At first glance, does this look like a car that runs 8-second e.t.’s?

When it comes to building a lightweight cruiser, it’s tough to beat the ’66 and ’67 Chevrolet Nova. The car is compact, and if you stuff enough engine under the hood, you have a race-winning combination. Andy McElwee of Saskatoon, Canada, tells us, “I found the car in the Saskatoon paper in 2007. It was mostly stock and in rough shape.”

The interior looks like it belongs in a well-build restomod, not a race car.

The condition of the body required that a complete rebuild was in order, but Andy was not interested in a restoration. “The body was in bad shape, and everything that was still metal was rusty.” He took the car back to his place, and even in rough condition, it was still drivable.  Andy says, “I was racing a G-body at the time I found the Nova, and didn’t have much time for the Nova.” But that was about to change, when the fall of October 2008 came around, and the car went under the knife.

Andy didn’t actually realize how much rust was plaguing the car, until he actually started to cut it apart. Apparently, the only remaining metal from the original car is the trunk lid, rocker panels, and inner structure. Everything else is new. Andy was definitely dedicated to finishing the car. Would you rebuild a car that needed a new roof, doors, quarter-panels, fenders, cowl, grille, cowl sides, floor, trunk floor, hood, tail panel, deck lid filler, radiator support, you get the picture. Andy tells us, “My brother Brent, friend Mark, and myself, did all the metal work at my home.

Mark is the guy responsible for the chassis mods, and 80-percent of the welding that needed done on the car, including the 8.50 NHRA-legal rollcage. He is the reason it goes so straight, while I drive with one hand on the wheel at 160 m.p.h.” After the metal work was completed the car was then sent to Chris Fisher at Vintage Metal in Broderick Saskatchewan, for the remaining bodywork and primer. After Chris was sure that the body was ready for paint, Andy got the car back and continued the build.

Andy wanted something with a lot of cubic inches, and more power than one car actually needs, so he built a 565 cubic-inch behemoth that runs on everyday pump gas. He began by securing a Dart Big-M block with billet main caps, and then added a Callies Magnum-series crankshaft. Swinging from the crankshaft are a set of billet Oliver connecting rods with Mahle pistons hanging on for dear life.

It’s a tight fit, but the big-block looks like it belongs between the fenders.

Underneath the AFR 377 cylinder heads, the compression squeezes to 10.4:1. Spinning in the center of the block is a Comp Cams roller with .748/.714-inch lift and Morel lifters. The AFR heads support the Jesel shaft rockers, and an XTS belt drive connects the camshaft to the crankshaft. Up top is an Edelbrock intake with a custom spacer that was seriously-ported by Reher Morrison Racing Engines. Finally, a Holley Pro Series 1200 cfm Dominator works with two nitrous oxide kits to feed the monster. Mark and Andy teamed-up to build the headers with 2 ¼-inch primaries that end in a set of into 4-inch collectors. We’re told the engine made 816 horsepower at 7,200 rpm. After spraying a little laughing gas into the intake, horsepower went to 1,090.

Behind the massive powerplant is a Powerglide transmission built by TCI, with what Andy calls a super-tight TCI Pro-X converter. A carbon fiber driveshaft leads to a 12-bolt Moser rearend with 3.55 gears and a Wavetrac differential.

The front suspension is a bolt on kit from Total Cost Involved, with a manual-steer rack-and-pinion, tubular control arms, and double adjustable shocks from Afco. The custom fabrication work continued, as Andy says, “Mark built a heavy set of sub-frame connectors from 2×2 thick-wall tubing to control body twist.” The rear suspension uses a set of Calvert Racing split mono-leaf springs, Caltrac bars, and Afco double adjustable shocks.

Andy tells us, “After the assembly was complete, the car was taken apart and sent back to Chris at Vintage Metal for the paint.” Once Andy got the car back from the paint shop, he began the task of final assembly. He built a 4-inch exhaust system, that routes over the rearend.

The car runs on the track, and is driven on the street, through the exhaust and on the 275/60/15 drag radials, mounted on Billet Specialties Street lite wheels. The car weighs 3,620 pounds, has run a ¼-mile time of 8.86 seconds, and traveled that ¼-mile at 159 m.p.h.

Do you own a Home-Built Hero? We want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the Home-Built Heros series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still need more. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].