Lauren, aka Spacenut on the Euro-Nova forums has posted this on their forums;
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOVA!Hi everyone – some of you may know that this year (2012) is the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Nova kit car. In fact, as near as I can make out, the actual month of its birth is this one, as the first appearance of the car in print was in the March 1972 edition of Hot Car magazine. Assuming that the March edition of this popular monthly was actually on the newsagents shelves during the last week of the preceding month, 40 years ago this week, the automotive world got its first vision of the future!
So, by way of celebration here are two pictures taken from my own dog-eared copy of the magazine, which I managed to find at the Beaulieu autojumble a few years back. As you can see, the Nova made the front cover!
This is the same prototype that Richard and Phil drive to Stuttgart during the winter of 1971. The car was registered BOW 175K, and to appease the authorities in Europe a VW bonnet badge was stuck onto the nose and the nearside rear transom panel to identify the car as a Volkswagen. A pair of small round side repeater lights were also fitted to the front wings. As there is no evidence of these badges or lights in the magazine photographs I am guessing that the photo-shoot was conducted before the intrepid pair commenced their European road trip.
Other features worthy of note are the pre-'67 5-bolt composite wheels, a unique design for the Nova which sadly never reached production, shod with chunky-looking Dunlop SP57s, and a spartan interior which nevertheless has all of the features that would be found on the later production cars. It is also interesting to note that this first prototype has a Type 3 Variant instead of the usual Beetle engine.
At the time of publication there was still no official name for this striking car (Hot Car refer to it only as the “Sayers-Oakes GTâ€). The magazine asked for readers to write to ADD directly with suggestions for a name, and Richard informs me that that is how the Nova name actually came about!
So, ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glasses and be upstanding for... the ADD Nova!
Lauren
So Happy Birthday Nova!
