August 2021 Round 2 Product Spotlight

[keyser]

Up against sweet Mustang II and Volare. 
itd have sold a few

[Mark]

The '75 Nova was a clever facelift on the '68-'74 generation...looked all new, and consolidated chassis design with the Camaro/Firebird.  That's back when GM worked smart more often than not.

Then they got stupid, and replaced it with the designed-on-the-cheap X-cars...

[GMP440]

9 hours ago, tim boyd said:

Thanks Alexis.   Interesting story about that article.  First tried to get it published in the 1/1 scale mags, particularly Hemmings Muscle Machines, but zero interest from them.  The Scale Auto article was the same one, slightly revised for the model car hobby.  

But I never heard much feedback at all on the article....so I really appreciate hearing your thoughts!   Best....TIM 

Could you post the article here?

[Rodent]

5 hours ago, Mark said:

The '75 Nova was a clever facelift on the '68-'74 generation...looked all new, and consolidated chassis design with the Camaro/Firebird.

Yeah, that was kinda my point above. It was more than just moving the steering box. The front track was slightly wider and the handling and braking was vastly improved as they tried to build "4-door Z/28s" for the police car market. It was time to leave the '67 Camaro/'68 Nova front suspension setup behind. It's too bad that they didn't have any horsepower, although the 305 and 350 4-barrels held their own for the time.

[tim boyd]

8 hours ago, GMP440 said:

Could you post the article here?

Copyright laws would take a dim view of posting the article on a competitor mag's website.....I suspect the back issue is still available at Kalmbach's website....let me know if you want to grab one and I'll find the issue info for you....TIM 

[ZTony8]

On 9/22/2021 at 11:52 PM, Rodent said:

Yeah, that was kinda my point above. It was more than just moving the steering box. The front track was slightly wider and the handling and braking was vastly improved as they tried to build "4-door Z/28s" for the police car market. It was time to leave the '67 Camaro/'68 Nova front suspension setup behind. It's too bad that they didn't have any horsepower, although the 305 and 350 4-barrels held their own for the time.

Back in the 80s I had a '75 Olds Omega with a 260 V-8 and 3 on the tree with Rally suspension. I used to autocross it. I had fitted it with 245/60-14 Goodyear Wingfoot tires on 14 X 7  Buick polycast wheels. The car had some miles on it so the rear springs were sagged out a bit and the rear of the car sat a bit lower( common on that  version of the X body) and changed the weight distribution a bit.  I used to run with as much gas in the tank as I could have because that helped  even more. I had set a goal to beat a guy who, at the time, worked for General Tire and was assigned a new '82.. Z-28 on some new type General tires. It took me all season but I did finally did beat him at an autocross with my little wimpy Olds.

[the other Mike S.]

On 9/22/2021 at 3:24 PM, Mark said:

The '75 Nova was a clever facelift on the '68-'74 generation...looked all new, and consolidated chassis design with the Camaro/Firebird.  That's back when GM worked smart more often than not.

Then they got stupid, and replaced it with the designed-on-the-cheap X-cars...

GM did an even more clever facelift/modification of that platform for the first gen Seville.  They had to slightly lengthen the chassis, add more body mounts and chassis braces to attain a more luxury feel for Cadillac buyers.  However, it was basically an X-body underneath.  They even shared the same roof stampings (front half) until Fisher body figured out a way to add the Seville specific C-pillar/backlight without welding.

I really like the ‘75-‘79 Nova and I hope Round 2 reissues it again since the last “retro” release was very short-lived.