#Chev nova cars with racing stripes manual#

This car probably was capable of exceeding 80 mph on flat terrain, but not by much. Note the 80 mph speedometer, which maxed out at 5 mph below the legal speedo-display limit mandated by the federal government from 1979 through 1981. This car has the optional three-speed automatic, which cost a whopping $335 (about $1,275 in 2020 dollars).

#Chev nova cars with racing stripes manual#

This car has the six.īelieve it or not, the three-on-the-tree column-shift manual was the base transmission setup in the 1979 six-cylinder Nova (the very last year for a new three-on-the-tree car in the United States, though trucks so equipped could be bought through 1987), but hardly any car buyers - even penny-pinching Nova shoppers - proved willing to drive with a gearshift that had its heyday during the 1940s. Perhaps this was intended to get people ready for the similar-looking front of the Nova's replacement: the 1980 Citation.ġ979 Nova buyers could choose one of three engines: the base 250-cubic-inch straight-six (115 hp), a 305-cubic-inch V8 (130 hp), or a 350-cubic-inch V8 (165 hp). The 1979 Nova got a one-year-only snout, with square headlights and a unique grille. A persistent myth alleges that car buyers in Spanish-speaking regions refused to buy the Nova because no va means 'it doesn't go,' but Novas actually sold very well in Mexico and Argentina. The Nova name started out as the top trim level on the Chevy II, then shoved the Chevy II name aside for the 1968 model year a similar process happened when the Malibu trim level engulfed and digested its erstwhile Chevelle host. Here is such a car, once resplendent in its custom racing stripes but now battered and faded in a Denver-area boneyard. Since we don't consider the Corolla-twin mid-1980s cars to be true Novas, the very last year you could buy a new Nova in the United States was 1979. These cars were everywhere on North (and South) American roads for decades, and Pars Khodro in Iran built Novas all the way through 1981. Junkyard Gem: 1979 Chevrolet Nova Coupe The final model year for the rear-wheel-drive Chevy Novaįrom the 1962 through 1979 model years, Chevrolet sold millions of rear-wheel-drive small cars known as the Chevy II and/or Nova.