Noob Question (65 Chevelle/66Nova)

[PoorMan]

Originally Posted by Mean 69

One thing that cannot be overlooked when you are talking about overall performance is weight. The Chevelle is WAY heavier than the very light Nova, and as a result, everything must scale accordingly. Not only horsepower, consider tires, drivetrain, all of it needs to be able to really push the bigger Chevelle around.
Mark

Weight is a major concern for me...as is size. I live in a townhouse with a 2 car garage and my wife drives a SUV...so she takes up most of the garage. I'm willing to chop the car up a bit, my concern with the Nova is (even with the front clips I've seen) the manufacturers claim the biggest front wheel is a 16x7...not particularly large IMO and with that they turned .86Gs...I'd like to pull more Gs. I'm sure there are plenty of tub solutions for the rear.

I'd prefer the Nova in terms of size, weight and looks...what kind of front clip and rear suspension would you suggest for my application (daily driver and sole mode of transportation)? How big could I go with tires?

Cash isn't so much a problem--I think my chosen forum handle has thrown people off. Having said that, I don't want to just throw money at a car either.

[PoorMan]

Bump.

Newbie still needs help bros! More reasearch has lead me to believe I should build an F body (something I am opposed to for my own reasons). Someone please help me engineer a 66 Nova?!?!?

[lt1 chevelle]

i would build a 65 chevelle they have tons of bolt on goodies and they had grate lines but you will have a hard time finding a chevelle or a 66 nova in good shape i got lucky and picked mine up for 3500 with the global west front suspenion might i add the car only had rust on the driver door.(got it from a guy who needed $$) also u can stuff bigger tires on a chevelle with out alot of mods

[Mean 69]

What is the timeframe for the car? In all honesty, it shouldn't be hard at all to get WAY more than .86g out of a car that light, with that wheelbase and track. I would "think" that you can get a 245/275 tire stagger on the car without too much fuss, running a great set of street tires, or a good set of R compound tires with that light car should stick really well.

If you are in a hurry and do a bolt on approach (i.e. Mustang II dervied front suspension, good rear leafs), you'll still probably be really happy with the car. If you have some time to wait for what we are developing, I KNOW you'll be happy with the car. The same could be said for either car. I'd recommend finding someone with a car similar to what you are trying to build and go for a ride in it with them. Depending upon where you live, you might be well off to travel to one of the bigger shows, like Good Guys or one of the Super Chevy shows. With the cost to build a car these days, especially the cost of buying it in the first place, it's worth doing research (like you are doing) and actually riding along in a car.

Mark

[PoorMan]

I don't have a specific time frame, I'm just anxious to get started.

Mark, I read in another post tha you have a company that makes suspension components. Do you have a website? When do you expect your Nova kit to be completed?

[USAZR1]

With stock-width rear,you can fit a 285 tire in either a 17" or 18" diameter w/o rolling the lips on a 65 A-body. On the front,an 8" wide wheel and 245 tire will work.

[PoorMan]

Originally Posted by USAZR1

With stock-width rear,you can fit a 285 tire in either a 17" or 18" diameter w/o rolling the lips on a 65 A-body. On the front,an 8" wide wheel and 245 tire will work.

Thanks for the info. That workes for me...except for the weight and size issue of the 65 Chevelle...for those reasons I'd prefer to go for a 66 Nova (if I can find a nice chassis kit). But I've gone back and forth on the issue many times.

More info please? Particularly in relation to 66 Novas Chassis kits, suspension, front clips, mini tubs etc?

[nova65ss]

My first post here and just wanted to say that the advertised wheel size on the aftermarket Nova fronts isn't totally correct. I had an 18 x 8 w/ 5 1/4 BS on the front of mine. Didn't rub anywhere same for the back w/ stock wheel tubs and suspension. The front end is a TCI it has the frame rails kicked in a little, I'm sure it's not the best all out track suspension but much better than the original. Hope that helps your decision a little.

Jimmy

[PoorMan]

Don't want to edit my first post (in case I should change my mind yet again). But I'm most interested in a 66 Nova--at this point.

[Mean 69]

Poorman, yes, I/we do manufacture suspensions systems. Our website is under construction, probably about 40% complete and will have a lot of great info in it, not all that I'd like, but more than most in terms of specifics to our setups(s). I can't commit to a specific timeframe to complete the early Nova kits, the next rear kit we will be doing is the E-Body Mopar, and that will begin in the next few weeks (estimated completion mid-late Summer for that one). Thereafter we will have the engineering capacity to knock out another configuration, the next in line are the early Nova cars (like yours) and also the early Mustang (I have a 65 FB in the shop just waiting patiently for her turn). The interesting thing is that the Novas and Mustangs are amazingly similar, there is no question that some "borrowing" of ideas was at hand between Ford and Chevy back in the day. Good thing is that it will make the development of both of the suspension solutions far easier.

We are also concurrently working on our front suspension system, I spent all weekend in the shop prototyping on my 70 Camaro, and the pieces are really starting to fall into place. Our solution won't be a Mustang II derived setup, nor a "take a bunch of pieces from a wrecked Corvette and build a frame around them" solution, it is completely custom in virtually every detail. Mind you, the Corvette/Mustang based systems aren't necessarily bad, we studied them too, but when it came down to it, we just could not meet our design requirements necessary to get the performance we are after using these parts as donor parts: too many compromises. As with everything we seek to do, we have very high expectations and are pretty certain that this will knock people's socks off. Here again, once the building blocks are established (i.e. proprietary custom components), developing car specific setups will go much faster. You need to pay the Piper at some point, we're paying him now.

That was long-winded and non-committal, but it is the truth; "we're working on it."

Mark