[9C1Beater]

Kurt, I know you have done a lot of research on 1st Gen Camaros, and you realize that GM engineers borrowed heavily from the Nova parts bin to create the 1st Gen Camaro, then did the same to upgrade the 3rd Gen Nova with 2nd Gen Camaro parts. If you read all I have posted on this car and its incredible documents on Steves Nova Site under "1974 Nova 9C1 Police Car...only survivor of 17 built", you will understand the historical importance of this car. It is the 2nd Nova police car ever built and was ordered by a GM executive who was the West Coast Fleet Sales Manager at Chevrolet's Los Angeles Zone Office in Century City (he was an executive and this was a "Brass Hat" order...with a GM document that even says "Brass Hat"...and no comments on here about that document...that really surprised me).

I have shown the car to Harry Hammond, who was one of the 2 engineers tasked with turning the 4-door Nova into a useable police car...he said that involved borrowing heavily from the Z28 parts bin. Harry's co-engineer in the project was Jim Ingle, who was an assistant to Vince Piggins at the GM Tech Center in Warren, MI. All 3 of those men knew the Nova's floor pan and suspension were virtually identical to a Z28's, so that's where they looked to improve its handling and braking...they weren't re-inventing the wheel, so they used the best stuff available...Z28 stuff. They experimented for 2 months with various springs, shocks, bushings, sway bars, and wheels at the GM Proving Ground in Milford, MI to get their Nova police car to handle better than the Plymouth Satellite, Dodge Coronet, and AMC Matador that they knew it had to beat in order to get the LA Sheriffs Dept to order them. I posted a GM document earlier in this post where Jim suggested that Z28 eye bushings be used on the rear springs to control axle hop under hard acceleration (which indicates that this lowly 4-door was capable of doing burnouts...it is a muscle car). That original GM document shows that this car was borrowing from the Z28 parts bin. Another example is that Harry said it has a Z28 steering box. It also has a Z28 dual snorkel air cleaner, Z28 4-spoke steering wheel, and F41 special performance suspension...Harry said it was essentially a 4-door Z28. Another interesting thing about it is that it has 6-leaf rear springs...one more than a Yenko Nova or 2nd Gen Z28. If you would like to see the car, I plan on driving it up to Detroit this summer for the "Orphans Show" in Ypsilanti (I see you're right next door in Ann Arbor). Harry Hammond gave me many interesting GM documents relating to the development of the Nova police car, but obviously did not save everything. He is now in his early 80s and doesn't have the time, documents, or memory to recreate every facet and nuance of this car, which is an exact duplicate of the white '74 prototype Nova police car. Harry also provided a lot of documents and commentary to Ed Sanow when he was writing his excellent book, "Chevrolet Police Cars" (Harry gave me his copy of the book which contains a heartfelt thank you from Ed to Harry for all his invaluable help during the writing of the book...Harry was chief engineer for Chevrolet's various police car programs from 1974-2001 and was Ed's biggest source of information and photos for the book). If Harry says my car is "essentially a 4-door Z28", then I believe it is essentially a 4-door Z28.

I realize this is a 4-door, but it is an incredibly interesting and historical 4-door that gets virtually no interest from Chevy muscle car experts because it is a 4-door. I can post more stuff on here, but it doesn't seem like there is very much interest in it. I do know that Phil Borris and Drew Hardin (from Muscle Car Review magazine) were amazed at its untouched status, documents, and history. I realize it is not a Yenko Nova or Camaro, but it's just as cool, and just as interesting (to some). I posted photos on here of its left cylinder head which is a Z28 head, and that it has an 8-inch harmonic balancer...Phil Borris, a celebrated Chevy muscle car expert and author, saw the car and said he thinks it probably has Z28 internal components (which I will photo document when I get the engine out within the next 2-3 weeks). It has incredible suspension for a lowly 4-door and was capable of .86 Gs on a skidpad, and 1.2 Gs in braking (Harry said it had Z28 front brakes and the drum brakes from a Chevelle station wagon on the back). When I posted photos of its F41 rear suspension and the fact that it has SIX LEAF REAR SPRINGS, that generated almost no comments on here (does any other factory Nova or Camaro have such springs, even a COPO 427 Camaro or Nova???). Aside from the fact that this car is a 4-door, its other problem is that there's nothing to compare it to...there are no other 1974 Nova police cars known to exist (and if there were, they would also be lowly 4-doors that would also not generate much interest).

I posted a copy of its build sheet on SNS if you want to look at its codes...no one else has actually looked at it up to now other than the guys at the SCW building at the GM Nats who were shocked to see a 4-door was ordered with F41 suspension and E70-14 lettered tires...see portion of build sheet at the top of this post. I will post the build sheet on here for all to enjoy (and probably ignore).

You had previously mentioned that it was no big deal that it had 14x7 inch steel wheels, but I posted a GM document that showed that when the project was first being put together the engineers involved (including Dave McClellan, the engineer who was put in charge of the Corvette program in 1975...just a year later than this project) weren't yet thinking about anything other than 14x6 wheels from a Chevelle station wagon to improve its handling at the skid pad (Harry said those wheels were less prone to flexing under hard cornering than standard 14x6 wheels). The 17 '74 Nova police cars are still the ONLY 3rd Gen Novas I know of that came with plain 14x7 steel wheels (non-SS wheels)...they are coded "EM" on its build sheet. After providing you with that GM document I received no comment back from you until now, and your current comment seems to suggest yet again that this car is nothing special and that I somehow should prove its Z28 componentry (if I am misreading your intent, then please correct me...I can apologize when needed). It doesn't matter if "thousands of '70s GM cars had 14x7 inch wheels from the factory" (your words), what does matter is that AT THE TIME THIS CAR WAS BUILT, there were no other Novas being built with 14x7 plain steel wheels. It was the research on this Nova that led GM engineers to put them on other cars in later model years.

I can measure every component and write about it on here, but all I will get are more questions about its authenticity, or more disinterest because it is a 4-door and not a Yenko, so what's the point? It is an exact duplicate of a factory prototype (and I thought Chevrolet prototypes were actually something to be revered, especially on this website), and the only one known to exist (and a COPO, which I now know doesn't mean very much because it is a "4-door COPO"). I was told by a guy at the SCW tent at the Carlisle GM Nats this past June that it was possibly the best documented and historical Chevy police car in existence. My car is not only an untouched original "survivor", but has also been verified by the engineer who built it, and is backed up with a build sheet and many GM documents...I don't know what else I need to do (or can do) to prove its provenance. I haven't seen any other cars on here (or anywhere else) than have this car's level of factory documentation and historical significance (the Nova police car is considered to be Chevy's most-significant police car ever built, and one of the 10 greatest police cars of all time...and this is the 2nd one ever built...the LA Zone Office's police car demonstrator).

BTW Wilma, I have read many of your posts and enjoy your involvement with Novas. And Kurt, I greatly appreciate your obsessive research into Camaros...I would welcome any such investigation into my Nova. But please remember...it's just a 4-door!

PS...if you look in the upper left hand corner you will see that the scheduled build date for this car at the Van Nuys. Calif plant was 5-21. Harry said the order form for this car, the gold demonstrator was filled out on Friday May 3rd, 1974 while he and Jim were having dinner at GM exec Rick Mahoney's house in Northridge, CA. The order was sent to GM on Monday May 6, so if this car was actually built on May 21st, then that was only 15 days after the order was placed. Are you aware, Kurt, of any other GM car that has a faster documented build time than this car? That is yet anther example of its importance to the execs at GM.