This 1970 Chevrolet Nova coupe was built as a 540ci-stroker-V8-powered drag car at Hell Bent Race Cars & Customs of Islandia, New York, prior to being acquired by the seller’s father in 2015. Subsequent work involved rebuilding the Pro Systems Dominator carburetor and installing an FTI Performance Level 4 Powerglide two-speed automatic transmission, a Cheetah SCS shifter, long-tube headers, a quick-release Grant steering wheel, and wheelie bars. Additional equipment includes Wilwood disc brakes, staggered-width Bogart wheels, tubbed rear-wheel housings, independent front control arms, a four-link rear suspension, and adjustable coilovers as well as fiberglass body panels, an aluminum rear spoiler, and polycarbonate windows. The interior houses a chromoly roll cage and Kirkey seats with five-point safety harnesses. This Nova drag car was inherited by the seller in 2023 and is now offered at no reserve in New Jersey with service records from current ownership and a clean Florida title.
The car is finished in black and features fiberglass body panels mounted over a 2″×3″ boxed steel frame. The windows are polycarbonate, and a strutless aluminum spoiler is fitted at the rear. The cowl-induction hood is topped by a forward-facing air scoop, and additional exterior details include quick-release fender and hood pins, Dzus trunk-lid fasteners, SS badging, black bumpers, headlamps, and taillamps. A Simpson parachute pack will accompany the vehicle.
Bogart Custom Wheels 10-hole alloy wheels are mounted with 26×7.5–15″ Mickey Thompson Sportsman front tires and 31×14.5–15″ Mickey Thompson ET Street rear tires. Suspension consists of independent front control arms, a Strange spooled rear axle with a four-link setup, and adjustable coilovers all around. Braking is provided by Wilwood four-wheel discs with an adjustable proportioning valve. Chassis Engineering unsprung wheelie bars are mounted at the rear.
The race-prepped cabin houses a chromoly roll cage and Kirkey Racing Fabrication seats with black fabric covers. The interior is further equipped with a Cheetah SCS gated shifter, an NOS progressive controller, a Painless Wiring overhead accessory-switch panel, Impact Racing five-point latch-and-link safety harnesses, a window net, and a fire extinguisher. Black carpeting covers the floorboards.
A quick-release Grant steering wheel with a center stripe fronts a fabricated cloth-covered dashboard housing AutoMeter Pro-Comp Ultra-Lite gauges that register coolant temperature, oil pressure, vacuum pressure, voltage, and nitrous pressure. An AutoMeter Sport-Comp Silver tachometer with an LED Shift-Lite is mounted on the roll-cage tube adjacent to the A-pillar, and a pair of fuel-pressure gauges sits inside the cowl-induction opening. The car lacks an odometer, and true chassis mileage is unknown.
The trunk houses an RJS fuel cell, an Optima red-top battery, and an NOS bottle secured by a pair of Aerospace Components billet brackets.
The 540ci stroker V8 is based on a Chevrolet Gen VI big-block that utilizes Dart 320 aluminum cylinder heads, a Dart high-rise intake manifold, a Pro Systems custom Dominator four-barrel carburetor, 13.8:1-compression JE Pistons, aluminum connecting rods, a solid roller camshaft, and a Milodon oil pan.
Additional components include:
- Aeromotive inline electric fuel pump
- Griffin aluminum radiator and electric fan assembly
- CSR electric water pump
- Moroso four-vane vacuum pump
- Powermaster Mastertorque starter
- Powermaster alternator
- MSD billet distributor
- MSD 7AL-2 ignition control box
- MSD Pro Power coil
- ATI Super Damper harmonic damper
- Moroso aluminum valve covers
- Ceramic-coated and titanium-heat-wrapped long-tube headers
- Ceramic-coated MagnaFlow 5″ dual exhaust system
An NOS fogger system has been installed—although the seller states that it has not been used—and a Big Shot injector plate is included in the sale.
Dynamometer results from March 2017 indicate that the engine produced 729 horsepower at 6,381 rpm and 781 lb-ft of torque at 4,329 rpm. The seller reports that the car has made six quarter-mile passes since the engine was installed.
Power is routed to the rear wheels through an FTI Performance Level 4 Powerglide two-speed automatic transmission with straight-cut 1.80 planetary gears, a 300M input shaft, a billet valve body, a deep aluminum pan, and an FTI SST-series 9″ billet torque converter. The fabricated 9″ rear end from Competition Engineering is equipped with a Strange Engineering aluminum center section housing a 4.11:1 gearset and a Strange spool that connects gun-drilled Strange axles fitted with 5/8″ studs.
