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For most people, when you mention cars that are drive in Sweden, makes like Volvo, Saab, even Scania come to mind. Per Thurén who lives in Piteå, Sweden, thinks of Chevrolet, too. He owns a couple of nice cars, one of which is a 1965 Chevrolet Malibu that he drag races, and another is his current project: a 1965 Chevrolet Nova that we found on Pro-Touring.com.
Per bought this car as a rolling chassis and he had lots of unique plans for it. He says the prior owner raced the car in a “historic class”, so it spent some time in the ‘90’s as a track car.
Fortunately, that meant that a lot of the chassis work was already done and all Per had to do is install a drivetrain, suspension and an interior. The original 6 cylinder engine and manual transmission were already removed when he bought the car, they wouldn’t have lasted long anyway with the plans he has for this car.
Per cut apart an old set of headers he had so he could weld up a custom set to the original exhaust manifold flanges. The headers will eventually be wrapped with header wrap to keep the heat contained in the header and not under the hood.
He decided to run a modern LS1 engine and T56 6-speed Borg-Warner transmission that came from a wrecked Camaro, utilizing a hydraulic clutch from a C5 Corvette. Dressing up the engine is a pair of Z06 Corvette engine covers, always a nice addition when you open the hood.
Per says he’s removed and installed the engine more times than he can count, because he’s been doing the measuring for his own engine and transmission mounts that he’s welding up.
The wheels he started out with were 5-spoke alloy, originally from a 5-Series BMW. He has since replaced them with mesh-type wheels that he painted and polished, running a 17” x 8.5” up front and a 17” x 10” in the rear. But this isn’t where the interesting choices end, there’s plenty more, as you can see in the pictures.
Per is doing his own bodywork, too, welding up holes here and there, cleaning up the firewall and rear body, and he’s making a rear floor to fit between the tubbed wheel wells and to mount his fuel cell.
The front suspension is from a C4 Corvette, which will give him the handling characteristics and performance that he’s going to need. The rear shocks are coil-over, and they help the Jaguar XJ12 rear end get the power to the pavement out back.
The electrical work, he says, is a slow process but is also coming along well. He’s making his own fuse box for engine electrics, front end lighting and electrical circuits – including a heater/fan which he says is a must for those cold Swedish winters.
As we can see here, it also takes an incredible amount of ingenuity and pure craftsmanship, the kind that Per clearly possesses. He says, “It’s all about the hours you spend in the garage”, and we can tell that he’s definitely been putting in the hours. Keep an eye out for this amazing build, even if it is across the pond… and over the hills… and through the woods.
Projects like this take countless hours and more patience than you can muster – installing parts, removing them, measuring again, and re-installing those parts just so you can take them out again to take more measurements.
