70 Nova L78 (8000 miles)Toronto Auction April 4th

[1969L78Nova]

Anyone out there know of this vehicle to be auctioned? Black/Black Bench
Fully Documented
Martin

[Mr70]

Can you post a link,or webpage where more can be learned?
I know two that could fit that description.But their mileage may not today.

[1969L78Nova]

MR70
The brochure I just received from RM Auctions states "8000 mile documented actual miles! Factory L78 car from Texas equiped with a 396 cu. in. V8 with 375 hp and 4 speed trans. This 3 owner car comes with documents inclide notarized mileage, verification statements and protect-o-plate"
The colour could be either black or dark blue since the brochure quality isn't that great.
Also for sale at this auction is a 1969 COPO 9560 ZL1 Camaro. Ita car #62 Red/Red!!!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
Martin

[JChlupsa]

ï An extremely rare 1970 Chevrolet Nova SS396 L78 ñ
with 375 horsepower, this four-speed version with only
8,000 documented actual miles was sold new in Texas
and has had just three owners.

ï Another rarity, this 1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, the
most powerful model Chevrolet produced for sale to the
public, sports a factory all-aluminum 427 cubic-inch
V8 that makes more than 500 horsepower and is car #62
of the 69 produced. It is also the only ZL1 produced
in red with a red interior.


From the RM pages

[JoeC]

sounds like the ZL1 from Dream Car Garage

[Mr70]

Martin
I do not know that Nova.

[Stefano]

Red/Red would be Ed Cuneen's Former ZL1 which he sold to Gary Holub, which inturn went to Canada I believe /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

[Don_Lightfoot]

Here is the link (http://www.rmauctions.com/events/ts03.cfm) to RM's webpage for this event. Their quote is Car list not available, check back soon.

You might want to check out some of the muscle in their inventory when you are there.

[whitez]

$41,000.00 Cdn., $29,000.00 US., car did not sell,$45,000.00 Cdn. reserve.

[1969L78Nova]

Reserve of $30,400 USD!
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gifThis was NOT a numbers car. Former race car I was told.
Engine was not correct. Had wrong distributor/rad and intake.Body was 100%.

Martin

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I like the advertisement of "extremely rare '70 L78 Nova...", there were over 4,000 of them in '70, over 5,000 in '69, 600+/- in '68. So, with almost 10,000 L78 Novas, they are not really rare at all!

[Mr70]

Weren't there only 3765 1970 L-78 Novas made? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/scholar.gif

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

give or take, either way, they really aren't that rare /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif

[Allen]

Out of a production total of over 300,000 Novas in '70 (didn't research the exact number), the L78's comprised of less that 2% of that total. I'd qualify that is fairly rare.

The L34's production numbers were even less, and the only thing more rare than them, with respect to production quantity, are the '70 COPO/Yenko Deuces.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I agree with you Allen when comparing them to the total production of all Novas for the year, including 4door cars, 6cyl cars etc... But, if you think about 10,000 +/- L78 cars lined up, or just 4-5k for '69 or '70, that's a lot of cars. My thought is, with 10,000 of them produced, you won't have to search too far to find one. You may have to pass over a bunch of other Novas, but a BB Nova won't be too hard to find. The '70 Yenko Novas really aren't that hard to find either, 175 produced, but if someone was truly looking for one they wouldn't have to look far.

Percentages prove you are correct, but I can instantly think of 25+ BB Novas. A trip to the Nova Nationals will show a several of them as well, probably only about 2% of the show car field but they are always there.

The L34 BB Novas are a lot more rare, what's the total production for the 3 years of Novas?

[Allen]

The L34 production breakdowns that I've seen are:

'68 - 234
'69 - 1,947
'70 - 1,802

TOTAL - 3,983

The L78 number is around 9,383 units total for those three years (68-70).

You can usually find one that is supposed to be a factory 396 car.... the fun begins (as we've talked about at length on Steve's Nova site) is determining if it is a factory BB car, or finding one that still retains the original drivetrain.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/3gears.gif

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Very true Allen, very true !

[BARRY]

RED ON RED ZL1 SOLD & 316,000

[PATRICKJOINER]

Is that US or Canadian $$$?

[Mr Yenko]

Yeah you might see a few L-78 Nova's at the BIG shows. But how many are REAL. Over 3600 L-78 NOVA's made for 70, but there are probably 5000 plus L-78 novas NOW "MOF" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

[Charley Lillard]

I'm told the Red Red ZL1 was a No Sale. Maybe it was just bid up to that price .

[Stefano]

My info. says that it did not meet reserve.

[whitez]

Stefano, Your information was very close, actual bids were $465,000.00 Cdn., $315,930.00 US., and a late phone bid from the UK at $325,000.00 US., unconfirmed. To date no reported sale.

Don,

[Charley Lillard]

So where is Steves Nova site or a Good Nova site with decoding info. I want to get to the bottom of this Nova that I have and have no info on Novas?

[JChlupsa]

http://www.novaresource.org/

http://www.renc.igs.net/~smcnabb/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl

[Schonyenko2]

Steve's is a very good nova site. Very friendly folks there. More about the cars, than what their worth. Schonye

[67BelAir427]

Based on my personal experience with this auction company I would say that the prices that these cars were supposed to be bid to is about as reliable as the daily reports from the Iraqi Ministry of Information. Two years ago I consigned one of my cars to this same auction. The auction house had a virtually identical car to mine (owned by the auction company) which I was told had a reserve of $40,000.US This was strong money for this particular car so I set a reserve of $30,000. on mine and figured that it would sell easily. When my car went through I was surprised that it was only bid to $27,000. Disappointed but not upset. Not until 45 minutes later when their car went through. I watched in disbelief as their car was bid to $45,000 US in less than 3 minutes and was a NO SALE! What I did not see was a single real bid place from where I stood. A beautiful orchestrated performance by auctioneer, announcer and 2 tag men. I confronted the owner about the magic act and he pleaded ignorance, and was offered a discounted entry fee at his next auction. I guess I was naive in thinking that shill bidding your own car past it's reserve was a criminal act, if not at least unethical. It only cost me a $500 entry fee to learn otherwise.

