Sportsman or Clubman

For the traditionalist, our classic Sportsman.

   We have been making Clubman style cars for over 50 years starting in England with Mud Pluggers, then 750cc clubmans with which we competed against Colin Chapman’s Lotuses. In 1952 the Nota team won the 6 hour endurance race at Silverstone in England against Aston Martin, Healey, Jaguar, Lotus and many others with our clubman style cars. Then in 1955 Guy Buckingham set up in Australia and almost immediately started building Clubman cars. Since that time Nota have won 7 Clubman championships as well as building over 100 clubmans with all manner of engines including various Toyotas since the early 70’s to the current crop of V tech Toyotas and Hondas including the S2000. Now we are about to release a totally new clubman, one which looks just like our current road going car but, instead of the engine being in the front, it uses a range of transverse 4 cylinder engines [available from virtually every manufacturer], which we are mounting mid-engined behind the driver and ahead of the rear wheels.
   The new Nota Clubman utilizes our existing front engine chassis to the rear seat bulkhead, which we have modified to take the transverse engine gearbox units. Aside from the availability of engines there are a lot of other benefits in designing the new Nota this way:
  • The use of a transverse unit saves between 50kg and 60kg in weight.
  • There is considerably more room in the passenger capsule as there is no transmission tunnel or engine between the occupants allowing for the larger gentlemen or ladies as well.
  • The main mass is on the drive wheels giving better traction and a more comfortable ride.
Lets face it the best handling cars, like Formula1 cars, are midengined so its a pretty damn good way to go.
   The new Nota Clubman utilizes all of our front engined panelling including the nose, front and rear guards, alloy side cladding and bonnet. The only body panel we’ve modified is the rear spare wheel carrying panel, this we’ve let 80mm into to allow for the engine. Even the spare wheel is mounted in the same manner. In doing these modifications we’ve also retained the same wheelbase so the car still looks the same until the engine cover is open. Looking closer the main difference other than the engines position is we have moved the seats forward by 60mm, not that much considering the benefits we get.

In road trim and with a suitable engine, the Sportsman conforms to all current and foreseeable Australian Design Regulations.

See what the press says about the Sportsman.

 


The Mud Plugger


1960 Nota Clubman

 Nota Sportsman - front quarter view


Current Nota Clubman


Chassis of the mid-engined Clubman

SPORTSMAN SPECIFICATION

The Nota Sportsman's specifications are open to individual tailoring to meet your requirements, be it for road, track, or a combination of both.

Chassis:
Multi tubular space frame bonded and riveted to alloy body panelling and composite phenyl resin alloy laminate bulkheads, incorporating a CAMS spec rollbar.
Body:
Alloy body panelling with fibreglass nose and guards.
Suspension:
Front:
Multilink adjustable wishbones with pushrod activated alloy spring shocks
Rear:
Multilink adjustable wishbones with adjustable alloy spring shocks, vernier camber adjustment and slip joint further adjustments
Brakes:
Disk front and rear, utilising twin master cylinders with adjustable bias.
Engine & Gearbox:
176kw Honda S2000.

 NOTE : For the traditionalists we still make our front engined Nota Clubmans as well.


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