POWERTRAIN
In keeping with the nostalgia theme, Pete dropped in a vintage LT1 with a clean-up poke to 355 cubic inches. Lawrence Racing Engines (Westhampton, NY) decked the block, balanced and blueprinted the rotating assembly, and built the motor with ARP hardware. Suddenly, it's 1970, and old school delightful: forged 11.5:1 TRWs (with moly rings) on Chevy pink rods and bumped by a forged, cross-drilled, and polished crankshaft in a 4-bolt main bearing block. The camshaft and valvetrain are all Comp Cams, fronted by a solid flat tappet bumpstick with 306 degrees of duration at 0.050. Vintage Fuelie heads hold 2.02/1.60 valves and are augmented by Comp screw-in studs and valve guides.
Pete plopped a Holley 750 double-pumper on that Edelbrock Performer RPM intake (fed by a Holley electric pump) and then dropped in an MSD Pro Billet distributor and flanked with a 6AL box and Blaster coil. Hedman tubes blow the unburned hydrocarbons through two-chamber Flowmasters. LRE sealed the bottom end with a 6-quart Moroso pan. That original 12-bolt is stuffed with toughies; the Moroso limited-slip differential and 4.10:1 gears spin Strange axles. Torque comes through a Hurst-mandated B-W Super T-10 (2.64, 1.75, 1.23, 1.00:1) via a Centerforce 11-inch Dual Friction clutch assembly. A Lakewood blast shield offers containment in the event of anything untoward. D&L Transmissions (Huntington, NY) built the heavy duty prop shaft.
CHASSIS
Since Pete's Nova is primarily street driven, S/P Classics' chassis prep is little more than rudimentary, but serves the purpose at a fraction of the cost of a 4-link. Aside from the solid body-mount biscuits, Competition Engineering frame connectors, and the torsional rigidity afforded by the 6-point rollcage, the Nova is strictly slapper bars and 50/50 Koni shocks on relocated mounts. It's even simpler up front: stock everything, save for the Moroso coils and 90/10 Koni dampers. The anti-sway bar was removed.
WHEELS & BRAKES
A large part of any car's aesthetics (and function) lie with the judicious choice of wheels and tires. As a street/strip dude, the Nova needs nothing more than 15x4 Weld Pro Stars and 195/70x15 BFG skinnies staged with 15x8 Pros and 28-inch tall L60x15 M/T Sportsman I gummies. Since Pete has retained the original disc/drum brake combination, these rollers are literal bolt-ons.
INSIDE
Call it plush-racer, clean, neat, and functional, built for comfort as well as speed. S/P rewired the car and installed Auto Meter tachometer, ancillary gauges in a custom pod, and enabled the Auto Meter Quick-Lite module. Pete pulled the back seat and laid down some custom loop carpet around the roll cage feet then had Don Frost (Bayshore, NY) do up the leather roll bar covers and stick upholstery to the JAZ buckets. The color scheme is nicely offset by the RCI 5-points. The billet Grant steering wheel centers Petey boy, and helps when he pulls the Hurst lever in anger. No A/C, but certainly tunes: a JVC stereo gets him in the mood. The sparse though well-appointed trunk holds little more than the battery and all-important fire extinguisher (dig the vintage decal).
BODY
If you've ever looked for a sound box to put all your favorite goodies into, you know how difficult it can be to find the icon. Pete's Nova is what you'd gladly commit a criminal act to get, a 39,000-mile, straight-arrow honey that looks better than it did in 1969. Save for the Unlimited Fiberglass L-88 style bonnet, it is virgin sheetmetal. Ralph Centi-Pizzutilli prepped the body and shot the 1967 Nassau Blue.
PERFORMANCE
Lawrence Racing built the small-block to the tune of 475hp. A little too mild, you say? Not in a 3,240 pound body, bud. Before the local tracks (Westhampton and New York National) went fish-belly and got turned into condos, the Nova scored an 11.70 at 115.
