This 1965 Chevy Nova is a complete rotisserie restoration on a solid West Coast car. It was an exercise in building a clean and simple car with a killer suspension and serious power plant. It’s immaculate from top to bottom, with a power-to-weight ratio that is pretty legitimate.
The motor is a Dart 427 small block with RHS aluminum heads, flat top pistons, Edelbrock performer intake, a custom built Holley carb, and Eagle rotating assembly. The engine exhales through a set of Super Comp headers and a custom built exhaust with a signature rumble. The powerplant is cooled via an aluminum radiator with an electric fan, and pushing the coolant is a Meziere electric pump. The engine compartment is a sterile thing of beauty. All the wiring is tucked away and the plumbing is clean. If you let the engine rip, its the car turns into a tire burning monster but cruising at a comfortable pace is not an issue either. The rear end is a Ford 9" with 4.11 gears, and the transmission is a built up Turbo 400.
The interior is very simple, clean and like the rest of the car, has a brand new wiring harness. The dash boasts Autometer gauges in a custom housing and the seats are low backed units out of a 1967 Chevelle. All of the soft parts are new and so are any hard parts. The exterior is comprised of a base/clear paint job, accurate body lines and gaps and restored trim and chrome. Both the hood and trunk use billet hinges with gas shocks which only further drive home the clean nature of the build.
Original suspensions leave a bit to be desired but this Nova takes care of that problem from the get go. The Nova sports a Heidts Superide II front subframe which is a handling masterpiece. Utilizing tubular control arms, billet coil over shocks with polished springs, a rack and pinion steering unit and dropped spindles, this setup really rocks. The geometry is significantly improved over a stock car, adjustability options are numerous and the resulting handling and ride are sweet. In the rear of the car sits the Heidts 4-Link kit set up mated to the Ford 9" rear end, and billet shocks. On all 4 corners, the Nova is equipped with Wilwood 11" rotors with Wilwood 4-piston calipers which are powered by a Wilwood master cylinder. The wheels are American Racing Salt Flat 16" with modern radials for a much improved ride.
So many custom cars try to do too many things at once producing a confusing design language and easily dated look. This purposefully clean Nova is tight, timeless, and fast as hell.
