RE: Vauxhall Nova SR: Spotted

[stewy68]

I used to do work on them in late 80's (porting, gas-flowing, etc.) , brilliant to work on. Then in '93 the dealership I worked for got the last batch of 1.4Sri's to sell off pre launch of the Corsa and the 3 our branch had sat for ages unsold. The upside however was that they had to get run to make sure battery was charged, so I frequently got to rag them within an inch of their lives on a Sunday morning and loved it! At the time, I likened them to a classic Mini Cooper to drive.
The Nova Sport, never having been a Vauxhall fan I have to say it's one of the most fun drives I've ever had on public roads - and I owned an Audi Quattro and raced an MGB at the time...

ETA.,I'd pay £2500 tops for that

Edited by stewy68 on Wednesday 20th June 15:25

[bodhi]

I remember me Gran bought one of these new in 1991, a 1.4 SR in white. She was 72 at the time, but drove it like she was 18. Used to be an immense amount of fun going out in it with her, until you remembered she couldn't see properly.

The white tornado used to be quite famous round Carluke. Think she may have put a couple of local boy racers noses out of joint

[s m]

rampageturke said:

Who is actually playing £16k for a nova? No doubt this will be relisted in a few months at about £18k.

Maybe a similar type of person who paid £38k for a 205gti ......except their nostalgia is SR-tinted rather than 205-tinted?

[K50 DEL]

I want to cry... no seriously I do.

Between 1995 and 2002 at various stages I owned

1 x Nova SR
1 x Nova GTE
1 x Nova GSi
1 x Astra GTe
1 x Astra SRi
1 Cavalier Mk2 SRI 130
1 x XR3i Cabiolet
2 x Fiesta XR2 Mk2
2 x Pug 205 GTi
1 x Golf GTi Mk1
1 x Range Rover Classic V8 Vogue SE

Almost all of which were moved on for 3 figure sums, despite being (generally) very tidy examples....... (one highlight being the XR2 I swapped for a Kenwood 6 disc CD changer!)

It wasn't just me though, all of my friends had similar cars (including one who owned 3 Nova Sports, 2 at the same time) and all were sold for a tiny fraction of their worth now......
If only we'd had an inkling of the way the market would go I'd have kept every single one of them!!

[NickJC]

A81GGX - bought new from Penfold Motors, Lewisham in same Carmine (?) Red butbthe dark brown interior. Managed to convince the new wife to pay the extra for those wheels. Fond memories of the four years commute and a great little drive. Sold it locally and saw it some years back. Replaced it with a white GTE Astra.
Would like either as a Sunday fun car now!

[jamescodriver]

blimey, that brings back some memories...

I had one, steel wheels though with silver edging, very modern!

Mine had a pair of Cibies Super oscars on the front and did a fair few recces for rallies in Belgium and France, i loved it!

Biggest problem was the drivers window could be slid down by hand so my brother used to sleep in it if he was to drunk to get in the house on a saturday night, plus mine was stolen from my office the first day of half term, and found 2 days later covered in parking tickets!

[SpudLink]

F184 NLB. My first new car, 30 years ago this August.
White 1.3 SR.
With flared wheel arches!!! That was about the coolest thing on 4 wheels. Far more important than minor things like offset steering wheel.

Flat out everywhere. Discovered the joys of understeer, and brake fade (really serious brake fade).
But also learned how to turn lift-off oversteer into a 4 wheel drift.

Ok, my memory is obviously rose tinted, but I loved it because I didn’t know any better.

[SpudLink]

gl20 said:

All contemporary reviews slated this car at the time. My Mum had the 1.3 GL and as far as I'm aware the SR was mechanically identical ie same engine, same suspension etc. Her car drove ok, nothing special, gearbox terrible. A million miles from the 205GTI I got as my first (used) car a few years later.

I get the nostalgia but am surprised at comments about how great they were.

The 205 GTI 1.6 was not a direct competitor buying new in 1988. It was a fair bit more expensive than the Nova SR. The difference might only be the cost of a paint option on a modern hatchback, but in the years before PCP if the Vauxhall was in your budget then the Pug would have been a stretch.
A few years later I did have a new 1.9 GTI, which was every bit as good as it’s legend suggests.

[Hairymonster]

You can buy a 996 series 911 for less than that!

[s m]

SpudLink said:

gl20 said:

All contemporary reviews slated this car at the time. My Mum had the 1.3 GL and as far as I'm aware the SR was mechanically identical ie same engine, same suspension etc. Her car drove ok, nothing special, gearbox terrible. A million miles from the 205GTI I got as my first (used) car a few years later.

