Image: eBay

When Chevrolet introduced the LS6 454 late in 1969 to replace the L78 396, Bow Tie fans couldn’t conceal their jubilation – after years of politically correct edicts from the top floor, GM now had the highest advertised horsepower vehicle in the market. Well over 4,000 were built in 1970.

Interestingly, the LS6 was no longer available in the Chevelle for 1971 despite being listed in literature. However, 188 Corvettes were built with the new low-compression LS6. And the Nova?

Chevrolet shows no records of the Nova ever receiving anything larger than a 396, but this eBay ad shows this person’s claim that this is an honest-to-goodness documented COPO LS6 Nova.

Auction states, “This car was special ordered and has been in my family since new. Due to the requested build, the car had to be cleared by the Central Office at General Motors. The car was built with many unique options; please reference the hand written buyers order, dealer invoice, Protect-o-Plate, and the letter from Central Office at General Motors.”

Doing a little research shows that the CPS code that the seller claims is on his numbers-matching block is for a 1971 LS6 Nova automatic, although no real cars are documented to have been built. The car in the auction is a four-speed which means it would have a CPT code if it actually had been built.

Visiting the Yenko.net gives a different tune. As a discriminating group of collectors, they don’t feel the car is legitimate at all. For one thing, an LS6 with air conditioning sounds far-fetched considering production Chevelles and Corvettes from 1970-71 couldn’t have A/C. To boot, not even a 396 was available for the Nova in 1971, so how would a 427 Nova be certified for emissions for that matter?

Then, someone made the observation that the documentation is fake because the VIN of the vehicle wouldn’t have been assigned at the date of the letter, not to mention the strange presence of capital letters for every single word. Lastly, someone commented, “The stamping depth appears way too deep and crisp for some of them while others appear acceptable.”

The verdict? Possibly dealer-installed, but hard to believe it’s factory.

But that’s not all, folks!

In the same week, another funny Nova surfaced on eBay. This time, it has the aluminum ZL1 427 motor.

Seller claims, “Looking at the vin number which starts with 1142794, leads us to believe this could be one of the 3 mystery Nova cars reportedly built with a ZL1 All Aluminum 427 engine…we don’t have any paperwork so we can’t be positive this really is one of those “Mystery” Nova ZL1 cars.”

Nova experts don’t acknowledge that there were three Novas built with the ZL1. Additionally, the (in)famous Yenko 427 Novas were not COPOs but dealer-installed cars, so if Yenko wasn’t able to swing the COPO for a 427 Nova, wouldn’t it be strange that someone else was?

It bears repeating that if you’re buying a collector car, bulletproof documentation is paramount.