The Shocking Nova Kit Car: A Ten-Year Journey Of Fiberglass And Bondo

When we first brought you images of a heavily modified Nova kit car, we knew nothing about it other than its shocking appearance and innovative styling direction. We'd literally never seen anything like it before. Some opined on its terribleness while others thought it wonderful — we'll say it's at least interesting as hell. But what about the rest of the story?

Steve McHugh is a man with a passion for Nova kit cars, and the white beast we all witnessed is his creation. Obviously it didn't start out that way: Steve has gone through three different major iterations of the car over the course of ten years. Each time he reworks the car, it gets a little bit wilder. The original version was essentially just a lightly modified version of the kit, with some lower body modifications and grafted-on Cougar headlights. We see it preserved for posterity below.

The second version of the car started to get a bit wackier, with manga-inspired wings sprouting all over the car, aggressive ducting to the rear and slots chopped out of the hood. The interior also got a major upgrade with all kinds of interestingly detailed billet knobs and buttons. It also got a snazzy teal paint job

The third and current iteration went off the deep end, obviously, with all the fiberglass and bondo work going into completely restyled sides, the obvious elimination of the rear body work in favor of a crazy looking under-engine aero tray, and a much-upgraded engine. Considering this work was essentially done in a driveway in Tamworth, UK, it's damned impressive, even if you can't get behind the styling.

And now you know... the rest of the story.

[Thanks to PriceOfHisToys and Cycoholic]

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