I've always had a soft spot for 1968-1974, two-door Chevrolet Nova's with a "350" badge on the front fenders denoting a 350-cubic inch Chevrolet V-8 under the hood and the hatchback option. These cars even looked pretty good with the battering-ram, five-mile-per-hour, government-mandated safety bumpers. Ah, such the stuff of "first-car-dreams" that went unfulfilled.
Alas, on this $2,500 Facebook Marketplace find, the 350, which was available in three-states of tune up to a 185-horsepower barnburner, and it's partner-in-crime, it's "Turbo 350" transmission, are long gone. Judging by the rust on the frame and suspension here, looks like gone a very long time. Most of these 350 Nova's came with 145-horsepower, "350-two-barrel's", a 160-horse, four-barrel available for '74 as well. Please hold your laughter regarding the asking price for our subject until the presentation is completed. Thank you.
Somewhat curiously, General Motors came out with a hatchback option on these cars in 1973 which was only two-model years before a fairly substantial reboot of the line for 1975. Any Nova, or any of their "clones", are tough finds these days. Hatch's rarer still.
America's ambivalence towards hatches has always vexed me since they were oh-so-practical and, in my opinion, added a sportiness to the rear styling. Fold down the rear seat and you've 27.6-cubic feet of storage space too. More than enough room for a 19-century wicker picnic basket and lacrosse equipment. Yes lacrosse. What was not to love about a hatchback? Granny-mobile Nova four-door's? Never. Nova hatchback? Yes. Yes, please.
The practice of platform-sharing was all but as old as GM by the time the 1970's rolled around but doing little more than festooning different names to the same cars got a jump start in 1971 when Pontiac started selling a Nova they dubbed, "Ventura". The Buick Apollo and Oldsmobile Omega came in 1973 - put 'em all together and their first letters spell-out, "N-O-V-A".
"Nova" is derived from the Latin term, "novus", which means "new". Speaking of new, just in time for the 1973 OPEC embargo, all the Nova's all got new 21-gallon, rear-suspension compressing gas tanks. That "350" may have been cool but it was thirsty and the monster sized tank helped extend range a good 40-60 miles. Your mileage may vary, see dealer for details.
Sales brochures for these cars lauded their manageable size as much as anything even though they were, at least by today's standards, hardly small. Classified as compacts, big-bumpered Nova's were some 196-inches long and 72-inches wide, all but the same as a 2023 Honda Accord that no one would consider a "compact car". The real upside was they were perhaps the best handling cars made in the U.S. at the time.
General Motors replaced these neat little-big-cars for model-year 1980 with their infamous Chevrolet Citation's; Pontiac and their Phoenix, Oldsmobile their Omega, Buick their Skylark. Together their first letters spell, C-P-O-S; that mean Chevrolet Pieces of Shit? All of the CPOS', save for the Buick, came with hatchbacks.
