Hello. This story is from Kelly, The creator of Nova Lovers.

Ever since I was  a young girl I've wanted a 1973 Chevy Nova.  Why? Because one of my favorite local drag racers, Shannon Corby, has a 1973 Nova.  When I turned 16, I still wanted a 1973 Nova.  My father and I searched and finally found a "parts car" Nova for only $200.  It only had a 6-cylinder in it, and it didn't run very well, so we just left it in the backyard while we searched for a new car.  We found a 1969 Nova sedan that ran rather well.  It had a 307 cu. in. in it, and it was only $600.  We bought that mainly for the engine and to give me something to drive while we were getting the 1973 put together.

  My dad's friend, who owns his own shop, was helping us put my car together.  He found another 1973 Nova with a  half-rebuilt 350 cu. in. engine.  This car was the main frame and body for the finished product.   It was painted red, but the paint wasn't that great.  The car had been sitting in this guy's backyard for 4 years, and for sitting there that long there was actually not much body rust at all.   We got this car for $400.

  After we had all three cars, we started the rebuilding process.  We took the 307 out of the '69 and put it in the '73.  We put in a 350 turbo transmission.  We did all the interior work we needed to do.  We bought Suburu seats from the one Nova racer at the race track.  He also had Suburu seat in his race car, and they looked pretty nice.  Eventually, we asked around and got Nova SS bucket seats and SS backseat to match.  The interior of the car was pretty decent looking after that.  We took out the column shifter and put in a B & M floor shifter.  We had to get the car aligned, and then I could finally race it.

  I raced it several times in the trophy class, but that 307 wasn't very fast.  The fastest the car ever ran was only 17.45 in a quarter mile.  It may not have been the fastest car and may not have been the loudest car, but it was " so " much fun.

 Off and on my dad and I worked on that car getting it to be how I wanted it.  Finally, late in May of 1999, the mechanical work on the Nova was finished, and we had gotten rid of the other 2 Novas.  I only had one to drive  for about 1 week.  On June 1st, 10 days before my high school graduation, my friend and I were driving home, and I smelled gas.  Just as I smelled the gas, I went to pull over, and black smoke rolled in through the floor heating vent.  I panicked and got out and opened the hood, which made it worse.  As soon as I saw the flames, I new that all that work and money was down the drain.  I didn't have a fire extinguisher in the car, and that taught me a lesson.  If I would've had one, I could've saved the car.  Instead, the car burnt pretty bad. 

 

 The cause: a broken fuel line.  A brand new carb and intake manifold, and even an HEI distributor were totally destroyed.  The car was fixable, but I only had a part time job, and I didn't have fire insurance on the car.  I had about $4000 into the car, and it would've taken another $4000 to get it back to where it was, and it wasn't totally finished.  I still miss that car, but I hope to get another one eventually.  It was an unfortunate end to a great car.

           -Kelly