- 9,232
- Valongo
- Hcclipper
A small vessel for a big heart: ‘70 Chevrolet Nova SS
Well, it has been a long time indeed, gentlemen… Welcome to another happy-go-lucky edition of Niku’s COTW Reviews, where cars get abused, jokes get overused and “‘Murica” is the word of the day for us all this week, one week after the ecological disaster that was the Toyota Prius.
So, after missing out on racing the ghastly excuse for tree-saving in the Amazons, desperation was quickly piling up in my helpless self. The Prius is the ultimate antithesis of everything COTW strives, and not even the TC version could save the very little honor that the Prius could have after week 100. In an attempt to rescue my petrol head self from the jaws of ecology, I traveled to the country made famous by Elvis, Evel Knievel and Brad Mcclaren; the one and only United States of America. It was there that I met a doctor, who specialized in bringing stray souls back into the realm of car heaven. The name has been forgotten ever since, but I believe that he called himself “Foose” or something… Regardless, Dr. Foose was more than eager to help a fellow petrol head in need, and took me to his personal garage. It was there where he told me what the cure for my Prius-ache was;
“What you need right now is an injection of “Nova” in your life, son.”
…Nova? Oh lord, I have to travel to the darkest depths of professional wrestling to save myself!? That is what I thought at the time, until Dr. Foose assured me that I did not have to go to ECW to find my answer. He also told me that I was hallucinating and should probably stop watching professional wrestling so often, but that is more my fault than the Prius’s, in true honesty. However, I digress; after telling me this, he approached one of the cars sitting on the back of the garage, one covered in a black tarpaulin cover. Once the cover had been taken off, the true answer revealed itself;
1970 Chevrolet Nova SS. Codename: "Tuxedo Carmen"
Not a professional wrestler in the slightest, but he did pack quite the muscles; the Chevrolet Nova SS. Now, I have to tell you a little something, something about my personal life as a student somewhere between 5th and 8th grade at school; most are not aware of this, but that was the era when I was first introduced to the world of muscle cars. In classes where we young nippers worked with nothing but computers, most students spent their time going to websites which were far away from the idea of studying. You know the ones; Miniclip, YouTube, Hi5… Yes, Hi5 was still important at the time, which shows how old these memories are. Regardless, while others were playing Bubble Trouble and trying to beat the high score, I happened to stumble across a muscle car-centric website. Much like Dr. Foose’s full name, the name of this website is long gone within my memories, but I do know that it was an encyclopedia of sorts where most muscle cars had their lives documented. Not just Camaros or Mustangs had entries, as vehicles such as Chevrolet El Caminos or even AMC Gremlins also had the honor of having their rich lives described in detail by the website owner, model year after model year. And of course, one of these acclaimed muscle cars was the Nova, the car that would eventually become the topic of a PowerPoint presentation created by yours truly for school work. Being a wee nipper, the presentation was far from being professional; I still believed that stretching gif-type pictures to act as backgrounds was nifty, and adding songs would make the presentation so hip that everyone else would be in awe at my musical choices. By the time I actually presented my work, I had to take the song away from the presentation after realizing that music does tend to muffle your own voice when you are trying to present your points.
But in the end, the seed was planted; muscle cars became one of my main “love affairs” in the car world, with myself being in awe at the wild power wars waged by American companies, in a true game of “Can you top this” that car owners proudly promoted at traffic lights and drag strips across the wild lands of America. At the beginning of these wars, first waged by Pontiac and their Le Mans GTO, the young Nova was not exactly interested in fighting against the big boys. In fact, the Nova was not even known as a Nova in the first place; the car known as Chevy II had no initial intentions to live as a rebellious muscle car, as Chevrolet only wanted to steal away customers from Ford’s Falcon, the bird that would ironically lead to the creation of Ford’s legendary horse, the proud Mustang. For the Bow-Tie, the II was nothing more than a humble family car, which did not need the assistance of power junkies to sell in big numbers. But times change, and in the North American car market, those times can change quicker than a heartbeat.
Fast forward to 1968; the II had dropped its numerical namesake, and grew in size both in body and inner muscle. But the best had yet to come, and Chevrolet created the Nova that power junkies dreamed of; the Super Sport. Yes, the Super Sport (or SS for short) was already a factory option for Novas since 1963, but the 1968 model was the very first Nova to include those legendary two words;
“Big-block engine”.
