1973 Nova with L88 flown to L.A. for Hot Rod

[92646]

I am going off of memory here and I might be a little off. When I was in 6th grade, I remember reading about a 1973 or 1974 Nova that had a dealer installed L88 crate motor. It was a lift back SS maybe copper in color. I may be a little off on the details but I remeber it was on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine and they showed it being unloaded from a cargo jet because the dealer wanted the car in Los Angeles in time for the road test. Did this car ever surface?

[Denis]

Maybe this one (http://www.corvettes-musclecars.com/Supercars/73NickeyNova)?

[whitetop]

Denis
The one he was referring to was burnt orange with aluminum slot wheels. Car in Hot Rod also had a short black vinyl top.
Dave

[SuperCars]

Yes, my 73 L88 Nickey Nova is a different one, but virtually identical with exception of color and top. I was told mine was one of the last two cars built by Nickey.

Something neat in my file is a letter to the original owner in New York from Nickey's title and license department, on Nickey letterhead of course; saying enclosed was his refund for Illinios sales tax and his air ticket fare. That was Nickey's sales pitch, fly in to chicago from anywhere in the US; and if you bought a car; they'd refund your airfare. But, if I had lived in Chicago, I'd ask them to reduce the sales price of the car, by the additional amount of an air fare from the fartherest part of the US. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

[JChlupsa]

That would be a nice price reduction since Guam is the furthest away place of the US I know of. Can you see getting a car for almost 50% off the dealer price

[Keith Tedford]

The article was in the May 1973 Hot Rod magazine. The car went 12.03 @ 116.57 mph with slicks and a 9" Vitar converter. They complained that the suspension was being over powered and that the car should be able to run mid 11s or better with fine tuning. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/3gears.gif

[NovaStud]

how much is that Nova worth?

[COPO_Anders]

I bought around 500 old magazines this weekend and remembered this thread when I saw this. I can post the article if there is interest ?
I also found the September 1973 issue with the Bill Jenkins pinup spread ! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

[Xplantdad]

Here's the article-courtesy of Anders http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beers.gif

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b156/lotsayenkopics/anders/l88/tn_1973NickeyL-88Nova004.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b156/lotsayenkopics/anders/l88/tn_1973NickeyL-88Nova001.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b156/lotsayenkopics/anders/l88/tn_1973NickeyL-88Nova002.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b156/lotsayenkopics/anders/l88/tn_1973NickeyL-88Nova003.jpg

[x Baldwin Motion]

that is very cool. anyone know whatever happened to that car? was it the only one? http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif thanks for posting.

[Born30YrsLate]

They had to have made at least 2...Kevin Suydam has a 1973 Nickey Nova with an L88 in his collection.

[Stefano]

There were more than two made.

[gearheadmex]

A friend of mine owned what was believed to be the cover car. He purchased the car in Ottawa Illinois Aug 26, 1975.

[gearheadmex]

Owned by Dan C Aug 1975

[Xplantdad]

Cool!

[Too Many Projects]

A friend of mine owned what was believed to be the cover car. He purchased the car in Ottawa Illinois Aug 26, 1975.


Any idea where it is now ??
That would be a real sleeper, even today.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

Lots of Old Newspaper Ads w/ Nickey Novas including a few 73's in this thread...
https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=148069&page=5
:beers:
~ Pete

.

[gearheadmex]

