[Ray Morrison]

Chevrolet was doing well in the stick classes of NHRA Drag Racing, but Ford & Chrysler had very little competition from them in the automatic classes. With this being said, Fred Gibb, who owned and operated a Chevrolet Dealership in LaHarpe, IL, was a very successful drag racer,being the AHRA National Stock Eliminator Champion in 1968,who noticed this void. He approached GM officials with the idea that Chevrolet needed to get involved in the automatic classes. Chevrolet agreed to build 50 L-78 Novas and redesign the M-40 Turbo, with extra clutches and heavier springs to take the abuse of the torque and rpm of the solid lifter 396. Since the 396-375 had been introduced in the Nova as a Regular Production Option (RPO) in April, there were only 667 of these L-78 Novas produced in 1968, according to the information I have? Since GM only offered these with a stick shift as a RPO, the process to get the 50 Special Built Novas for Gibb was done through the Central Office Production Order process. It is thought this is the first time this process was used to get a group of race cars built for any dealer? Gibb again used this same process, in getting Chevrolet to build the ZL-1, later in 69, however the first 2 were delivered to his dealership on New Year's Eve 1968. The number 50 on both of these COPO (#9738 & #9560) built cars was because the National Hot Rod Association required this as a minimum amout to recognize them as a production vehicle and set up a class for them. With this said, this is the reason for Gibb placing an order for 50 of each one. These 50 Novas were all built by July 15, 1968. Upon receipt of these 1968 COPO Novas, Gibb sold a large number of these cars to individuals as he had received them from GM, however some made their way to Dick Harrell Performance Center in Kansas City, MO for special modifications of the 396 and also the 427 transplants.