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A stock 1966 Chevy Nova left the factory with roughly 100 horsepower — this one makes an estimated 2,200. Built around a ProCharger F-series centrifugal supercharger and a reinforced chassis, it’s proof that no muscle car platform stays forgettable once the right builder gets involved. Read on to find out what it takes to survive that much power.
This 1967 Chevrolet Nova SS hides a 565 cubic-inch Dart Pro M aluminum big block reportedly making 900 horsepower — a number that has nothing to do with anything Chevrolet built for this body style. A narrowed 9-inch rear on ladder bars, a transbrake, and a tubbed six-point cage all point toward serious quarter-mile intentions, while custom Indigo Blue paint and stainless trim keep it show-worthy too. Gateway Classic Cars documented every part on this Chicago showroom build. Watch to see what a full Pro Street transformation of a compact muscle car actually looks like.
An LS6 under the hood, a Detroit Speed chassis underneath, Wilwood brakes at all four corners, and black paint so deep it looks wet standing still under the lights at Pigeon Forge — this 1969 Chevrolet Nova splits the difference between numbers-matching restoration and full resto-mod better than almost anything else on the field. Read on for what separates this build from the rest, right down to the Stinger hood tying it all back to 1969.
A 1968 Nova wearing a 454 and a four-speed is a combination Chevrolet never sold, because the factory topped out at a 396 that year and the 454 did not exist until 1970. That does not make the car suspect. It makes it one of the purest expressions of the sleeper idea in the hobby, on the platform that practically invented the concept. Here is what makes the third-generation Nova so well suited to exactly this.
This 1964 Chevy II Nova wears a badge from a year Chevrolet never actually offered a 406-cubic-inch V8 – the largest factory small-block that year topped out at 283 cubic inches. That gap points to a later restomod-style engine swap, a common and well-regarded upgrade path for this lightweight, unibody platform. The photos below, courtesy of Gateway Classic Cars, capture why the first-generation Nova remains such a popular canvas for builders. Vintage looks, modern power – that’s the whole appeal.
Jeff Tittle kept his 1970 Chevrolet Nova looking exactly like the plain granny car it was built as, while quietly stuffing a 355 small block, a Super T-10 four speed, and a 9 inch Ford rear underneath. RamblinAround caught the car at a local show, and the moment it fires up, the sleeper act falls apart fast. Watch to hear just how much noise a car this unassuming can actually make.
Most serious street builds stop somewhere near 1,000 horsepower and call it finished. The 1967 Chevy Nova known as The Hulk runs a pair of 88mm Pro Mod turbochargers and roughly 2,500 horsepower, putting a car General Motors originally sold as an economy compact into the low seven-second range. It has appeared on Street Outlaws, and its numbers still sound like a typo. Here is what it takes to build one.
This 1970 Chevrolet Nova hides a built 355 small-block and four-speed Muncie transmission behind classic sleeper styling — no rust, straight body panels, and none of the visual cues that would tip off a stoplight rival. Read on to find out how a hopped-up small-block Nova compares to what Chevrolet actually put on the showroom floor that year.
This twin-turbo, 406-cubic-inch Chevy Nova had already beaten a Nissan GT-R and a supercharged Camaro on the street when its 800-plus horsepower engine finally gave out. Viewers who know the owner say he built it himself — and that he’s already got two more motors ready to go. Watch what happens in the moments before it lets go.
Don Yenko’s answer to the insurance surcharges killing big-block sales in 1970 was a Nova that looked like nothing at all, with a bench seat, rubber mats and minimal badging, hiding Chevrolet’s 360-horsepower LT-1 small block ordered through COPO 9010. Roughly 175 were built in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, with 4.10 gears, F41 suspension and an optional hood tach. It was quicker than his own 427 Nova anywhere the road turned. Read on for what separates a documented Deuce from a convincing clone.
This unassuming Chevy Nova hides a twin-turbocharged 406 cubic-inch small-block making over 800 horsepower, enough to run the quarter-mile in the 9-second range. On the street, it has reportedly beaten heavily modified GT-Rs and gone toe-to-toe with supercharged Corvettes. But big turbo power on a decades-old chassis is a high-wire act, where one hard pass can turn triumph into a very expensive failure.
Chevrolet built just 10,100 Nova SS models for 1967, and the strongest engine on the order sheet made 275 horsepower. This one carries a 632-cubic-inch big block making four digits on the motor alone, with nitrous on top, a transbrake, and a parachute for the 160-mph shutdown. Roughly $160,000 separates the factory car from what it became.
Chevrolet built only 7,015 Nova SS models in 1971, a number small enough that finding one at a cruise night is closer to luck than expectation. That scarcity was not a marketing decision. It was what happened when insurance surcharges, emissions rules, and a new low-lead fuel mandate arrived at the same moment. This custom yellow 350 build shows what the platform still had left to give once the factory stopped pushing.
Under the faded green paint of this 1972 Chevrolet Nova sits an all-aluminum LS2 stroked to 402 cubic inches, fitted with a dry-sump system and twin Rotrex superchargers making 1,160 horsepower and 825 lb-ft on pump gas. Built by Kurt Urban of Wheel to Wheel Powertrain for owner Dru Diesner, it has run 9.25 at 148 mph at Cordova Dragway Park. Read on to find out why the ugliest car in the lane is usually the one to worry about.