The toughest block on the block, as Chevrolet proudly advertised, soon became a well-known secret once word of mouth traveled across the muscle car scene. The process of purchasing a big-block Nova SS was a complex one, as most salesmen were simply not aware of its existence, but eventually grew to a point where many die-hard muscle car fans were vying to get their own piece of small brute force. And it was one heck of a brute force; with 350 and 375 hp options, the SS’s big-block V8 was a heart that far outgrew the Nova’s small (in comparison with its bigger counterparts, that is) body. Soon, the Nova SS went from “mystery small-numbers option” to “the option that everyone wanted”, with sales quickly rising from three digit numbers to over 3,000 L78-powered models sold in 1970. Despite the existence of a tamer option, most owners skipped it over in favor of the “loud & proud” L78 version, wanting nothing but the Nova’s ultimate Q-car form.
But enough of the history lesson; I am sure that most want to know what made the Nova SS so special, in a world where large-sized cars ruled the drag strips at their own leisure. Well my esteemed friends, let us take the Nova to an uncommon place to see why, shall we?
My word, it is a track with corners! (It is actually the Portimão track, courtesy of PSN member Patrick8308. Be sure to give it a try when you can…) Of course, that infamous sentence represents the classic stereotype of many foreigners who saw muscle cars as “compensation weapons” owned by men who wanted to prove their manhood, but also men who were scared to take their testosterone to roads with curves because their chariots were literal chariots. Chariots in the sense that the suspensions were powered by leaf springs, and where the shocks’ settings ranged from “soft” to “I’m about to roll the car over, my god”. Needless to say, they were somewhat right… Except that in the Nova’s case, it can be driven through corners. Shocking, I know. But why is it so drivable in a place where most muscle cars are terrifying to drive? It still has all the components that made those cars nigh on unbearable to drive; leaf springs, soft suspension, and a 4-speed gearbox that will eventually top out, causing the car to jitter all over the track… It should not be this pleasant, and yet the Nova is just that. By all accounts, it should have forced me into the pit lanes after two corners of awfulness through sheer drive rage, but the Nova remained spunky yet entertaining throughout the entirety of Portimão.
In straights, it is a furious typhoon disguised as a small cloud, and in the corners it is a shockingly stable piece of kit; the Nova fights against the very same stereotype its class represents, and fights it with very capable skill. The rear only steps out if the driver forces the rear to do so, either by putting even more power down through the corner or by using the steering to set the oversteer reaction off. Another key component to the Nova’s smooth(er) ride lies in its handling; while most muscle cars weight nearly 4000 lbs., the Nova drops down to the 3500 lbs. mark with a weight distribution of 54:46. Yes, it is still a nose-heavy car, but the Nova does not carry over an anvil over the front end like its rivals do, meaning that it far easier to keep the Nova pointing straight when you need it to. And the engine behaves as you would expect; the four gears are limited, but they are close enough to keep the engine running in the absolute highest power band at all times. And what an engine that L78 is… The sound, per usual PD standards, fails in matching the grumble and raw force of the real-life version, but the performance itself is nothing to scoff at. The tires keep on screeching under the weight, but they rarely step out of line even under all the stress of Portimão’s ups and downs. This is what the Nova does best; shatter most muscle car stereotypes to pieces while being an incredibly competent sports car at the same time.
Going by what it presents, it should be an absolute failure at most racing tracks, but instead the Nova delivers a whole new outlook into the world of muscle cars. A proof of lightness, a proof of power, and above all else, a proof of fun. Chevrolet still believes in this as well; in the recent SEMA show, the Bow-Tie attached a brand new 2.0-litre turbocharged ECOTEC engine to an old 1968 Nova shell, to prove how far four-bangers have progressed since the “1970 Power Wars”. Do you see this, Prius? If you want me to help the Amazon forest, you need to behave like the Nova. You need to rebel against the system, because in the end, the villain can still be the popular character in this show… While the Prius is a big car with a small heart, the Nova continues to search for hearts that are larger than life…
…as well as its own body.
Best:
- Injects fresh life in Gran Turismo's average muscle car list;
- Shockingly stable behavior, easy to wrestle around tracks;
- Grunt that outruns 1969 Camaros in a straight line.
- Brakes need some care when the braking becomes stiffer;
- Lack of exterior customization parts hurts its appeal;
- There are still muscle cars that can cause problems by being faster than the Nova on the quarter-mile...
