For Sale: 1969 Chevrolet Nova in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania

THE CAR

This is a 1969 Chevrolet Nova built as a Yenko/SC tribute. It is not a real Yenko. We want that clear before anything else, because Yenko is the most counterfeited badge in the American muscle car hobby and nobody should have to ask.

VIN 114279W325083 decodes to a Nova V8 two-door coupe built at Willow Run, Michigan. The cowl tag reads 69 11427 WRN143248, trim 745, paint 57. Paint code 57 is Fathom Green, which is what the car wears today. Trim 745 is Midnight Green vinyl with a bench seat.

Two things follow from that. The car left the factory as a genuine V8 Nova, not a six-cylinder car built up later, which matters more than people expect on a tribute. And the green on the outside is the color this car was born in, not a respray chosen to imitate something else.

The car is not represented as a Super Sport. For 1968 through 1971, the Nova SS was RPO Z26, an option package that appears nowhere in the VIN or on the cowl tag. Proving one requires a build sheet or a Protect-O-Plate, and we have neither. The car wears SS grille emblems as part of the build, and that's exactly how we're describing them.

WHAT IT HAS

A 350 small block with an aluminum high-rise intake and a Holley four-barrel, backed by a Muncie M21 four-speed with a Hurst floor shifter. Out back is a 12-bolt with 3.73 Positraction gears. Dual exhaust, traction bars, power steering, power front disc and rear drum brakes, and a new fuel tank.

The tribute equipment is thorough and well done. Twin-scoop hood, SYC hood stripe, Yenko/SC bodyside striping, Yenko Nova fender badges, 350 fender emblems, a front spoiler, Yenko valve covers, a Yenko Canonsburg plate on the radiator cover, SYC headrest covers, Yenko door panel badges, and a Canonsburg, Pennsylvania front plate. It's dressed the way somebody who cared about the details would dress it.

Inside are green vinyl bucket seats, a wood-rim steering wheel, and a full under-dash gauge package: tachometer, vacuum, water temperature, oil pressure, and amp meter. The air conditioning is aftermarket and blows cold, which on a car like this is the difference between a nice-day toy and something you actually drive.

It sits on five-spoke aluminum wheels with BFGoodrich Silvertown redline radials.

The odometer reads 64,528 and the title shows the mileage as actual.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

The seats are not original to the car. The cowl tag calls for a bench, and it has buckets. Whoever built this swapped them in, which is consistent with the rest of the build but it's a change from how the car left Willow Run.

The car was almost certainly an automatic originally. The speedometer housing carries the factory PRNDL gear indicator, which is a good tell. It's now a four-speed, so a transmission conversion has been done at some point.

We are not quoting a horsepower figure. The air cleaner wears a 350 Turbo-Fire decal with a rating on it, but that rating isn't a 1969 Nova number and it doesn't describe this engine anyway, which has an aluminum intake and a Holley on it. Nobody knows what it makes without a dyno and we're not going to guess.

Also disclosed: aftermarket air conditioning, aftermarket radio, aftermarket gauge package, aftermarket wheels and tires, aluminum intake and Holley carburetor, four-speed conversion, bench-to-bucket seat swap, new gas tank, and traction bars. There is no spare tire and no jack with the car.

We have no build sheet, no Protect-O-Plate, and no documentation on when or by whom the tribute work was done.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

The real 1969 Yenko Novas were 427 cars. Don Yenko's dealership in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania took Novas and fitted them with the L72 427, and the results were genuinely frightening in a car that size.

Roughly 37 Novas appear on Yenko's list for 1969, and even the people who research these for a living disagree on how many actually got converted - figures between 25 and 30 come up, and Yenko himself said around 35 in a 1987 interview. Fewer than ten are confirmed to survive.

That's the honest case for a car like this one. The real ones are effectively unobtainable and priced accordingly. A well-executed tribute on a genuine V8 Nova in its original color, with a strong small block, a four-speed, a 12-bolt, and cold air, gets you the look, the sound, and the attention at every show you take it to. You just don't get to tell people it's real, and neither will we.

HOW TO BUY IT

The car is at our shop in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania. We're happy to shoot a walk-around video and send additional photos, including underbody shots. Third-party inspections are welcome. We charge no documentation fees. We can help coordinate out-of-state transport, but the carrier choice is yours.