[bbdon]

Charley,
Have you seen the magazine article that was done on your 396 Nova in 1988? if not, I could post it.

[Charley Lillard]

No I haven't seen it.

[bbdon]

Here it is, Cars and Parts, Legends series, Musclecars of the 60s, Volume 1 Number 1.
Page 1 (http://www.sonic.net/bbdon/free/lilnova1.jpg)
Page 2 (http://www.sonic.net/bbdon/free/lilnova2.jpg)
Page 3 (http://www.sonic.net/bbdon/free/lilnova3.jpg)
Page 4 (http://www.sonic.net/bbdon/free/lilnova4.jpg)
You should bring the car to the NNN California Mini Nats (http://www.sonic.net/bbdon/) at the end of August.

[KLONECO]

Thats what happens when you leave a car unattended before a thunderstorm! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif

[Charley Lillard]

Wow, thanks. I printed the article out. I talked today to the Owner that was listed in that article and I guess it still has the orig. clutch still in it. He put a new timing chain on at about 100K miles. The plastic teeth were completely gone and the chain was just hooking on the steel nubs that were left. Car has 129K on it now. I took the car in trade on my Yenko at 20K. If somebody wants it they can have it for the 20K. Cool car, just needs attention. The floors underneath are about the nicest I have seen.

[SS427]

Wow Charley, did they put 129k on that thing while it was parked on stands? That is one clean undercarriage. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worship.gif
Rick

[1969L78Nova]

Looks like a repeat performance at the Toronto auction re the bidding on this L78 Nova. Its owned by the auction company. It took less than 2 minutes to get the bidding up to $43,000 CDN. Next thing you hear from the auctioneer was "closed the reserve was $45,000 CDN". Looks like no-one took the bite and bid higher than the $43,000 so they closed. Wouldn't you think that once they got to within $2000 of the reserve they would lift it and sell the car?????? This group deserves an Academy Award for another great performance!!!!
Like you 67BelAir427 they won't see my business when I'm ready to sell my ride!
Martin

[Thomas]

I've had a good and bad experience at this auction.
About 6 or 7 years ago there was a '69 L34 RS/SS Convertible owned by Legendary that I was interested in. The car bid up to more than it was worth in a matter of minutes but I never saw anyone place a bid. It sold, but I never saw to whom. Next month it was back at Legendary still for sale. I called about the car because I was still interested and was told that the deal fell through.
I did buy my '69 Z28 at this auction a few years later. The car had No Reserve, and they ran it through so fast I almost didn't get to bid on it. I got the car for a decent price and still have it.
I have been to this Auction for the last 7 years and have come to the conclusion the whole thing is a scam.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Charley;
That is a super car! Love that car, the color, everything!
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Charley Lillard]

Here is a pic of the clip holding the speedo cable

[Charley Lillard]

another floor pic just to torture the rust belt Guys.

[SS427]

Hey Ron, are you seeing this stuff? I can't believe your aren't climbing out of your skin.

Great photos Charlie, I would love to see this car in person. Does it have any firewall or rearend markings showing? Yes you are torturing us rust belt guys! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worship.gif
Rick

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Charley,
In that article, it has the funky fuel filter and maybe a return line, why is that? It doesn't have that anymore does it?

Rob, did you see the pic of the fender gills?

Did I say I love that color combo, el sleeper /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[SS427]

Charlie,
If possible, can you give us some shots of the driveshaft stripes as well. Sorry to take advantage your cars information and originality. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bs.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Rick

[Stefano]

Very Cool car, I want it just to stare at the Floor/pans.

[bbdon]

Charley,
If you will be taking more pictures, I'd like to see the fan. Maybe I should come over and take my own pictures, you are only about an hour away.

[Belair62]

Charley..thats why we rust belt guys have drained the west coast of their good stuff !!! Looks like we missed one...but not for long !!!

[Chevy454]

Charley:

Kind of an off the wall request, but would you mind snapping a picture or two of the fender grills? Our car is headed to the paint booth, and we need to know EXACTLY what needs to be Le Mans blue and what needs to be chrome!

[55chevy]

[ QUOTE ]
My thought is, with 10,000 of them produced, you won't have to search too far to find one. You may have to pass over a bunch of other Novas, but a BB Nova won't be too hard to find.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would agree with that. You can look on Ebay or any of the Trader Papers/web sites any week out of the year and usually find more than 1 or 2 original BB Novas up for grabs. Granted sometimes they're not always what you would expect or hope to find, but they're still out there.

Ed /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/3gears.gif

[Charley Lillard]

I will start a new Thread and post some pics as soon as my High speed net gets fixed. Right now I'm trying to function with 19.2 Modem Speed. So if I wanted to paint it would I be Crucified if I painted it black with white vinyl top instead of the Burnished Brown ?

[budnate]

Nope,
I cant stand to look at Granada Gold in my garage, so it wont be Gold when it gets fresh paint, If your going to hang onto it paint it a color that will make you smile when you look at it, If you going to sell it put it back Brown and save yourself from hearing why did you change the color?.

Bud.