Junkyard Find: 1977 Chevrolet Nova Coupe

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Junkyard Find: 1977 Chevrolet Nova Coupe

12 - 1977 Chevrolet Nova Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin The fourth-generation Chevrolet Nova sold in huge numbers, wasn't a bad car by the standards of its time, and stayed on the street in significant quantities well into the 1990s. However, the Malaise Era Nova just never gathered much of an enthusiast following compared to its predecessors— if you want to restore a Nova these days, you'll get a '64 or '70, not a '78— so the few remaining survivors go right to the scrapper when they die. Here's a very worn-out example that I saw in California last week.

I'm quite familiar with this generation of Nova, having owned a $50 beater as an extra car in the early 1990s.
07 - 1977 Chevrolet Nova Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

07 - 1977 Chevrolet Nova Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

Mine had the 250-cubic-inch L6, just like this one. It was slow and plasticky and the ride was nowhere near luxurious, but it worked every time I wanted it to.
19 - 1977 Chevrolet Nova Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

19 - 1977 Chevrolet Nova Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

This one had factory air conditioning. Turning on the AC on the highway probably felt similar to hitting the parking brake.
03 - 1977 Chevrolet Nova Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin