(first posted 6/24/2015) This past Saturday, CC Contributor amazonray and I drove up to the Portland area to see the new World of Speed Museum in Wilsonville. And there just happened to be a drive-in car show in the parking lot too. I’m in the middle of a very busy summer, and I hope to write up the museum soon, but in the meantime, I’ll show a few outtakes from the car show first.
Here’s a car I’ve long wanted to write up but have never found on the streets, the ’66-’67 Nova. It was a well-done re-skin of the original Chevy II from 1962, but the ’66 Nova SS has a special status, as it offered the best performance/dollar ratio of any car at the time along with a handsome new roof line. With the right engine (350 hp 327 V8), this was a veritable giant killer, and the template for the Duster 340 that would become so popular a few years later.
To tell the truth, I’m not a big fan of car shows because I hate getting people in my shots, which is of course almost inevitable. So I only took two of this Nova, whose fender badge indicates one of the two available 283 V8s (195 or 220 hp). What makes the ’66 Chevy II/Nova particularly fascinating is the huge range of engines available, from the 90 hp 153 four, through two sixes (194 and 230), the two 283s, and no less than two versions of the 327; the 275 hp and the mighty 350hp, which turned the 2830 lb Nova V8 coupe into a terror. Because it exceeded GM’s new 10lb/hp limit, in 1967, the 350 hp unit was no longer available; the 327/350 is a one year wonder.
I love the interior of this car. I realize its the SS version, but how bright and cheerful it is for an economy car. Within a couple of years, almost all that bright work was gone, and molded black plastic was the predominant theme in the ’68 and up Novas. This is a very appealing little coupe, with its four speed stick, even if it’s only got a 283. And kudos to the owner for not stuffing in a 327 and adding the 327 badges on the fender. Now that’s some serious restraint; unlike the Corvair in the background. Stay tuned….
No doubt, Chevy got this one right!
I’ve always liked the Chevy II up to 1966. Try as I might, I’ve never cared for the 1967 Chevy II front end.
Okay, your comment made me curious enough look it up on oldcarbrochures.com.
I must be missing something, so please help me out here: Aside from the grille texture, what’s the difference between the ’66 and the ’67?
I have LOVED this generation of Nova since I was little, and would like to see a full write-up on it. The roofline and flowing fender lines of the 1966-67 are so graceful — similar to the treatment on the full size Chevies and Chevelles of the mid-60s, but in my opinion even better on the shorter Nova body. Their performance potential is even more reason to like them.
Aside from the color, this car is almost identical to an immaculate 1966-67 Nova SS that I spotted when less than 10 years old in the late 1970s and still remember to this day. That is how much of an impression a well kept example of one of these cars can make.
These were common as dirt when new, but have COMPLETELY disappeared. Even in my all-60s neighborhood I’ve never seen this generation of II/Nova.
It’s so unfamiliar now that my first thought when looking at the picture was “Hmm. Nice car, looks GM-ish. Is this a Brazilian model or a Holden?”
It took till 67/68 HK model for Holden to do this they stuck the 327 Chev motor into their offering, great performance though little in the way of braking or handling, they were very popular then and survivors are prized,
I like this Nova and could quite happily entertain one.
This is my favorite Nova version of all time as well – it is so clean and sharp looking – it hit the sweet spot between the bloated 1950s and the bloated 1970s designs (5mph bumpers).
A really cool cat in my high school drove one of these to school every day (his dad fixed it up for him) back in the mid-1980s. I still remember the day we were sitting in class and watched Roxanne D., in the 1970s 4-door Aspen/Volare driver’s ed car, run right into the side of it! Oh, the horror!
1st gen Camaros were based on the Chevy II platform (like the Falcon/Mustang), but the Chevy IIs were campaigned at the drag strip because they were lighter with the same drivetrain. The 327/375 hp Nova SS was a legitimate hemi-fighter in it’s time.
Actually, the 1967 Camaro shared a platform with the 1968 Chevy II, which was a totally different car (except for power trains) from these 1962 – 1967 Chevy IIs. The Camaro and ’68 Chevy II were designed in tandem, so as to use the same platform. Whic explains why the ’68+ Chevy II is so low and wide and has such a long hood; it’s a Camaro with a wheelbase stretch
These gen1 Chevy IIs had a totally different front suspension, and were substantially narrower, lighter and taller. The big block would never have fit in these.
Along with the hottest Chevelle SS, Buick GS, and Olds 442 big-blocks, the ’66 327 Nova ranks as one of the best of GM’s sixties’ street machines. Back in the day, a common modification was even to put a straight front axle on those cars. When a potential competitor came up on a straight-axle Nova, they knew he meant business.
Although the Duster 340 was mentioned as the successor to the hot SBC Nova, it’s worth noting that the 340 was available beginning in 1968 in both the Dart GTS and Barracuda. In ran just as well as it did in the Duster two years later. The only catch was getting the 340 in the Dart and ‘Cuda was a bit pricier (although still not particularly expensive). The reason the Duster gets all the accolades and recognition is because it ‘was’ inexpensive, essentially the real follow-up to the original Roadrunner, which was the big musclecar news in ’68.
The Duster was also the real successor to the A-body Barracuda and the only iteration of that idea (fastback-ish A-body coupe) that actually sold well.
My piano teacher had a new one of these in 1966. At the time, I was certainly interested in cars, but nonetheless wrote it off as merely the practical little compact that you’d expect a middle-aged, divorced Russian emigre who shuttled from one pupil’s house to another to have. And in plain white, it appeared to be bland. But I’ll never forget the Super Sport script; I stared at it long enough from the piano bench through our front window.
The most amazing mismatch between car and driver I’ve ever encountered. Or else Nina Kudrick had secrets never dreamt of by a ten-year-old.
These are my all time favorite sixties Chevys. The style and size were perfect. They, as stated above, holy terrors with the 350 hp 327. A lot of them have been turned into drag cars over the years.
Nice, original ones bring pretty good money, too.
I believe the ’67 Camaro was based on the upcoming ’68 Chevy II design and therefore had to make some compromises on front end length.
These were by far the prettiest Chevy IIs or Novas ever made in my opinion. Maybe they didn’t have the most advanced chassis or suspensions (mono leafs), but these 1966-67 Nova’s look so much nicer than the 1962-1965’s with just some small styling tweaks. I generally preferred the 1967 front end, as I thought how the grille continued into headlight bezels looked nicer than the 1966 solid chrome bezels.
My Dad had a 1967 Chevy II Nova coupe, yellow with a black vinyl top. Even though it only had a 250 six, it still moved out okay for it’s day. By the early 1980’s rust got too severe and it was sold off.
The ’66 and ’67 Chevy II/Novas are beautiful cars, more great examples of peak GM.
The facelift was so extensive that back in the day, I thought that they were redesigns from the earlier 1962-65s.
That’s a broad spectrum of engine possibilities, but outclassed by the ’69 Nova, in which one could order anything from a 153ci to a 396 ci engine.
Of which you could have Don Yenko stuff a 427 into if you had the bank
Maybe there was a wider array of available engines, but I still don’t think many would bet against that 327-equipped ’66 Nova. They really were one of the sixties’ fastest musclecars. The later big-block Novas? Not so much.
I always thought these looked like baby Buick Rivieras. Perfect!
A Riviera with a dash of Opel Kadett. (Not a bad thing.)
Bingo: An Opel Kadett crossed with a Riviera. I’m going to remember that one. 🙂
If I’m allowed to disagree, if there is an Opel which resembles these Novas it’s the 69 Diplomat, and it’s even more striking in the one-off coupe prototype.
It’s not a one-off prototype, it’s a home made resto conversion. For some crazy reason, someone just decided to marry a Diplomat lower body with a Commodore Coupe upper body. And put a Jaguar V12 engine in it. It’s a really good conversion, considering all the curves. But, why? I don’t know.
More pics on this page:
http://commodore-a.blog.cz/1104/opel-diplomat-b-coupe-5-3-v12-jaguar
Beautiful car. But, why would one go with a Jaguar V12 of all things? Especially when these had a V8 (wasn’t it a version of the 327) from the factory?
