My closest shave........one for car geeks really!....

A mate had a big spec GTT a couple of years back, he returned it to standard trim and bought an Impreza, out of the box he said the 5 felt faster!

Its good fun, but as im sure you know, the money has to go in the right places, mines been plated with the correct strengthening kit in the bay, plus stitch welded, its got V6 brakes on the front, coilovers and decent tyres, it goes round corners well, but will see you in the scenery if you floor it mid bend as it will just light the 16" wheels up and understeer to oblivion lol!

Spudly":125wfvpd said:

A mate had a big spec GTT a couple of years back, he returned it to standard trim and bought an Impreza, out of the box he said the 5 felt faster!

Its good fun, but as im sure you know, the money has to go in the right places, mines been plated with the correct strengthening kit in the bay, plus stitch welded, its got V6 brakes on the front, coilovers and decent tyres, it goes round corners well, but will see you in the scenery if you floor it mid bend as it will just light the 16" wheels up and understeer to oblivion lol!

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Mine was a red turbo-charged metal coffin :twisted: , the metal was so thin it was unreal. Damn quick they were and pretty rare to find today.

I have always had a soft spot for the old Nova conversions, i thought i was the 'bees knees' putting 14" Cavalier LX alloys on mine and some mintex pads

Anything old skool and rare is getting harder to come by these days, most 80's hot hatches were stolen and crashed, or burnt out/written off, or just plain rotted away and got weighed in, shame really as i love old cars as much as old bikes!


Apologies for pic whoring, this is my current one...

No need to apologise for the photos, this thread is for car geeks after all.

Wow that takes me back

The special edition Antibes as well, although i didnt know they had the gte/gsi dash

Well spotted, you knows your specs, it shouldve had a rev counter clockset in it, but this has had the extras from an early SR (yellow needles) added and two sets of clocks cobbled together, the seats are actually the ones from a later SR as they have the recaro style bolsters, but still match the blue interior trim/theme, they were needed to prevent the driver escaping from behind the wheel mid corner lol!

The car itself i know through the car club as the lass who originally sold it to my best mate, her family had owned it from new, and its got a genuine 41,000 miles on it!

I have an unhealthy passion for 80s/90s sleepers. I've got the basis for a perfect one, but unfortunately a CA18ET is slightly out of budget at the moment

That blue Nova is just incredible - although if I did that conversion, I'd have to go for a 2-dr saloon

Holy Thread Hyjack Batman - but i dont care i am having a trip down memory lane

That is certainly a Q car, and i can imagine the 'max power' boys hate you

Apart from the larger wheels and tyres it looks pretty normal.

Ill have to see if i can dig some photos of mine out

Lmfao, the max power boys as you put it certainly dont like it, its older than a lot of them and faster than most of what theyre driving, i may have passed one on the motorway out of town one night doing triple figures, the look he gave me from behind the wheel of his civic type-R was priceless haha!


Ive deliberately left the outside almost standard, ive had the 'Antibes' decals reproduced, and ive bought a loal of NOS badges and stuck them back on so it reads 'Nova' 'Vauxhall' '2.0 16v' on the back, and the white pinstripe on the bumpers for the OE look, i love the wheels but theyre as much as a necessity as they are for styling, the discs are 284mm so cant run anything smaller than 15"!


Id love to see some pics of your 5 if you have any, and youll have to pardon my ignorance here, but i dont know what you mean by 'Q car' ?

You may have single handedly convinced me to sell my boring (if economical and safe) 1.5 Honda Civic and buy something older and more retro

A Q car is another name for a sleeper

.....Thread hijack allowed.......nay, encouraged!...keep going boys!.....loving the nova!....