Rallying it up from Boston

Rallying it up from Boston

 Damien Doolan is home from Boston for the Rally of the Lakes. He will drive a  Dave Metcalfe replica Vauxhall Nova – in his own words this is how his weekend is shaping up.

My first rally was the 2008 Rally of the Lakes (Junior Section). Was Autocrossing for a few years before that.

I have rallied Nova’s from day one.

Myself and a good friend Shane Lenihan bought a Nova between us when we just turned 17 and headed for Cronin’s Pit.

 Shane went on to buy a Honda Civic and I stuck with the Nova and haven’t looked back since.

Myself and my father, John, built two Nova’s since down through the years with the help of Pat Looney.

The first of them had an untimely end up in Slievenamon at the Stonethrowers Rally in 2009 when the back stepped out and we were only passengers.

Let’s just say it only had one wheel left on it heading home on the trailer! Found another Nova shell and re-built again.

We won the J1 class in the Rally of the Lakes in 2014 with Andrew Ryan from Limerick co-driving.

America came calling then and that put a halt to the rallying for a while, until I came across a Nova for sale in England in 2017.

Built by Harry Hockly Motorsport who built the factory Vauxhall rally cars back in 1990, it finally made its way into the hands of Andy Forrest, who re-built it as a replica car of the late great Dave Metcalfe from the Manx.

 I struck a deal with Andy and the car was shipped over to Killarney. Competed in the Lakes in 2018 with it, but unfortunately half way up the Gap on Sunday morning a con rod decided to poke its head out thru the block and that was the end of that.

We went back to the drawing board and went sourcing a new engine but one thing lead to another and we ended up giving it a full entire bare shell re-build. Thanks to my father Johnny who put in countless hours while I was away in Boston and Donal Healy of Healy Motorsport, they’ve brought this ex-works Nova to a whole new life!

With a Keith MacMullan built 1400 16v engine and a 6 speed sequential gearbox running on proflex suspension all round. We kept the original works colour scheme to complement the history of the car. Nova’s are starting to become scarce on the stages unfortunately.

I have been in Boston for 12 years. Working in construction as an engineer for ‘A-Plus Construction’ and flew home from Boston last Sunday and looking forward to the rally this weekend! Classic stages on Saturday will be a test for the nova on her first day out again.

I will be a bit rusty not having been out for six years but will ease into it and see what happens. A finish is the main thing and to enjoy it! Andrew Ryan from Limerick is in the co-drivers again.

The car featured in several press articles over the years