Beautiful engine but this may be the only instance ever of a Jaguar V12 replacing a Chevy V8 rather than the other way round!
(I suppose it could have been one of the I6 models, but still, if you’re going to swap why not do the 327 and save yourself some grief…)
Interesting car, but the Kadett A and B resemble the Chevy II more, because of their narrow track and body, and overall proportions. The windshield and the area around it of the Kadett B and Chevy II are almost identical.
But yes, that front end is more Chevy II like.
Ingvar,
Thanks – my Czech(it was a Czech site) is non-existent but you can’t fail to notice the Jag lump. Crazy.
As for the Kadet B, hmmm… I’ll let the others be the judges:
or this…
I meant the below, sorry:
Or that version:
Well, to me it looks like Kadett that has been Xeroxed within an inch of its life.
That is a compliment
Keep in mind that the Chevy II an Kadett both came out originally in 1962, but the Kadett had a very different (and somewhat odd grille). But within a couple of years, the Kadett adopted a very Chevy II-like front end. So it’s more like the Kadett has been Xeroxed within an inch of its life. And I’m not sure that’s a compliment; just the way things mostly went at GM and Opel, until Chuck Jordan arrived there and turned Opel into a design powerhouse.
Before Jordan got there, Opel (and Vauxhall) was just imitating GM USA designs, or being told what to design, with the ideas inevitably flowing from Detroit.
I suggested the Kadett resemblance for a number of reasons, but the strongest resemblance, methinks, lies in ratio of wheel opening and fender height. On both cars, there is as much fender above the top of the arch as below it…in fact, on the Kadett I think there is even more.
I think an important factor there was that Chuck Jordan’s immediate predecessor as head of Opel design was Clare MacKichan, who had been head of the Chevrolet studio when the first-gen Chevy II was designed and who then oversaw the later Kadett.
Nice. My CCD teacher had blue `67 coupe with the 327, blue with a white interior and a 4 speed.He said the 327 was rated “conservatively” at about 285 hp, but it was probably more.Though not a street racer, he never backed down from a challenge, and that Nova could more then hold its own against just about anything.
My mom had one of these years ago.
Hmmm…
Is this article by any chance inspired by a comment of mine to the June 19, 2014 article by Joseph Dennis: “Any Love for Your Best Friend’s Hooptie?”, where I described a classmate’s Nova?
I have recently decided the best year for American Cars was either 1965…
ford mustang
chevy corvette
buick riviera
ford galaxie 500 LTD
chevy impala
various mopars with the 426 wedge or the 440 engine
…or 1966
dodge charger
chevy nova SS327
oldsmobile toronado
ford thunderbird 428
various mopars with the street version of the 426 Hemi or the 440
ford fairlane GT
chevy malibu SS396
one came a year early(1964)
pontiac GTO
No.
If you had actually read my post, I said that I ran into that Nova on Saturday at a car show, and had long wanted to find one. You might be surprised to hear it, but you’re not exactly the first person to think that this was one of the more attractive compacts of its time.
Nice,car and love the colour. I still find it strange that these cars could be sold alongside the Camaro without hurting sales.Mopar came unstuck when A bodies outsold the new E bodies a few years later and Ford quickly dropped the tyreburner version of the Falcon when the Mustang took off.
The Camaro wasn’t out yet in ’66, and in ’67 the Nova coupe did not sell as well. The Nova is attractive, but if you see one next to a Camaro, the differences are rather acute: the Nova looks skinny and underfed, and its old-school proportions were quite different from the Camaro. I don’t think there was any threat.
The ’68 and up Nova coupes shared the same chassis and basic proportions with the Camaro, and it was decidedly more competitive with the Camaro. But why would Chevrolet care, as long as the choice was one of their cars. The Camaro sold well enough, and the Nova appealed to the budget-minded, even if it had a 396 under the hood.
Although a 67 model you could buy a Camaro from 29/9/66.A lot of new American cars were sold a few months early in September.
The 1966 & 1967 Novas were my favorites, in pillarless hardtop coupe, of course.
