BangShift.com has two in-house Chevrolet Nova project cars, and they should be called Yin and Yang. You see, “Yin”, owned by Bob Lohnes, father of my intrepid partner in crime Brian Lohnes, is a 1970, small block, alcohol burning, back half Nova with a Turbo 400 and a narrowed Dana 60 with ladder bars. It’s white, runs high 9s, leaves on a footbrake, and carries the wheels past the 60 foot blocks on every pass. Bob races it multiple times per week, during good weather. Oh yeah, he lives near Boston. “Yang”, my black 1972 Nova, is big block powered, runs on gasoline, is backed by a Turbo 400 with a clutch in front of it, and a Mark Williams Modular 12 Bolt out back. It is a back half car, and has ladder bars, and has run high 9s on the motor. Mine is located in Sunny SoCal and hasn’t been raced in almost 5 years. Are you seeing the Yin and Yang thing yet? Other than body style, ladder bars, and fairly big tires, these things are different in every way. Well, I’m tired of hearing about all the fun Bob is having with his Nova and am on my way to wheels up launches myself.
The quick and dirty back history on my ’72 is that I bought it in 2004 as a roller, with plans to race it in NHRA Super Stock competition. I had planned on purchasing a clean ’67 Camaro Stock Eliminator car out of Buffalo New York, but when I got there to pick it up the “clean” part was missing. It has been replaced with copious amounts of rust covered in bondo and fiberglass. Exactly what you want your rollcage mounted to. Lucky me.
So after driving back to Texas with an empty trailer, after looking at multiple other cars along the way, my Dad and I ended up buying this Nova only about 4 hours from our shop in Texas, in Arkansas. Ain’t that a bitch. Turns out the car had previously been a PSCA racer and had been one of those deals where the car just kept getting faster and faster and slowly grew into a back half car of sorts. It needed some attention with regards to the subframe connectors, and the interior sheet metal out back wasn’t too clean, but at $7000 it was a steal compared to the rusty Camaro from Buffalo for $25,000. The previous owner told me, and I was able to later verify, that the car had been powered by a 632 with two stages of nitrous and had been in the high 7’s. Way to fast for me given the chassis setup, but OKAY!. The car was a roller, but came with lots of spares and they were sold off to help pay for the cars future. The future that never came. After giving up on the Super Stock aspirations due to time and money, we bought a Reher Morrison Super 468 and slammed it under the hood in preparation for the 2006 Hot Rod Magazine Drag Week. We made it to the event, after the typical epic thrash, but never made it past the first gas stop. The big block ate the camshaft thanks to some REALLY bad advice from a Camshaft company that is NOT Comp Cams or Erson.
Instead of leaving the big Erson solid roller in the car, I decided to follow the cam companies advice and put in a solid flat tappet for “reliability” on Drag Week. Despite my concerns that the roller springs were too stiff, even with the inners removed, the cam guys told me they would be “perfectly fine”. They were wrong. So, the cam went flat, the car went home, the money dried up, the car went to California with us and became a fixture at Car Junkie TV where on multiple occasions is gave up parts for other projects. Most of them were minor, but it still sucked. Poor Yang.
Two houses and three garages later, the poor Nova is finally getting some attention. Not because we have any money, but because we just aren’t going to let our junk sit around anymore. It’s killing me.
So with the help of Mladen Milodinovic, Race Shop Manager at BangShift.com sponsor Spectre Performance, and Spectre’s shop space, we dusted off the old girl and are working towards making Yang hum again. In the video below you’ll note how dirty the car looks, and you’ll see that the trans we’re pulling out is a Powerglide but I said above that it has a 400 with a clutch. The 400 broke right before Drag Week, and the last minute thrash was to pull the Glide out of my Camaro in order to save the Nova. That didn’t work.
The photos below the video show some details on the car, and you’ll be learning more and more about it this year. We’re starting with the Reher Morrison 468 and will work our way to a running, driving and racing car from there. The engine is out, we’re shooting video of it’s dissassembly at Westech Performance Group, and will have video updates on the carnage sometime in the next few weeks. Once we get the engine completely apart, and the damage assessed, we’ll be doing a rebuild, strapping it to the Superflow 902 dyno at Westech and seeing what this bad boy will make. We’ll do a few rounds of cylinder head testing, camshaft testing, nitrous, and more. Let us know what you would like us to test as we go along with this engine.
Overall plans for the BangShift.com’s “Yang” 1972 Nova will include, engine, trans, and rearend work. In addition we will address some chassis modifications that need to be done, put some time into the interior and tin work, and will plumb it for an all new fuel system. We’ll also be playing with suspension components and throwing a new set of brakes on it. Lots of work, but it will be worth it in the end. We’ll also see what we can do about that WAY too huge cowl hood and the wacky stripes. Subtle, low and evil is the goal.
Until next time, enjoy the photos and video below.
The funny thing about this photo below is that in our old house we had a problem with mice. Turns out they found a home in the car and made a huge mess. It also turns out they found the “bean bags” from my Holley Corn Hole game and ate one and put it up on the engine. Thanks mouse. Turns out the rat had corn in the Dominator carb thanks to the mice. Oh well.
Don’t look too close. There are several things that need addressing before we get back out in our Nova, but they will all get done right here on these pages, for you at home to follow along.
