrapped in 205/40 17 Continental Conti Sport tyres rear, and 205/40 17 Uniroyal RTT-11 tyres front, slap you in the face harder than a woman scorned. Other nice touches include the tasteful, if damned expensive, Lotus badges. Each badge (there are five of them) costing around £35! That’s a lot of dough for very little go. As you can see, the car benefited from a GSi bodykit facelift, some engine-bay cooling bonnet vents from an Astra and a Metro, and a huge Monterey bonnet scoop that feeds cold air to the carbs. A Renault Laguna front splitter, Fiat Bravo side skirts, Citroen AX rear spoiler and a custom made rear apron finish the exterior styling off and keep the car pinned to the road at high speeds. Mind you, even if the spoilers did diddly-squat, I think you’ll agree they look amazing. As does the DTM-inspired single-wiper conversion.

SQUIDGY BITS

So, that’s the crunchy outside, now what about the squidgy bit in the middle? Well, you guessed it, just like everything else about Marcus’ Nova, the interior is so damn fine.

The first thing you come across after opening the door are the grey, leather-trimmed Sparco bucket seats and SaBelt 3-point harnesses. After squeezing into the figure-hugging armchairs you firmly place your hands on a sexy Italvolanti Sprint steering wheel. Infront is a rather impressive digital dash—from an Astra GTE, coupled with a leather 6-speed gearknob and gaiter and a set of blue anodised alloy OMP pedal plates.

The tiresome window winders have been chucked out and replaced with an electric set-up from a Nova GSi, hand for those times when your right arm is a tad tired. The Nova also has wiper and indicator stalks from a Corsa, light and heater switches from an Astra, plus sun visors and a centre console from a Cavalier GSi. Now prepare yourself for the wicked ICE install…

ALPINE PEAKS

That tantalising name, Alpine, features heavily in Marcus’ Nova, in fact so heavily that no other company gets a look in. Fitted to the 7939R CDMax head unit is an ERA-G320 digital sound processor and a CHA-1204 12-disc CD shuttle changer.

Power comes courtesy of an MRV-F400 four-channel amp, an MRV-1000 two-channel amp and an MRV-T500 two-channel amp. A bunch of V12 amps that together pump out a serious amount of power – more than enough to drive the DDC-R17H component two-ways, SPS6936 6x9 three-ways and the DDW-F30A DDDrive 12-inch sub to ear splitting volumes.

Well, enough is enough! As a warning, if you’re out-and-about and you encounter this car, don’t try to take on its awesome might. You may be embarrassed.

TECH SPEC