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My Nova 1.3sr

6.7K views 41 replies 11 participants last post by  gord3001  
#1 ·
Hello peeps,

i have a 1.3sr nova that does 120mph top end and 0-60 in 8.5secs unfourtantly i bought the car like it and have no idea whats been done to it, it does have twinchoke webbers and k&n airfilter performance exhuarst but i dont see that this could be enough to give the thing the power it has does anyone know what else it might have done to reach this spec i think it has a fast road highlift cam(it must hace) and polished head does anyone know what sort of spec a 1.3sr would chuck out with these few mod's im interested to know as it can blow almost anything in the same class away highly amusing when faced with GTE's (nova's) and other cars like
any help would be great thanx

p.s
by the way this site is WicKeD loads of real NICE motors
 
#2 ·
It might just be me thinking this but 8.5 is the 0-60 of a 2.0 8v Astra GTE so I can't see a 1.3 Nova getting this. 120mph is probably indicated but true speed will be around 105mph.

The Nova Sport had lots of goodies I believe such as some super wonderful imscher cam I think. You can get them to go quite fast.
 
#3 ·
It wouldnt be that hard to do as the Nova is only light!

I think with the carbs and the performance exhaust you should be PDQ and should gorgeous too!...dont know if internal mods would be necessary to do that...

Top speed is prob not 120mph.... if indicated.... take off 10%

= 108mph
 
#4 ·
Firstly you've got to take a bit of error correction into this.

Nova speedos are inaccurate above 100 by upto 10%. Not including speedo inaccuracy due to bigger wheels (not sure what size your running)

I saw as much as 125 in my 1.4 sr but not in reality doing that speed.

so 120 realistically = 108.

Then 0-60 to have any chance you should really go to 65 as speedo will prob be 5 mph out at that speed. Then theres the human error in timing.

I had a 1.4 sr with weber 32/34 carb, k+n and backbox and it made 82BHP still quite a bit short of gte performance. Nowe there is a slight weight difference between a gte and an sr but not enough to compensate for around 18 BHP.

I carried out more mods to my car that did put it beyonf the reach of a std gte but that involved a courtenay cam, a blydenstein b+ head, and a lightened and balanced bottom end.

Unless all of the above has been done that 0-60 time is very doubtful.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Well.... in my humble opinion twin choke Webbers, high lift cam, filter/zorst and polished head could easily give 25bhp over standard power on the 1.3 engine. Power wise that puts it in GTE territory with a slightly different driving feel.

Sub 9 seconds to 60 seems reasonable 'ish to me, 120mph top end.. my old 1.6 GTE went near enough off the clock.

Possible I reckon, certainly 115mph and a bit :p


Just thinking.. TOBYC had a fiddle (ooer) with his gf's nova SR (1.3/1.4) and that made the same 1/4 mile time at the pod as a Cav GSi. Though I think Toby has done a fair bit more than the spec you suggested.

Ohh.. I dunno :confused:
 
#15 ·
*COUGH*

Fenix said:


I had a 1.4 sr with weber 32/34 carb, k+n and backbox and it made 82BHP still quite a bit short of gte performance. Nowe there is a slight weight difference between a gte and an sr but not enough to compensate for around 18 BHP.

I carried out more mods to my car that did put it beyonf the reach of a std gte but that involved a courtenay cam, a blydenstein b+ head, and a lightened and balanced bottom end.

Unless all of the above has been done that 0-60 time is very doubtful.
TobyC's spec is even higher than that. I was giving an opinion on what would need to be done to get that performance. And stating that it would not be possible on just the visible mods.
 
#16 ·
my nova 1.3sr

the reason i know it is 8.5 is because i have raced 3 seprate 8v gte's and all but 1 i was exactly the same right up to around 85mph the other one must have been modded couse it left me for dust the top speed may well be out as i have heard that the speedo's are shite but i am almost 100% sure that the 0-60 is right or right'ish...

it does have a small problem of not being able to stay in time
i got it serviced ect ect around 6 weeks ago for the first 3-4wks it was brilliant then i started to get more pre ignition and now every now and then it happens (usually after ive been booting it) maybe this might be a tale tale sign as to the work it has recieved i dunno you guys are the experts

i really want to find out excatly what this engine has had done any idea's how to go about this i am NOT a mechanic or even nearly so i cant go taking the engine apart for my self. do u think i could trake it to a tuning garage and get them to find out or would they tell me its not worth it

as for being close to nova GTE spec it really does piss all over them without any hassel and its fecking GREAT


lmao
 
#22 ·
Oddball my reason for mentioning weight was to explain the acceleration rather than top end.

Gord

If the 0-60 is 8.5 and you are beating genuine well driven gte's then i believe you would need a modified head and matched cam on top of the visible modifications you've listed.

Both would be difficult to spot but if the head has been modified it is either a replacement head or reworked head. Either of which would be cleaned up when work was done. So if your head is a lot cleaner than the camshaft housing i would suspect headwork has been done.