Our 1965 Nova's History
This little Chevy II was purchased by my brother from another racer in the late 1980's. It had a rather dull life as it sat, waiting for it's turn at freedom. My brother has had great aspirations for this little car. The time came where I was able to take over and implement a nice plan of attack. I had previous been racing a 1975 Nova in NHRA's ET series. That car had reached a limit where I didn't want to proceed. I felt it time to change courses and start with the 1965 Nova. For it's first two years, I ran mainly in the 12.20 ET range with a small 10:1 357" SBC and TH350 with a Ford 9" and 4.11 gears. It was a nice combo with dependable parts to get lots of great seat time.
Eventually we installed a cage from Chris Alston's Chassisworks and began to break into the 11's. I eventually built a new motor (after roughly 600+ passes on the old mule), that contained a new crank, new rods, a set of 12:1 pistons from TRW, and a set of World Products heads. A friend's son, Don Morris, ran this combination in Sportsman class for the better half of a year in the 11.80's. We had a catastrophic failure during the Fox hunt race.
During this time, a good friend Bill Van Dorpe, was caught in a 'no win' situation with Roseville Engine & Machine. He ended up with about 75% of a SBC that needed work. He had began to run my old motor for needed seat time in his 1963 Nova that he had built. I took his parts from REM's failed engine build, modified the combination to a combo that I had been thinking about for a while, and created a competitive motor that ran 11.30's consistently. With tuning and track time, we ran this combo to a best of 10.997 @ 122 MPH in the summer heat. When the season was over, Don had finished in the #9 position of roughly 60 weekly entries.
With the year over, I made the jump to alcohol injection. I purchased Rob Patten's "Ron's Terminator" setup that he ran on his C/Gas 55 Chevy. Since that day, I've read numerous books, websites, and have joined a forum, HRE.com. I have made about 40 passes to get comfortable with injection, and learning how the basics work. I've since sold that combination to a bracket racer in Arizona. I have purchased and assembled a 6:71 blower combination, consisting of a TBS intake, a Mooneyham 6:71, Enderle Bird Catcher, and other remaining parts. The bottom end of the engine has been updated. The compression is backed off to a comfortable 11.46:1, and the camshaft has been updated to a Comp solid roller custom ground for a blower combination.
Due to increased power outage, from what was 590-600 to roughly 800-850 depending on the tune-up, we're making changes to the chassis. These changes include a new back half, a new cage, upgrading as we go, a new rear-end, and new front suspension. These processes are under way, and I'll keep this page up to date as we go.
Thanks for reading and please check back for updates. Please browse around, you'll find pictures, information on our Sponsor, Blind Elegance, and other items. Talk to you soon.
Greg Means
Means Racing Enterprises.