We’ll admit it; we love sleepers. Cars that look boring, demure and plain from 30 feet away but hide a whole lot of punch beneath their skin. It’s like the goofy-looking kid in school who is secretly a master at Krav Maga. Only those who know him know that he knows 14 different ways to make you pee blood for a week. That’s why we love this ’69 Nova we spotted over on eBay.
Still touting its factory ice blue paint, this ’69 Chevrolet Nova is a true California car. Purchased from its original owner, the current owner – and the one responsible for its transformation into a street shark – has all paper work from original owner even down to its first oil change. The Nova is all original sheetmetal, without a spec of rust in the body. In 1984, the original owner had the Nova repainted, but only back to its original paint.
The new owner did his very best to keep all of his modifications beneath the flat factory hood and tucked up above the rockers and it shows. Put together by Rolling Thunderz, the factory plant was trashed and replaced with a 540 Dart block and heads, the heads and intake being hand-ported and polished. The big 454 presses out and impressive 725 horsepower on pump gas, naturally-aspirated.
Backing the big block is a built Turbo 400 automatic slushbox with a reverse manual valve body. That spins the steep 4.11 gears in a Ford 9-inch mounted outback with a set of Cal-Trac bars. The Nova rolls on black steel rims, deceptively stock-looking rubber and with dog-dish hub caps. Right now, the bid is all the way up to $35,000, but considering all the work that went into this machine, it might just be worth it.