Usually when someone refers to a car as all motor, they mean that it has no power adders. In this case, all motor means the rest of the car is pretty stock looking, and everything good about it is all motor. When our pal Ronnie Mankins sent us this Craigslist add for a 1973 Nova, the only reason we opened it was because it had exclamation points after All Motor, in the title. Then I saw the photos!
This cool cruiser had me all excited. It’s super clean. To the point that whoever cut the hood even cut the insulation to fit around the hole! The fact that it looks stone stock, with the exception of the big BDS 8-71 blower sticking out of the hood, really does turn our crank. According to the photos it has A/C, which would be a requirement in Phoenix where the car is located. It’s got EFI, and automatic and A/C. That’s all we know, so we’re going to make a few assumptions.
Since the ad says that this car was built as a turn key daily driver, especially for cruise-ins, we’re going to assume that it is NOT setup to drag race or anything like that. We expect that this car was built to be the double take car. You know, the one you hear coming and glance at only to dismiss and then your brain tells you “THAT’S A BLOWER STICKING OUT OF THE HOOD!!! TURN AROUND AGAIN!!!!” If that is the point of this car it does it well I’m sure. I would drive it.
Here is my dilemma, and my question to you. Is this car cool if it has nothing but the cool factor of a blower hanging out of the hood? If it’s only redeeming quality is being able to drive it around and have people stare because it is different? If it’s only performance number is how far it will smoke the street tires? In some ways this car may be like some of the Pro Street cars of the early ’90’s. So is that okay in your book? Or does it make this car less cool because we don’t think it has stuff to make it quick on the track?
Personally, this car falls in line with the Bugatti Veyron for me. (Yes, I just said that!)
The only reason anyone owns a Veyron is to prove that they have enough money, or credit, to have one. It’s all a status thing. You buy one to get stared at in it. I hate to break it to those guys but people are mostly staring wondering how anyone could spend that much money on a car that ugly.
So here is how this all fits together. If this Nova has a factory 10 bolt in it with a Posi, a mildly built Turbo 350 trans, and a mildly built 350 small block with the EFI, BDS Blower, and air conditioning, then it’s going to be driving just like a Bugatti Veyron. It’s going to be driven to show off. Smoke the tires on occasion, blip the throttle a lot, and be “the man” when you roll down the highway or into a cruise night spot as everyone is staring.
And I’m good with that. You can have the Veyron, I’ll take the Nova.
“It’s going to be driven to show off. Smoke the tires on occasion, blip the throttle a lot, and be “the man” when you roll down the highway or into a cruise night spot as everyone is staring.”
Chad just described about 90% of the vehicles at every cruise “nite”, NSRA fairgrounds show, Goodguys “lawnchair” power-park happening, HRM Power Tour . . . .
SEMA is essentially built on the billions of dollars spent by “showoffs” who never ever engage in any sanctioned motorsports.
And to think he would have completely ignored this if the seller would have slapped on $500 of Craigslist “mags”, a brace of ’70s-style air shocks and $100 of eBay vinyl stripes . . . .
Sadly a 250 m.p.h. Veyron isn’t as inherently awesome as a $200 Suburban . . . . 🙂
And this may be the first time in history that a chromed-railroad-tie-bumper smogger Nova has ever been compared with any Bugatti!
Grandma is it you?
If you got a Nova as your first car in the late 70’s- early 80’s, you probably dreamed of this car.
i did, and I did
It’s pretty cool. But if I had that, I’d definitely make some passes down the dragstrip with it. And if it didn’t do well there, I’d make incremental improvements until my interest or available car mod funds ran out.
Nice, clean, not too ostentatious. I worked for a guy who built a 73 Malibu along those lines. It was pimp chromed, had a/c like this one, he kept all the power options, too. God help the poor soul who called his ride a trialer queen. He’d take anyone for a quick spin. Opinions change instantly when you can’t see road after a healthy punch of the pedal. It would be cool if this car had some of that. Cars like this are awesome when they can back up their books.
This car is confrontational – it demands that you decide how you feel about it. Then you must ask yourself WHY you feel the way you do about it. Only then does it accomplish its goal: It has brought you one step closer to understanding the base elements of hot rodding’s magnetism. With that knowledge in your pocket, you can build a car to rock your world. For the record, my neighbor Ronnie Mankins is a total nut job (fuel altered pilot, among other things). I wish I could’ve seen his face contorting as he tried to figure out this Nova…
OK . Fair enough . I’ll tell you what I do not like about it . Its the epitome of All Show and Absolutely Zero Go ! Period . The Stupidcharger [ stupid because it is all about the show ] being the show . The utter lack of appropriate tires – suspension – engineering etc being the the essence of No Go .
Fact is at least the Bugatti VeryGoneWrong can and does go like hell in a straight line ..its the curves where it resorts to all show .
Whereas this ? This couldn’t pull off a decent launch if the owners life depended on it . Wouldn’t cover the 1/4 as fast as a MINI Cooper S . Couldn’t take the corners as well as a baby carriage . And therefore is in fact …
.. Utter and total BS …. and I don’t mean BangShift either
Too bad because with a bit of time , effort , money [ well spent ] and brains this thing could of been killer…. instead of blatant Road Kill
A Veyron Super Sport has lapped the Top Gear (UK) test track at 1:16.8 . . . only a handful of factory road-legal cars have been quicker (none from America, BTW).
And a couple of the ones who have beaten the Veyron in “the curves” at Dunsfold would mostly be intolerable to drive on a regular basis (BAC Mono, Ariel Atom)
If that’s “all show,” sign me up!
No doubt the Buggati Veyron hauls, but what Chad is saying is that the people that own Veyrons don’t beat on them like that. Do u really think Justin Bieber is taking his Bugatti to track day at the local track
Beebs at a track day? Only if they’re passing out free “bud” . . . But then he did get rather infamously busted for alleged street racing a few months back . . . .
That owners don’t use tools of repeatedly proven capability (e.g. Veyron) is somewhat different from owners not using tools of apparent sketchy capability (e.g. smogger Nova).
And to juxtapose a legendary $1.5mm hypercar with a relatively cheap, forty-year-old something that a high schooler could whack together in a shed over a long weekend is most certainly unexpected and incongruous.
That being said, the market for such cheeky, populist analogies (and for paeans to the virtues of the everyman “hot rod” over unobtainable, professionally-engineered thoroughbreds) is certainly much more vast than for technically accurate ones.
how the hell do you know it wont hook? I sure cant tell what tire it has on it from that picture, how do you know it doesnt have “appropriate” tires on it? what do ” appropriate” tires even look like?
It’s a very nice start to a really cool car. I’m with Matt, I would keep working on it and changing stuff till it did what I want it to do. Unfortunatly for me though, those bumpers would have to go in a hurry. I would have to retro fit it to the smaller bumpers (70-73??)before I did anything else.
How about a pic with the hood down? That’s the ‘look’ the article is talking about and we can’t see it! 😉
Blown + EFI = COOL as hell.
Thunderbird Super Coupe . . . Blown + EFI . . . 🙂 Just sayin’
The 1958 Impala is the only cool Chevy ever! Even then it needs a Mopar engine to be really cool.
Yes…its cool!!!