BACKFIRE

Letter of the Month: Nova, Renewed

Little did I know that my life would be changed in July of 1972, when my friend, Don Carter, and I were on our way to the local swimming hole to celebrate his birthday. Another driver ran a stop sign and totaled the 1965 Chevy Biscayne that my parents had handed down to me.

I was 19 years old and had graduated from high school a year prior, in 1971. I had wanted to buy a pickup, but they were more expensive than a car. Worse, my mom insisted on a car due to my enrollment in tech school. The search began.

I went to the local Chevrolet dealership, and they guided me to a car that had just debuted— a 1973 Honda Civic. I then went to an outof-town Chevrolet dealership, where they showed me the Rally Nova. The price of Nova and the Civic were about the same, but my friend, Don, said he wouldn’t go anyplace with me if I bought the latter. I put $25 down on the Nova at a total price of $2,795. I was able to make the $85 per month payment on the Nova because the vo-tech school I’d enrolled in had an OJT program.

The clutch went out in 1988 and I didn’t have enough money at the time to fix it, so I parked it at my brother’s place. Then, in the spring of 1997, the Snake River flooded at my brother’s home, and the car sat in water up to the top of the tires for weeks. You could even see the water line in the glovebox door.

In November of 2005, I pulled the Nova into my garage and started to disassemble it, and then I took the body to have it sandblasted and find out its true condition: Every panel from the rear window back needed replacing. My first sheetmetal order was nearly as much as I paid for the car. I was able to get my hands on a 1970 Nova parts car that came from Phoenix with virtually no rust— this proved invaluable for parts and pieces I couldn’t get anywhere else.

I was very lucky that my stepson, Ryan Jensen, was a body man at the local auto body shop. For the next four winters, he would come over two weekends a month to do the body work and accept home-cooked dinner as payment.

I took to heart what Wayne Bushey said at the 2005 Nova Nationals Banquet: “Enjoy these cars and drive them.” So that is the advice I used to build this car. We sprayed bedliner on the bottom of the car and in the wheel wells to prevent rock chips. I used seats out of a 1993 Cutlass that were very comfortable. I installed a Vintage Air A/C kit, a ZZ4 crate engine along with a Tremec five-speed so it would be fun to drive. All the restoration work was done in my garage, except for the paint and upholstery.

I took the Nova to the 2011 Nova Nationals at Bowling Green, Kentucky to have her judged, and to my amazement, it was recognized as a Gold Class car— 924 points out of 1,000.

I take her to two or three car shows a year, and usually try to drive her there. She now has over 7,500 miles on her since the restoration. She still looks as good as ever and I hope to drive her even more.

Tye Tomchak

Idaho Falls, Idaho

MUSTANG EVOLUTION

I began driving back in 1968 (actually, before, but that’s another story). My ride was a burgundy ’65 Mustang powered by a 289 V-8 with a three-speed shift. What a great car! Other than replacing universal joints every couple of months and an occasional clutch and pressure plate, that car was bulletproof. It averaged 23 mpg, which wasn’t a big deal when gas was only 32 cents per gallon, and it didn’t burn a drop of oil, even though I drove it hard! My only certified 1⁄4-mile run was a 14.89 at 91 mph. Not bad in its day.

Today, I have a 2020 Mustang Ecoboost High Performance Package. It averages 30 mpg and gets 34 on a road trip; she handles like she’s on rails and is comfortable enough to drive all day. Although I only have 16,000 miles on it, it hasn’t been in for any repairs or warranty work. She looks like a million dollars and the active exhaust lets everyone know she’s not just a “looker.”

It’s fair to say that the cars we worshipped back in the good “old” days were worthy rides but, frankly, the muscle cars of today put them to shame when it comes to all-round driving machines. Let’s hope the car manufacturers never forget the driving experience and build cars for reliability and dependability as well as flat out fun!

I think I’ll keep this ride for a long, long time.

Dave Fotiadis

Conover, North Carolina