Reposted from FB page, Street Machines...Past/Present

"THE ORANGE CAR"...... On August 26, 1975, Steve Quickel, received a call from Dave Varney, a high performance car salesman from Whitmore Chevrolet in Ottawa, Illinois who knew Steve's extensive performance knowledge. Dave was excited to have just taken in a trade-in that was one of a kind, A HOTROD MAGAZINE COVER CAR!! It was a particular 1973 Chevy Nova with the 430 horse, 12:1 compression, aluminum headed open chamber L88 engine, easily the most radical engine available! Steve replied, "I have the magazine Dave, I will certainly know if this is THEE CAR!!" Calling Daniel Crampton he relayed the historical significance of this particular vehicle. Next, Dan called his banker, who told Dan to go ahead and write the check and come in the following day to finish the paperwork!! All good to go. The 20 minute drive seemed like hours. Dan and Steve got there and did a walk around, and Steve said, "This isn't the car; it has a 4 speed. The magazine car had a Turbo Hydro transmission". Dave promptly told him the original owner had replaced the automatic transmission with a new M-22 Muncie, and all the original parts come with the purchase of the car. Everything else appears correct, aluminum head L-88, Rocket Stage 1 wheels, Lakewood traction bars, 4 Turbo mufflers, and only 3,312 miles on the odometer. Dan is extremely excited and pumped up with even the thought of being the proud owner of this truly "ONE OF ONE" automobile! AS THIS CAR NEEDED NO INTRODUCTION!
It almost took an act of congress to get approval to JUST test drive this car! Varney agreed to it as long as he could send Ernie Mitchell (another high performance salesman) with Steve and Dan. And remember, no funny business! It's agreed. Dan started it up ,and it was the most obnoxious sounding, loud, vibrating, shaking, rattling piece of junk that Dan has ever driven! On the test drive, Dan got the nod of approval from Ernie when asked if he could get on it. On Boyce Memorial Drive (a nice, wide, smooth street, just right for a little display of power), Dan pushed in the Schiefer Rev Loc, stomped the gas pedal to the floor, and side stepped the clutch! Much to his dismay, it was VERY DISAPPOINTING to say the least! The tach wouldn't go over 3500 rpm, popping, banging, and backfiring. Thinking to himself, he saw why the guy traded it in. He looked over to Steve who calmly said, "I can fix that, don't worry.", Dan, confident Steve could do as he said, headed to the office to get a figure they could both live with. Salesmen knows the lines… "we know what we have here; there are people standing in line to buy it; if you don't, it will be gone tomorrow; where are you going to find another; but Dan, if you're worried about how it runs, we can have our service department take a look at it." Dan's reply: "THE SERVICE DEPARTMENT ISN'T GOING TO LOOK AT NOTHIN! Nobody is going to lay a finger on it besides "Mr. Horsepower" Steve Quickel!" With the poor running condition as the only remaining negotiation, Dan reluctantly wrote out the HUGE check in the amount of $4,014.00 with tax, title, and plates out the door. OUCH!! Twenty minutes later, Dan was driving, or shall I say sputtering off the lot enroute back to Streator! First stop, the car wash to steam clean the undercarriage, suspension, and engine bay before heading to Steve's, But not before Dan got pulled over by the cops for loud exhaust, getting a warning to get a new muffler (even though Dan was just idling along, but I know many of you will find that hard to believe). Dan explained that he'd just purchased the car and it had 4 mufflers on it, Johnny Bacha, the cop replied with a stern warning, "You better get 6 mufflers on it before I see or hear it again!"
Dan headed on to Steve's to get the super tune, and soon Steve had a pile of bad parts laying on the work bench, spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap, rotor, valve cover gaskets, and a pile of smog-related items ready to go in the trash! While Steve ran to Napa for the necessary parts, Dan was using Steve's wife's hair dryer to remove the factory side stripes. Randal Brown (aka Racer Brown) stopped by to see the new car and help get it waxed up and throw some polish on the Rocket Stage 1 rims. Man, this car looked brand new! It was almost brand new. After Steve finished setting the valves on the WILD solid lifter L88 cam, he then set the timing to 36 degrees. Underneath, Dan was aligning the exhaust system to keep it from rattling and banging against the floorpan. It was ready for a test run! As Steve got a call for dinner, Randal (Racer) Brown gladly volunteered to be the co-pilot like dozens of times before, and of those times, only a couple times did they have to walk back to town to get a fan belt or a tow. WOW! THE CAR SOUNDED TOTALLY DIFFERENT! Dan and Racer headed out to Smith Douglas Road, a nice smooth blacktop. As they crossed the tracks before the Plymouth Tube factory, it looked as good of a place as any to test it out. This time when Dan mashed the pedal to the floor and sidestepped the clutch, the Sun Super tach needle was already on 7500 rpm, and he was heading directly towards a Ford Mustang. The eyes of the lady driver got REALLY BIG! As he power shifted into second gear, the car straightened out, he hit 3rd gear, and then let off! Racer Brown said, "did you see those guys?" "WHAT GUYS?" "There were probably a dozen guys holding picket signs! They saw you coming, dropped the signs, and dove for cover! ' Come to find out, Racer worked at Plymouth Tube and worked with those guys! Little did they know at the time, Racer was Dan's partner in crime that day. I bet that story surfaced at break time for years to come!
The performance of this engine far surpassed their expectations, and the story has only begun on this special "ORANGE CAR". Remember the "HOT CHOCOLATE" story? Well this story intertwines with that story, so be on the lookout for THE REST OF THE STORY!

