Gerald has owned this Nova since October of 1986, it was his first car, and he hadn’t even gotten his drivers’ license yet. When he did finally get his license, Gerald took his test in this car. It was not in the best of shape at that time and the officer testing him was less than impressed. After all the vehicle inspections and his road and parking tests, he finally got his ticket to freedom, er, he means his license!
As far as Gerald knows, he is the 3rd owner of this car. The first owner he doesn’t not know, but the second owner was a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. Who had brought the car from Texas up to Ohio. His dad, who was a civilian contractor on base, saw the advertisement on a public bulletin board. Apparently the poor officer was getting stationed in Greenland and couldn’t take the Nova with him. Six hundred bucks later, she was his!
It was not really the Nova to have at that time, those big bumpers were frowned on by many. It really grew on Gerald because he liked that it was different, and even then the hatchbacks were not something you saw often in the third gens. Plus, a Hatchback SS was even more unique.
The car was in original condition when he purchased it, but being out in the Texas sun all the time had definitely taken its toll on it. It had faded paint and remnants of a touring style vinyl roof. It also had a brown dash, natural seats and side panels along with green carpet. All of it was in bad shape for only being 12 years old.
The Nova has a 385 SBC with flat tops, roller rockers, hydraulic roller cam, Edelbrock intake, and a modified Q-jet carb. The transmission is a TH350 with a 3500 converter, and a 3:42 10 bolt posi rear.
Rather than squeeze the factory air back in, Gerald opted for a Vintage Air unit to give a cleaner look under the hood, and make it easier to work with performance components like headers. The front wheels are factory 14×6″, the rears are custom 15” hoops with a 5” backspace for 275/15 -60’s.
Gerald’s future plans are just to drive and show his Nova!
Here are some 1974 Nova production numbers –
- 390,537 Nova’s built
- 80,633 were hatchbacks
- 36,653 were custom trim V8 hatchbacks
- 21,419 were SS cars
- 15,422 with RPO F40 suspension
- 14,599 came with L48 V8 engine
- Vinyl top was a dealer installed unit
- Of the 21,419 SS cars built, it is unknown to me how many were hatchbacks. But, if the full production number to hatchback ratio applies (20%), then roughly 4000 were hatchbacks.
