65 Nova Gasser !

 

 

  In the 1960’s the Chevrolet Nova was sold as an economy car. Most of them were built with tiny 4-cylinder engines or with the larger boat anchor inline six. They were compact and lightweight and the racers of the day took notice.

 

 

 

Like this example here, the owner built his idea of what the Gasser’s and A-F/X cars of the day looked like. The inline six is long gone and in its place is a fresh Merlin big-block packing 496 cubes and an original Hilborn mechanical stack fuel injection system feeds all those thirsty cubes.  For street-ability the injection system was converted to electronic and it’s controlled by a FAST ecu. Other goodies include ported aluminum L88 cylinder heads with stainless valves and Crane roller rockers. An MSD ignition system including a Pro-Billet distributor and Blaster-3 coil light the fire. For a little pizzazz period correct polished and finned valve covers top off the heads.

 

 

 Backing up the powerhouse under hood is a 4-speed manual transmission with a Lakewood clutch can and a Moser big-bearing Ford 9'' rear axle with 4:11 gears, it gets the power sent to the ground with a set of long chrome ladder bars. This Nova is totally street legal with functioning headlights, tail lights and blinkers . 

 The interior is all about going fast, black vinyl covers the bucket seats and a Hurst shifter pokes through the floor. The dashboard was painted flat black and mounted on the column is an original Don Garlits  tachometer. 

For safety a 4-point roll bar is mounted in back along with some vintage lap belts. Red window tint covers all the glass and matches the metal flake steering wheel by Cal-Custom. Check out the view of those injector stacks !

   The original Nova look on this car has been mostly retained except for the altered wheelbase and sky- high front end, thanks to a chrome plated I-Beam style axle. Skinny Cragar wheels up front are wrapped with tiny 5.60-15's and on the rear wide and sticky N50-15's plant the power. 

The paint is candy-apple red with a gold metal flake mixed in the clear coat. The Novacaine lettering was painted by hand giving that old school look. Under the rear bumper a set of casters was installed, giving it more old school vibes as wheelie bars weren't evolved enough at the time period.

 

                                        With a name like Novacaine it will surely knock out the competition !