[gearheadmex]

"The Orange Car - Part 2" …. After all those modifications , Daniel couldn't wait for Sunday to test out the new and improved Orange 1973 "NICKEY NOVA" at Oswego Dragway. Friday night arrived and he decided to take a cruise over to Ottawa to further test. Upon arrival and after a couple of hard launches, the Nova develops a severe vibration in the drivetrain and had to be limped back home. Saturday morning, the transmission was removed to find the clutch disc fragmented and nearly torn in half along with damage to the flywheel - and an even bigger surprise… a stock cast iron bellhousing!! Unbelievable! Definitely a good way to lose toes, feet, or even a leg in the event of a clutch or flywheel explosion, especially with the rpm this engine spins! So now, not only is a new clutch assembly and flywheel needed but a hydro-formed Lakewood safety bellhousing as well. This put a crunch on the trip to the "Big O" Sunday unless the turbo hydro automatic and the stock convertor was installed in place of the 4 speed. With no time to lose, the swap was completed, and as a test run, he decided to race the L-88 "Nickey Nova" against the tried and proven 12.70 E.T. "Hot Chocolate" '68 Chevelle. Dan and Steve Quickel headed out to one of their favorite spots, Kernan Road. They lined up side by side, and GO on the count of 3! The Chevelle would jump ahead of the Nova by 2 car lengths UNTIL the Nova hit high gear, and then the L-88 powered "Nickey" would go around "Hot Chocolate" like it was standing still. After racing 3 times with exactly the same results, they knew it was much faster than the Chevelle!
The following day, Sunday, the car was driven to Oswego, and in test runs , it ran a best of 12.46 at 126 mph, WOW, an incredible mph for the E.T. Although the first 50 feet seemed quite sluggish (almost to the point you could run faster), after that, you better be hanging on for dear life for the rest of the 1270 feet!! Quite impressive considering this was on street tires, full exhaust, 3.73 rear gear, 650 carb, and stock convertor, which doesn't work well with an engine that idled at 1500 rpm. The new plan was to step up to an 850 Holley carb , 10 inch convertor and full manual reverse valve body by Hydro Don Stanley , 4.88 Richmond gears, and a pair of Firestone Drag 500 slicks which should put the car in the 10.90 range!!
So the next weekend, it was back to Ottawa to give the boys over there a little taste of Nickey Medicine only now with the automatic transmission. Trolling around town a few times, they made a pit stop at the Silverfross root beer stand full of hotrodders with every make and model known to man! A paradise of muscle cars for sure. There was really only one guy that stepped up to the plate to race! Donny Boyle with his black '69 Plymouth GTX with a 440 c.i. power plant under the hood coupled to a torqueflight and giant N-50 Pro Trac tires protruding from the rear quarter panels. As they headed out to Terra Cotta Road followed by dozens of cars full of spectators ready to witness the outcome. Out comes the bleach poured generously in front of the tires. Smoke engulfed the back halves of both cars and burnouts were completed. As they slowly inched up to the line, the flag man set them in position, pointed to each, then dropped his arms. The mighty Mopar jumps the Nova by a car length, but that didn't bother Dan as he knew the "Nickey Nova" had a Top End Charge like a freight train that would surprise that big Plymouth. But what did bother Dan was the 2 police cars THAT JUST pulled crossways at the end of the quarter with their red lights flashing! Both drivers jammed the brake pedals and skidded to a stop. Unfortunately, 20 minutes later, Donny Boyle and Dan Crampton were booked in, fingerprinted, and handed a ticket with "DRAG RACING" written in big letters all the way across the ticket … just 3 weeks since he bought the car! The wise words of Steve Quickel were buzzing through his brain, "when you get a ticket, it's going to be a DOOZY!" Along with, "what did I tell you!" which he had told Dan dozens of times! Luckily, Dan had the money on him to get out of jail.
To make a long story short, the L-88 engine was pulled out of the "Nickey Nova", and the 454 big block from the "Hot Chocolate" was set in its place. Both those cars were sold, as his good judgment (or so he thought) told him to do… "get out of racing and especially STREET RACING! IM DONE! DONE! DONE!" But anybody who really knows Dan Crampton very well knows those statements were SHORT LIVED! 45 years later, he is still like a kid in a candy store! If he's not hanging out at Hot Rod Heaven, he is working on his stable of cars every day, and better yet, ENJOYS IT!

[gearheadmex]

As stated in the story, here is the ticket.

[Bill Pritchard]

Ha! Back in the early 80's I was in a car club and we used to hang with Dan Crampton and the Central IL Super Chevys club, but I never heard that story from them. Thanks for posting!

[Xplantdad]

Very cool!

[Stefano]

"THE ORANGE CAR"...... On August 26, 1975, Steve Quickel, received a call from Dave Varney, a high performance car salesman from Whitmore Chevrolet in Ottawa, Illinois who knew Steve's extensive performance knowledge. Dave was excited to have just taken in a trade-in that was one of a kind, A HOTROD MAGAZINE COVER CAR!!

It was a particular 1973 Chevy Nova with the 430 horse, 12:1 compression, aluminum headed open chamber L88 engine, easily the most radical engine available! Steve replied, "I have the magazine Dave, I will certainly know if this is THEE CAR!!" Calling Daniel Crampton he relayed the historical significance of this particular vehicle. Next, Dan called his banker, who told Dan to go ahead and write the check and come in the following day to finish the paperwork!! All good to go.