I get the nostalgia but am surprised at comments about how great they were.

The 205 GTI 1.6 was not a direct competitor buying new in 1988. It was a fair bit more expensive than the Nova SR. The difference might only be the cost of a paint option on a modern hatchback, but in the years before PCP if the Vauxhall was in your budget then the Pug would have been a stretch.
A few years later I did have a new 1.9 GTI, which was every bit as good as it’s legend suggests.

When it was launched in 84 I can't remember it getting slated in the major mags I read?

Here's the 'slating' Fast Lane mag dished out - seems reasonably positive to me.




Towards the end of its life in the early 90s it certainly wasn't class competitive ........but then the 205 Gti got beaten in group tests in its twilight years in 92/93 too

The SR had shorter gearing than the GL which pepped it up in gear a little but otherwise mechanically the same

A 205 Gti was about 20-25% more than the SR at launch - for a few hundred quid more than the SR you could get a 205 GT though

When I had my 309Gti I had a works Nova van ( only photo I can find below ) and had some reasonably entertaining drives cross the Welsh Marches. Used to go well with nothing in the back. Certainly don't recall it being that awful even compared to the class leading 309 ....but then it was new with tight suspension - I suspect some of the old ones recalled by posters here had been 'well used' over the years!

[IAN1967]

My SR was C959 GCX paid from memory £4.5K for it when it was a couple of years old

Girlfriend I was later seeing had a 1.4SR, wasn't any better than my 1.3

[loose cannon]

NotNormal said:

Considering the utterly rediculous prices people seem to stump up for shonky sporty fords I really don’t see that this price is all that bad for what looks to be a great low mileage example of an iconic car for a certain generation.

I have to agree it’s not quite £100.000 mk3 escort crazy prices

[MarkwG]

Drive Blind said:

gl20 said:

All contemporary reviews slated this car at the time. My Mum had the 1.3 GL and as far as I'm aware the SR was mechanically identical ie same engine, same suspension etc. Her car drove ok, nothing special, gearbox terrible. A million miles from the 205GTI I got as my first (used) car a few years later.

I get the nostalgia but am surprised at comments about how great they were.

you've got to remember what they were up against, the 1.3 versions of the Fiat Uno, MG Metro, VW polo, 205. The only one I even considered was the 205 XS but they were quite rare 2nd hand.

I've got an old magazine article from 1984 that actually praises the Nova SR's gearbox and brakes.

Exactly: "All contemporary reviews slated..." what b0ll0x - the usual Clarkson clones made the usual hackneyed garbage up to please the baying hordes, but in reality, the professional journalists generally reported that Nova/Corsa's were reliable, easy to maintain, easy to drive, safe unless you were completely untalented, & unpretentious. My girlfriend bought one new, we covered 30k in three years & it didn't miss a beat. Compared to the opposition at the time, it suited us, & quite a lot of other people, too. Incidentally, your mums 1.3GL was based on the SR, not the other way around... http://www.flickriver.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/...

And you're seriously comparing it to a 205GTI? Get a grip...

[apieceof]

£16k

Edited by apieceof on Wednesday 20th June 20:12

[Its Just Adz]

I had a 1.2 and then a 1.4 SRI, absolutely loved it. Would have another if they were sensible money.

[Colonel D]

I had one of these as my first car although it was 1.2 I think, 17, apprentice panel beater, hayed the colour (horrible blue) so flushed the boot as was normal then and full respray in white and added OZ wheels, the ones with 5 spokes and sloped back in to the dished rim

[RaineyDays]

Ah takes me back.

My first car was a 1.0 Nova, quickly upgraded to a 1.3 SR (wheel trims instead of alloys).

Blasting around West Yorkshire in F144 CUB was certainly a fun time

[RTice]

1.3sr F546CVP what an excellent time we had from 1996 to 1997. However, my first car, the mighty nova 1.2 star is where my car career began in oriental blue with sunroof!!! Picked her up December 1994, C505YUE. More stereo than car when it was sold..

[Quhet]

SR Nova, driving like a joy rider

[Nickyboy]

My first car was a Metro back in '97 but always wanted a Nova, after much saving i bought one



The modifying started almost immediately




After a few years i got my hands on a mint condition GSi with 19k on the clock but we never bonded, it didn't have the attraction of the GTE. I ended up moving up the ranks to an Astra GSI, Sri Turbo and after a few breaches in the Vauxhall ranks ended up with my Monaro