Chevrolet Nova SS 1966-images

The 1966 Chevrolet Nova SS started life as a humble compact, but buried deep in its order form was an engine option that turned it into one of the quickest bargains on the street. For 2,535 dollars, the right box checked could put a genuine performance engine under the hood of a car most people assumed was just economical transportation.

The second generation Chevy II is in show rooms for the 1966 model year ans is now partially based on the Super Nova concept vehicle. The Â Nova SS standard equipment is a 194 cu in inline six cylinder engine, but the full arsenal of Chevrolet large and small blocks is available for the Nova SS. The Base SS version would cost just $159.00 more than the entry level 400 version in 1966.

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By the mid-1960s, Chevrolet had a problem most automakers would love to have: a compact economy car that customers kept trying to turn into a race car. The second-generation Chevy II arrived for 1966 wearing a fresh, more muscular body, and buried in its order sheet was an engine option nobody expected to find in a car this small and this cheap. Slot in the right box on the form, and a 2,535-dollar Nova SS could suddenly out-punch cars costing twice as much. What exactly was hiding under that unassuming hood?

The L79 Option That Turned a Compact Into a Muscle Car

New for 1966, the L79 Turbo-Fire 327 delivered 350 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 360 lb-ft of torque, paired with a close-ratio 4-speed manual. It sat at the top of an engine lineup that already ranged from a base 194-cubic-inch inline six up through 283 and standard 327 V8 options, but the L79 was the one that mattered — it turned an economy-car platform into a genuine street and strip threat almost overnight.

A Muscle Car Built Around a Compact Platform

The 1966 Nova was partially based on the Super Nova concept vehicle, and its lighter, smaller chassis than the full-size Chevelle gave the L79-equipped cars a real power-to-weight advantage. That combination of a compact body and a big-block-adjacent engine option foreshadowed the more famous Nova SS 396 that would arrive just two years later, but the 1966 L79 cars are the ones that quietly proved the formula worked first.

The Badge That Came With Real Hardware

Checking the SS box on a 1966 Chevy II order form brought more than a name plate: buyers got bucket seats, a center console, special SS wheel covers and trim, and a firmer suspension tune, all wrapped around whichever engine they chose underneath. That meant an SS car could just as easily be a mild six-cylinder cruiser or, like this one, carry the range-topping L79 327 and genuinely earn the sportier badge it wore.

An Engine Shared With Chevrolet’s Biggest Names

The L79 327 wasn’t unique to the Chevy II. Chevrolet also offered the same 350-horsepower small-block in the mid-size Chevelle and even briefly in the Corvette, making it one of the more widely distributed high-performance engine codes in the company’s 1966 lineup. Finding it under the hood of the smallest, lightest car in that group is exactly what made the L79 Nova such a sleeper on the street.

A Fresh Body Built for a New Reputation

The 1966 redesign replaced the boxier, more utilitarian first-generation Chevy II body with a longer hood, a shorter deck, and a semi-fastback roofline that looked far more purposeful than the compact economy car it had started out as in 1962. That styling shift did as much for the car’s performance image as anything under the hood, giving Chevrolet a canvas that finally looked the part for an engine option as serious as the L79.

A Sleeper Even Among Muscle Car Fans

Compared to the Chevelle SS 396 or the Camaro that would arrive the following year, the L79 Nova has never gotten the same mainstream recognition, despite offering genuinely comparable power-to-weight performance in a smaller, lighter package. Enthusiasts who know the model tend to describe it as one of the great overlooked muscle cars of the mid-1960s, precisely because Chevrolet never marketed it with the same fanfare it gave its bigger nameplates.

Setting Up the Nova’s Bigger Future

GM’s corporate rules at the time limited how large an engine compact-class cars like the Chevy II could carry, which is why the L79 327 represented the practical ceiling for 1966 rather than a true big-block. Those restrictions loosened by the end of the decade, and the 1968-72 Nova would eventually be offered with 396-cubic-inch big-block power, a progression that traces directly back to the precedent this L79 car helped set.

Why Original Survivors Are Getting Harder to Find

Because so many Chevy IIs of this era were bought as budget-friendly platforms for engine swaps and drag racing over the following decades, genuinely numbers-matching L79 cars are considerably rarer today than total 1966 Nova SS production figures would suggest. Collectors now place a real premium on documentation proving an L79 car left the factory that way, rather than gained the engine sometime later in its life.

A Concept Car That Actually Shaped Production

Chevrolet built the Super Nova concept as a design study, and rather than letting the ideas sit on a show stand, engineers carried several of its cues directly into the redesigned 1966 production Chevy II body. That direct line from concept to showroom is unusual for the era, when many concept cars existed purely to generate buzz rather than preview an actual future model, and it gave the 1966 Nova a more cohesive, intentional look than a typical mid-decade refresh.

Small Block, Big Reputation

Chevrolet’s 327-cubic-inch small-block family, of which the L79 was the performance flagship in 1966, became one of the most celebrated V8 designs the company ever built, prized then and now for a favorable power-to-weight ratio that punched well above its displacement. Slotting that reputation into the smallest body Chevrolet sold is exactly why enthusiasts still talk about the L79 Nova with a level of respect that outsizes how few people actually remember it existed. Even decades later, the 327 badge alone still turns heads at a local cruise-in, sleeper reputation or not, especially once someone pops the hood and finds out what’s actually inside.

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