I had to pass up a beautiful 1966 SS in 1969 due to lack of funds, but it was really something!
The 4 speed looks to be a good choice for the 283….The full size Chevies also offered a 283 4 speed combo but I don’t think it was very conmon…The 3 speed on the column and Powerglide were the more common transmissions paired to the 283
Beautiful and underappreciated cars. They really did do wonders transforming the somewhat frumpy ’62 to ’65 cars into a looker like this! I wasn’t aware of the 350 HP 327 option for the ’66 SS–now that would be something special indeed!
I have to wonder how many people bought the 327/350 and ended up with a toe tag because of the puny 9 inch drum brakes. GM beancounters strike again.
Were disc brakes even an option? If not, that’s actually pretty scary.
They were not available on any GM car but the Corvette in 1966.
if by bean counters you mean the American public buyers tastes then yes
I just saw a 64 corvette with drums all around. Not everyone cared about maximum braking back in the day.
disc brakes were options on quite a bit of cars back then but were options most buyers did not step up to.
The brakes used on the Nova were the same ones fitted to the Corvair and most Corvair people will tell you they work perfectly fine on those cars even on a race track. That being said on the Larger and substantially heavier A Bodies they were originally designed for well……thats another story
fwiw
Corvair curb weight around 2500#
Nova curb weight around 2900#
A body typical weight around 3500-3800#
Even on the heavy cars you still had at least one really good stop from decent speed before they started to fade.
source: My first car was a 65 Olds cutlass with manual drum brakes and my current daily driver is a 68 Electra with the fancy aluminum drums. The Electra stops significantly better than my Cutlass did despite carrying and extra 500-700 pounds. Gm would have been better off using the 12″ drum set up from the big cars on the A bodies maybe as a lower cost alternative?
using the Buick aluminum drums used on the sportwagons would be a decent upgrade if one wanted to stick around with the original style drum brakes.
There’s one big problem with your analysis/comparison to the Corvair:it was rear-engined, and rear-engined cars intrinsically use their brakes more effectively, because as under braking, the effective load on the wheels moves forward, which means in the case of the Corvair both front and rear axles/brakes are about equally loaded, making for excellent braking, even with somewhat modest brake size.
Not so with a front heavy front-engine RWD, like the Nova, especially when equipped with a bigger/heavier V8. Under braking, the front axle has to do an inordinate amount of the braking, like 70-80+%. That’s precisely why so many cars had only front wheel disc brakes; that’s where the ion’s share of the braking happens.
Our Subaru Forester went through numerous front disc pads in 170k miles, but the rear drums were still on their original linings. Rear brakes are lightly loaded in most cars, except in rear-engined ones like the Corvair, which can put them to full use.
The reality is that the drum brakes on the Nova were rather undersized, even for the times. They were none too big in 1962, when the Chevy II came out; by 1966-1967, with those powerful V8s, they were rather grossly undersized. And Chevy did not offer any kind of brake upgrade (HD/oversize) on these cars. They knew they would be discontinued after 1967, and just didn’t bother. Disc upgrades on the front are pretty much SOP for anyone with a V8 Nova who wants to really drive it properly.
I totally agree that having a rear weight bias definitely helps but is not the end all be all either. Brake fade happens mostly when the friction material gets too hot and starts out gassing forming a gas layer between the brake material and the rotor/drum. Discs dissipate that heat better than drums (even my fancy aluminum ones). Brake pad/shoe material also effects the heat threshold. A sintered metallic shoe with the aluminum drums on my car would probably be better than the original discs that were used back in the day. But modern discs set ups are WAY better than both.
lighter weight + ‘better’ weight distribution = track worthy
15% more weight + ‘suboptimal’ weight distribution = oh noes you gonna kill yourself on the street!………………..u wot?
I have been told the Corvair was roughly 40/60 front to rear weight bias. The front engine Nova with a 327 were roughly 60/40 the other way. Cast iron differential and rear axle with nearly 150#s of fuel goes a long way to offset some of the front weight of the old iron motor out front.