The 20 minute drive seemed like hours. Dan and Steve got there and did a walk around, and Steve said, "This isn't the car; it has a 4 speed. The magazine car had a Turbo Hydro transmission". Dave promptly told him the original owner had replaced the automatic transmission with a new M-22 Muncie, and all the original parts come with the purchase of the car. Everything else appears correct, aluminum head L-88, Rocket Stage 1 wheels, Lakewood traction bars, 4 Turbo mufflers, and only 3,312 miles on the odometer. Dan is extremely excited and pumped up with even the thought of being the proud owner of this truly "ONE OF ONE" automobile! AS THIS CAR NEEDED NO INTRODUCTION!



It almost took an act of congress to get approval to JUST test drive this car! Varney agreed to it as long as he could send Ernie Mitchell (another high performance salesman) with Steve and Dan. And remember, no funny business! It's agreed. Dan started it up ,and it was the most obnoxious sounding, loud, vibrating, shaking, rattling piece of junk that Dan has ever driven! On the test drive, Dan got the nod of approval from Ernie when asked if he could get on it. On Boyce Memorial Drive (a nice, wide, smooth street, just right for a little display of power), Dan pushed in the Schiefer Rev Loc, stomped the gas pedal to the floor, and side stepped the clutch!

Much to his dismay, it was VERY DISAPPOINTING to say the least! The tach wouldn't go over 3500 rpm, popping, banging, and backfiring. Thinking to himself, he saw why the guy traded it in. He looked over to Steve who calmly said, "I can fix that, don't worry.", Dan, confident Steve could do as he said, headed to the office to get a figure they could both live with. Salesmen knows the lines… "we know what we have here; there are people standing in line to buy it; if you don't, it will be gone tomorrow; where are you going to find another; but Dan, if you're worried about how it runs, we can have our service department take a look at it." Dan's reply: "THE SERVICE DEPARTMENT ISN'T GOING TO LOOK AT NOTHIN! Nobody is going to lay a finger on it besides "Mr. Horsepower" Steve Quickel!" With the poor running condition as the only remaining negotiation, Dan reluctantly wrote out the HUGE check in the amount of $4,014.00 with tax, title, and plates out the door. OUCH!!

Twenty minutes later, Dan was driving, or shall I say sputtering off the lot enroute back to Streator! First stop, the car wash to steam clean the undercarriage, suspension, and engine bay before heading to Steve's, But not before Dan got pulled over by the cops for loud exhaust, getting a warning to get a new muffler (even though Dan was just idling along, but I know many of you will find that hard to believe). Dan explained that he'd just purchased the car and it had 4 mufflers on it, Johnny Bacha, the cop replied with a stern warning, "You better get 6 mufflers on it before I see or hear it again!"

Dan headed on to Steve's to get the super tune, and soon Steve had a pile of bad parts laying on the work bench, spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap, rotor, valve cover gaskets, and a pile of smog-related items ready to go in the trash! While Steve ran to Napa for the necessary parts, Dan was using Steve's wife's hair dryer to remove the factory side stripes.
Randal Brown (aka Racer Brown) stopped by to see the new car and help get it waxed up and throw some polish on the Rocket Stage 1 rims. Man, this car looked brand new! It was almost brand new. After Steve finished setting the valves on the WILD solid lifter L88 cam, he then set the timing to 36 degrees. Underneath, Dan was aligning the exhaust system to keep it from rattling and banging against the floorpan. It was ready for a test run! As Steve got a call for dinner, Randal (Racer) Brown gladly volunteered to be the co-pilot like dozens of times before, and of those times, only a couple times did they have to walk back to town to get a fan belt or a tow.

WOW! THE CAR SOUNDED TOTALLY DIFFERENT! Dan and Racer headed out to Smith Douglas Road, a nice smooth blacktop. As they crossed the tracks before the Plymouth Tube factory, it looked as good of a place as any to test it out. This time when Dan mashed the pedal to the floor and sidestepped the clutch, the Sun Super tach needle was already on 7500 rpm, and he was heading directly towards a Ford Mustang. The eyes of the lady driver got REALLY BIG! As he power shifted into second gear, the car straightened out, he hit 3rd gear, and then let off! Racer Brown said, "did you see those guys?" "WHAT GUYS?" "There were probably a dozen guys holding picket signs! They saw you coming, dropped the signs, and dove for cover! ' Come to find out, Racer worked at Plymouth Tube and worked with those guys! Little did they know at the time, Racer was Dan's partner in crime that day. I bet that story surfaced at break time for years to come!

The performance of this engine far surpassed their expectations, and the story has only begun on this special "ORANGE CAR". Remember the "HOT CHOCOLATE" story? Well this story intertwines with that story, so be on the lookout for THE REST OF THE STORY!"

By Cat Carter