Gen 3 Nova's, GM TRUE performance car????

[442w30]

Don't the Camaro and Chevy II share the same subframe? Or not enough for them to be identical?

[novadude]

I believe it was Grumpy that said that he'd have rather focused on campaigning the Nova in the Late-1960s, but GM was pushing the Camaro for marketing reasons. His opinion was that the Nova made a much better drag car due to weight distribution.

Look at the overhang on a 1969 Camaro ahead of the front wheels, and compare that to a '69 Nova. The Nova in profile almost looks like an early-60s altered wheelbase car compared to the Camaro.

[racer67x]

I'm kinda partial towards tunnel rammed Nova's myself..lol

[Mr. Chevy]

Cool looking Nova. Love the Rally package.

Rich

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Originally Posted by EZ Nova

I've been thinking about this for a while now. I really think GM had the Nova as THE PERFORMANCE car after the Corvette back in these years. Even to the point of not letting employees/dealers know? GM was behind there "pony" car Camaro. But for there street-raced straight line performance car, I think they we backing the Nova's.

My take on this is, other than 427 COPO's, your could get basically the same top of the line L78's. Both the Camaro and Chevelle could get the 396/325Hp motor, but Nova it wasn't available. Also BB 396 and A/C? Both Camaro and Chevelle could get 396's with A/C, yet the Nova again NOT AVAILABLE. So now add to the fact that a L78 4 sp Nova is lighter than a L78 Camaro, just seems that GM was looking to keep their compact lightweight Nova and there true street brawler? I know a number of guys that bought these new back in '69/'70. And I do believe that they were actually faster than a local COPO 427 Chevelle that was running around at the time too. I know of a couple L78 Nova's that ran well back then. Headers, curved distributor, jetted carb and 7" slick. These would run consistent mid 11's.

These guys always told me back in the day, very very few L78 Camaro's could run with them. Funny story. A good friend of mine bought and race a new '69 L78 Nova. After doing well running 11.60's he had enough money for a new paint job. See even though were Canadian, he painted it "Stars and Stripes" and was quite well know as "The Stars and Stripes" Nova. Well car is still local, but the owner is going to finish it one day, type of deal and won't sell it back. So he bought another '72. It has a 502 in it and it's getting the Stars and Stripe paint in the next 2 years. He says he doesn't recall loing to a OEM style Camaro.

Thoughts????

I disagree, IMHO. I believe the reduced amount of options was driven by cost. GM would have to invest a chunk of engineering time, production line changes, inventory, etc... for a very limited sales base. The cost/benefit simply wasn't there, so they added the BB in '68 with 1 mild and 1 wild to appeal to a limited buyer pool and then added the A/T to the L78 in '69 & '70 to increase the buyer pool and perhaps NHRA cert. The fact that the Nova is lighter than the Camaro with good geometry was not the driving force - if anything it was the limiting force which is why there's no L72 COPO Nova....

[NorCam]

FWIW, the original owner of my 69 Z (Kym Miller) ran consistent times with the Camaro in S/S JA and did so for 8 straight years finally winning a Championship in 78'. He then setup a 70 Nova for the same class and took the winning drive line out of the Camaro in 1979 and dropped it into the 70 Nova, but never got the car to run as fast as the Camaro. Exact drive line, same tires, same everything thinking the lighter car would run quicker? Well it just didn't, and he said it had to be wind resistance and/or weight distribution as the Camaro was better on the track??? Just an interesting set of events.

[earntaz]

I have had both ... but a Camaro is like a persons south end, everyone has one. Now on the other hand, a Nova ... just sayin' ... TAZ

[x33rs]

Originally Posted by earntaz

I have had both ... but a Camaro is like a persons south end, everyone has one. Now on the other hand, a Nova ... just sayin' ... TAZ

There's a good reason for that

On a more serious note, I've owned 3 Novas and several Camaros. I like both, but like many others, I've always viewed the Nova as the economy pony car with some muscle mixed in if optioned right, but never considered it the flagship of the muscle car era for GM. The Camaro was obviously more popular then and still is today, but I'd own another Nova if the right one came along.

[earntaz]

Originally Posted by x33rs

There's a good reason for that

On a more serious note, I've owned 3 Novas and several Camaros. I like both, but like many others, I've always viewed the Nova as the economy pony car with some muscle mixed in if optioned right, but never considered it the flagship of the muscle car era for GM. The Camaro was obviously more popular then and still is today, but I'd own another Nova if the right one came along.

Totally agree ...