Also most people with muscle cars do not upgrade to disc brakes simply as a performance upgrade its usually more of a show off look at me kind of thing. There are many people with 400hp+ GS’s in my Buick club that run the factory marginal at best brakes and I don’t hear about people killing themselves with their cars.
Please don’t get me wrong because I am far from a luddite lol. Disc brakes are significantly better than the factory style drums but for many applications they work fine especially for a street car. If one were to build a track ready Nova or Chevelle you better dang well put some big beefy brakes on it.
Geez….. seatbelts were optional on cars until the mid 60s times were indeed very different back then.
I am planning on installing discs on my car but mostly because getting a hold of the original style aluminum drums has gotten cost prohibitive in the last few years but part of me is tossing around the idea of drilling holes in a spare set of drums and a little bit of fresh air ducting blowing on it. All that work for braking that is going probably be equal to a standard disc set up but I’m sure it will get a lot of attention at car club events! huehuehue
Brake fade happens mostly when the friction material gets too hot and starts out gassing forming a gas layer between the brake material and the rotor/drum.
And that starts much sooner on a car with front weight bias because the front brakes are being taxed much more heavily.
Given that my ’66 F100 has little drum brakes, and I constantly carry heavy loads, I generally agree with you. drum brakes generally are reasonably ok for one or two hard stops. And most folks driving vintage muscle cars are not likely to be driving them fast through the mountains.
So it’s not like I’m drum brake-phobic; but I still chide GM for taking so long to switch to disc brakes. Realistically, a very powerful and fast car like the Nova SS 327 should have had front disc brakes as standard; optional at the very least. The were around then; the Corvette had them since 1965.
And don’t get me started on the even more front-heavy big cars like the Toronado and Eldorado: putting drums on them really was a Deadly Sin, and they were widely criticized at the time for that. And here too:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/1967-cadillac-eldorado-vs-renault-r-10-an-unfair-comparison-thanks-to-a-gm-deadly-sin/
Has there been a CC on the history of automobile brake development, beginning with the earliest mechanical, then hydraulic, drums to discs, ABS, etc.? If not, seems like it might be a good read, with particular emphasis on how woeful brakes were during the musclecar era. During the high-horsepower sixties, seems like GM was dragging up the rear in this area, with Ford taking the lead in brake engineering (weren’t they also the first to install discs as standard across the board?). Chrysler was somewhere in the middle, using relatively decently sized police-spec, heavy-duty drums on their muscle machines (with discs, although pricey, optional).
Excellent suggestion, Rudiger. I wonder if Ate Up With Motor has one on his site?
Just checked – he hasn’t tackled this either.
Since somebody asked, I don’t have a brake history, although it’s not a bad idea.
“Our Subaru Forester went through numerous front disc pads in 170k miles, but the rear drums were still on their original linings.”
I did a brake job on my ’95 Wrangler at 100K (70K of those were my miles) and was suprised the rear linings were still good for another 50K at least. I boxed up the shoes and returned them. But 170K is amazing. Automatic or stick in that Subie? In every other vehicle Ive had prior to my Ram, Ive gotten a lot of miles out of the brakes, since Im a downshifter. Brakes last a lot longer that way.
I only have replaced the rear shoes on the 300k miles Jetta once, and that was because the leaky wheel cylinders soaked the linings with brake fluid. Last time I checked the they had still about 30% left.
Also, when it comes to load on brakes, an extra 300 to 400 pounds (the difference between the second-gen Corvair and a Chevy II) is non-trivial…
Beautiful car! The only generation of Nova I have ever liked! Didn’t care for the older one, hated the newer ones. Back in the day when these were common, most SS versions actually had 6 cylinder powerglides – at least the previous generation did.
Interior really looks good with the beige and chrome. So much brighter than the black that was common at the time. A friend in high school had one, think it was a 283 powerglide. Even with that combination the little car was pretty quick for the day. Been a long time since one of these crossed my path.
Good find, Paul. Id have to call these early Novas some of the purest examples of what a true muscle car is: Simple economy car stuffed with as much motor as practical. No frills or doo dads. It was an effective formula and in theory it could still be today.
