Bernie Bowden

Bernie's early interest in motorcycles and cars has led to a career long passion for motor sport in general. His interest fostered by his father and uncle took in visits to local race circuits Crystal Palace, Brands Hatch and also visits to the Isle of Man to watch the annual T.T. races.

Along with his brother Stan, Bernie started racing motorcycles at club level on bikes such as the Triumph Tiger Cub, Ariel Arrow and Greeves Silverstone - all of which were prepared by themselves at home.

Bernie's interest waned after Stan was injured in the Isle of Man. Around this time came the arrival of son Andrew whose introduction to motorsport started at about six weeks old when Bernie and mother Maggie took him to Brands Hatch!

A few years on Andrew's sister Sarah arrived and the family started looking for larger accommodation and the move from London to Slough was made. After the move and seeking local employment, Bernie found a position at the local Vauxhall dealership - Burnham Garage. The next fifteen years were spent here and Bernie went from mechanic to assistant service manager gaining a Vauxhall Mechanical Master Technician award from The Vauxhall College along the way. A short spell away saw Bernie and a local race team run a Rover Vitesse in the Willhire 24 hour race at Snetterton, a trip to Australia to run the car in the 1985 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst and sharing the next pit to the Holden racing team and the great Peter Brock.

Back at Burnham Garage free time was spent helping another local team with their March 85G Porsche engined grp C type car. Many of Bernie's spare weekends were spent watching Touring car races as well as Group C, and F1 in the early Nineties.

In 1990 Bernie helped prepare a Vauxhall Nova GSI for that years Lombard RAC rally for local driver Dave Collyer this continued into 1991 and Bernie tried co driving in this car only ONCE!

Bernie has owned (and sometimes raced) a varied assortment of Griffin Badged Vehicles, which include; F.A. F.B. F.C. F.D. Victors, C.A. C.F. H.A. Vans, H.A. H.C. Viva, Original Sports Hatch, Chevette, H.S. Chevette, Astra 1.2.3.4, Cavalier mk1, mk3 GSI. Monterey. Finally, we can't forget the Novas in 1.3, 1.4 and GTE varieties.

The Hot Hatch Years!

The seed had been planted and with the arrival in 1993 of the 750 Motor Club 'Hot Hatch' championship and a couple of spectating forays, a very standard pristine Nova GTE was purchased and prepared for racing. Six starts and six finishes proved the car was up to the job. Over the closed season a lot of modifications were made. More power together with a straight cut gear box put Bernie and the GTE in the hunt all year. Pole position at Snetterton and all places apart from that first win. But third in class and fifth overall in the Championship was felt to be a good result.

It was during 1994 that a spur of the moment trip to Santa Pod helped shape the years to come...

After a couple of runs the Nova seemed to be the focus of attention for a group of young guys who made up the early beginings of The Perfomance Nova Group, an association which carries through to today.

Novatech

Novatech was opened by Bernie Bowden in April 1996. After 15 years working at a local Vauxhall dealership and taking on a succession of projects for Nova owners it was decided to set up a small specialist company to deal with the ever-increasing workload. Over time the business developed to where it is now with general servicing and repairs, tuning and motorsport preparation to Vauxhalls and other makes carried out at their Slough premises.

NT-R

Over the last few years the increasing popularity of track days have changed the way Novatech operate and, given their motorsport preparation knowledge, has put them in a strong position. NT-R is the specialist track day/motorsport/fast road tuning division of Novatech. Through this website the supply of specialist motorsport and track day tuning parts can now be sourced as well as the booking in of your own vehicle for a visit to NT-R hq for anything from a throttle body conversion to a geometry check. Andy Bowden (Bernie's son) now works alongside Bernie in the NT-R division - those trips to Brands Hatch at an early age must have had an effect as Andy is also a qualified racing driver!