Thursday 13th January 2011

HonestGuv: Chevy Nova SS

14 large for a slice of V8 Americana? Just play the numbers game...

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HonestGuv's spotted another winner

I'm thinking of splashing out 14 large (or more likely nine after negotiation) from Guv Minor's trust fund in exchange for a couple of tons of American muscle, or Arnie as it's known in the trade.

Flash motors tell you a lot about Americans. Appearance is everything. In Beverly Hills a few years back I saw Cadillac's 4-door estate pickup thing, the Escalade EXT, being driven by a geriatric geezer in a pink golf sweater and a shiny helmet on his swede. Turned out that was his hair. Back then, Cadillac's ad line for the EXT was 'it defies everything, including description'. The Botoxed-up old giffer behind the wheel obviously reckoned he looked the business in his white one rolling on chrome 22s. Judging by the way he was bouncing up and down in there I guess he was off to the proctologist. Or his secretary was doing a spot of freeway dictation.

Muscle car owners are just the same. They've got to have all the shouty bits on their Trans-Am/Charger/Camaro/Challenger etc so the oiks know exactly what it is they're boasting about.

Numbers (or not) are the key to a profit...

The Nova is a bit different. It's got an understated blue-collar Springsteen thing going on. Pennsylvanian coal miners like them. That should mean we Brits will too - all good news for the thinking UK-based dealer. Nova SSs got proper horsepower too, up to 375bhp, without the usual nightmare of spoilers, decals and bloody great baking trays stuck on the bonnet.

Obviously, this one is a bitsa. In a separate ad, the vendor has a second SS. It's a right shed by comparison so why is it only £3k less? Two words: 'matching numbers'. For muscle car folk, this phrase is usually accompanied by the trilling of heavenly choirs and the prospect of unlimited bragging rights at owners' meets. For glinty-eyed dealers, matching numbers provides a perfect excuse to unmatch the pricing numbers by a multiplier of six or seven.

...and some new lenses from Halfords

The only matching numbers I'd expect to find in this motor would be inside the indicator lenses, probably just after the word 'Halfords'. Still, If I was looking for a nice V8 to run around in till the next moneymaker comes round, knowing that it didn't have the same numbers on the engine and the chassis wouldn't put me off. After all, as a busy motor retail professional I've got about as much interest in correctly restoring a Nova SS as I have in employing non-Romanian valeters. Why bother? Ignorance of provenance is pretty much par for the course in musclecar circles. The Yanks don't do service histories. They prefer to spin you a yarn. That's all to the good as far as I'm concerned.

The good thing about muscle cars generally is that there's a stonking aftermarket. You can recreate more or less anything. It's just a question of knowing when to stop. Some of the stuff you can get is well tacky but this particular example has dodged the bling. It comes with the right-sized 14inch wheels, nice grey paint and not too many badges.

Others prefer the 'purist' approach...

It's had a new gas tank, so you'd like to think the floors are in reasonable shape: you'd be a bit peculiar not to sort them out while you were down there. The rest of the spec suggests it's had a reasonably thorough cosmetic blowover that will allow you to start motoring without the usual sense of shame that goes with unrestored (or over-restored) Americana.

The vendor says that a previous owner has replaced the stock L34 396 big-block with a 350. The original 350 was rated in the usual hopeful Yank style at 295bhp. Neither of 'em are any good if you want to take the little lady out for a spin without blowing all your wad on four-star. Luckily the lump in this car looks too new to be anything other than a crate motor. In the interests of trouble-free smoking I'm all for that.

...but could you really be ar*sed?

This particular vendor hasn't quite got the hang of yarning. Having told us this is no longer a big-block Nova, he then starts going on about how rare big-block Novas are. Irrelevant flannel like this worked in the old days, believe me, but nowadays it just gives nervy buyers twitchy-bum syndrome. As I tell the missus on a regular basis, silence is golden.

Doesn't bother me of course. I still get a nice vibe from this car as a runaround beater with excellent sell-on potential - especially when I put 'matching numbers' in the ad text, just before the £19,995 bit. Thanks to Halfords, I'll have no bother doing that without getting a visit from that beardy bloke in Trades Descriptions.

(NB. Any opinions expressed by Honest Guv here on PH are nothing to do with us. Ed.)

[thirsty]

This was much more likely to be the typical muscle car back in the late 60s and very early 70s. Chevy sold them by the thousands because they were cheap cheap cheap, and you could get a very big motor to go in it.

[AV12]

The chosen wheels of Stuntman Mike:

[EDLT]

Is PH doing it's own version of Carcoat Damphands now?

[soad]

Quite like it but it's not exacly cheap.

[Gizmo!]

All very well, right, but if you want something that's big, not very shouty, and handles in a way best described as "old-fashioned", you want a Rover P5B Coupé, my old china.

If you're after muscles it's got to be a little bit more - not bling exactly, but more Wurlitzer than Walkman, more rhinestone than rohypnol. More sound for your pound.

Minty.

[Stevie Mojo]

Very nice.

[jbi]

ah. the real nova... not that POS vauxhall was peddling in the early 90's

[vit4]

Hell yes

One day.

[WhiteBaron]

I like the car - good choice, write the article properly and i'll read it instead of getting bored and just looking at the pics

Edited by WhiteBaron on Wednesday 12th January 21:42

[Simon says]

Lets not forget they did a 454 full house BB in these cars too and the SB SS models where mad enough already pushing 300hp plus good choice of car sadly not this one though

[Adam B]

Gizmo! said:

you want a Rover P5B Coupé, my old china.

what a very lovely call

< jogs off to classifieds >

[Hellbound]

The perfect car to cruise around in during the summer...

[dwilkie]

I don't get why American Muscle would be known as Arnie - he's an Austrian who trained in Portsmouth

[Dr G]

I'll take the shiney one and an LS7.

[sanctum]

I've read the ad twice and I still can't tell if your trying to suggest the matching numbers shell is the one to buy, or the restored one with the heart transplant? In fact, I just don't get the whole article really, not up to PH usual standard.

[Squabbler]

I love this car. My dream muscle (after a belair)

[infradig]

EDLT said:

Is PH doing it's own version of Carcoat Damphands now?

Yes,but 'written' in the style of 1970's Custom Car so Richard Porter doesn't sue.

[karl_h]

What a bloody awful article! Is it really suggesting that you could expect to haggle 5 grand from the sticker price! And then suggesting that the resto case's main selling point is because its numbers matching is a bit misleading, a bit of research would have shown that a genuine 396 Nova is a rare and desirable model and would fetch good money when finished. Agree with above thanks for showing us the pictures but next time forget the article!

[Chris-R]

karl_h said:

What a bloody awful article! Is it really suggesting that...

No!

[anything fast]

The Nova was always in the shadow of the Chevelle, which is a far more sought after car. Wouldnt bother, if you ever see a Chevelle on the road you will know you bought the cut down poor mans version.