Oh and the car show is apparently an every Saturday thing called ‘Cars and coffee’. The volunteer at W.O.S. told me they were doing it at Home Depot but were ran off. Guess they didnt want the business that all the cool cars attract? Anyway, W.O.S. welcomed them with open arms and its drawn tons of visitors to the museum. Even better, it seems like CC fodder, since the unwritten rule of Cars n Coffee is ‘if you have a car you think is cool, bring it.’ Gotta love that!
I had a chance to hit this museum back in May when my parents were visiting. There is an insane amount of history in this building, many of the cars are local northwest cars with a rich lineage. And some big national names also.
The first thing that occurred to me, as a former Valiant owner of this era, while looking at the pics of this Chevy II Nova was: This is what the ’66 Valiant was up against in the marketplace, to say nothing of Falcons and Mustangs. Sure, the Valiant was a better car in many significant ways, but the Nova was sure a looker, and the interior was done up in a more pleasing way too.
Nevertheless, I’ll bet that today there are more ’66 Valiants still on the road than Chevy II Novas.
As a Mopar fan, I hate to admit it but youre right. ’66 to ’66 the Nova just looks more modern vs the more dated A bodies. ’67 is a different story but the Valiant got screwed out of the 2dr hardtop which is a real shame. The ’67 dart on the other hand looked like a mini Charger in 2 dr h/t form. You could argue that the ’68 Charger’s look was cribbed off the ’67 Dart.
The thing that has always struck me about the early Novas is their similarity to the Falcon. I saw a junked ’62 or ’63 Nova, and it even used shock towers like the Falcon (and I believe Rambler). When Chevy decided to come out with a Falcon clone, they really did clone it (other than the four-cylinder).
Of course, by ’66, the Nova was arguably better looking than any Falcon ever was, and Grumpy Jenkins was laying a smack down on all A-Stockers other than Jere Stahl’s Hemi Belvedere. Cool car!
“Because it exceeded GM’s new 10lb/hp limit, in 1967, the 350 hp unit was no longer available; the 327/350 is a one year wonder.”
There was a “detuned” version of this L79 motor for ’67 & ’68, rated at 325 HP and available for the Chevy II/Nova and the Chevelle. Supposedly, there were five ’67 Novas made with the engine and then the plug was pulled leaving the 275 HP as the stoutest engine available. The reason given was that Chevrolet management didn’t want a ginned up Nova taking potential sales away from the newly introduced Camaro.
I have encountered numerous ’67 & ’68 Chevelles with this motor and had a friend, back in the day, that had a ’68 Nova with the 325 HP variant. No way to know how to validate the veracity of the supposed five ’67 Novas so equipped, though there was one for sale (claimed to be real by the seller) in Hemmings about twelve or fifteen years ago – but that’s the legend.
How a 1967 Nova hardtop widely available with the 350hp L79 327 from the previous year might have affected new Camaro sales is one of those great ‘what if’ musclecar scenarios. Frankly, GM likely called it correctly, as can be borne out in 1970 when the cheaper, faster Duster 340 just creamed sales of the brand-new E-body Mopar ponycar (and quite a few B-body intermediate Mopar musclecars, too).
That was my first car; 1966 Marina Blue Chevy II (NOT a “Nova”!) SS 4 speed with (originally) the L79 327/350 what I wouldn’t give to have that car back!
Before it got to me someone had blown up the L79 and replaced it with a 283 out of ’64 Impala but with heavy mod; slant plug aluminum heads, headers, huge cam, Edelbrock manifold and Holly 750 cfm double pumper…no guts below 3000 rpm but after that look out!
It was also my first stick shift so I learned to drive manual on it.
My buddy had a red ’66 with the original L79 but a powerglide…I think he still has it to this day!
Marina Blue was a really sharp color! Loved it then, still love it today!
I would like to mention how beautiful the interior is. One of the things I never liked about the Nova was its cheap plastic and vinyl interior. It seemed that a majority of cars built fifty years ago had unattractive interiors. “Nicer” interiors had a strip of paper wood grain applied to them and this didn’t really replace the nicer designs that preceded them.
L79 350hp Nova is my dream car. That has to be fast!