'69Novajoe (Joe Camuglia's) Original Owner SS Nova

[Xplantdad]

I guess I first started noticing Chevy II’s when I was in high school. I really liked the ‘66-’67 body style. I can still remember a cool ‘67 post Chevy II that I saw back in ‘67 while cruising Hawthorne Blvd. in Inglewood, CA. I knew that I would be a Chevy II owner someday. Uncle Sam intervened in October of ‘67 and I was drafted into the Army, so I would have to wait a couple years.

When I got out in May of ‘69, the Chevy II name was dropped and it was just called a Nova. I still liked the ‘67 Chevy II’s but really wanted to order a new car the way I wanted it. My boss at the time knew a salesman at Harry Mann Chevrolet up in Los Angeles. So I ended up ordering a brand new 1969 Nova SS. He made me a screaming deal, like $3101.15 out the door!! I originally ordered it in a dark brown color with a black vinyl top. Then I saw a Cortez silver one in a showroom a couple weeks later and had to change my mind. I didn’t check too many boxes on the option list, but had to have the small block (kinda sorry I didn’t go for the big block), 4-speed and custom exterior. I even tried to order it with 4:88 gears but the lowest I could get were 3:55’s with Positraction. When the car arrived, a couple months later, it didn’t look quite right. Instead of a custom exterior it had a custom interior. The dealer added all the exterior trim and mouldings with a painted pinstripe on the side.

I can still remember driving this car for the first time. It was the first car I had ever driven with front disc brakes and I about went through the windshield when I made my first stop. I immediately swapped out the stock rims and dog-dish hubcaps for American Torque-Thrusts. I was totally stoked with it for about 3-4 months. It was then that I decided a horsepower upgrade was needed. You see, I was interested in drag racing from my high school days. I even raced my dad’s VW, my ‘52 Chevy and ‘63 Chevy Impala at the drags. My “home” track was Lion’s Drag Strip in Long Beach, CA. I wasn’t real serious about racing, but it was a lot of fun. I just knew that I wanted to go fast.

So my good friend Jim Delight and I did a complete make-over of the “brand new” engine in one weekend (!) at his dad’s garage (Delight’s Garage) in Gardena, CA. Without taking the block out of the car we changed the cam to an Isky 310* hydraulic grind, the heads to ‘67 Corvette fuelie 2.02 double hump heads, the intake manifold to an aluminum Z-28 high-rise (that I bought at a dealers parts department), a new Holley 780cfm 3310 carburetor and Hooker headers, which I had aluminized. And I had to have low gears for the track so I finally got my 4:88’s!! I also changed out the shifter to a Hurst Competition Plus and the clutch to a Schiefer Rev-Loc. The result was pretty dramatic. The proof was the first time we went to the drags with it. After messing around with tire pressure on the 8” M&H slicks, it went 12.91 @ 109 mph. I would race the car every couple months at Lion’s, but only on Sundays, as that was the day for class racing and ET brackets. I always won my class, which was F2 F/S. It was an AHRA track at the time and I ran up against everything from a Falcon Ranchero, to big Mopars, to big block Chevelles. But when it came time for ET brackets, forget about it. I wasn’t really that consistent with the 4-speed and would usually red-light or break-out. The fastest the car ever went was on the last Wednesday night that Lion’s was open back in 1972. They were allowing co-drivers back then if they had a seat belt. So with my wife riding “shot-gun”, we clicked off a 12.51 @ 110. Must have been the night air because it was usually a high 12-second car.

After about a year or so I got the itch to go faster. Doesn’t everybody?? I installed a bigger Isky solid lifter grind, and swapped out the intake to the, then brand new, Edelbrock Tarantula single-plane manifold. It felt faster on the street but I couldn’t put all the added horsepower to the track and never could better my times. I raced the car a couple times at Orange County Raceway before that track closed down too.

I never considered selling the car because I still liked it a lot. It has always been garaged, which I think has preserved the original paint all these years. It was my daily driver for about 3-4 years and then became pampered when I would be able to car-pool to work or had a company vehicle to drive.

I went though a couple different configurations on the engine. I detuned it with a Chevy 350/350 hydraulic cam but kept everything else the same. I did a crinkle black treatment of the entire engine, at one time, and tried the polished intake/chromed valve covers and air cleaner deal later. Around this time my son Jeff was born. It was April of 1980. I even brought him home from the hospital in the Nova. The car was then kinda neglected and sat around most of the time just waiting for the next “big thing”!

The next “big thing” didn’t happen until 1997. I then decided to return the engine to visually stock or close to that. I got another “big” Isky hydraulic cam, Rhodes lifters, Comp Cams Magnum roller rockers (to fit under the stock valve covers), an Edelbrock Performer RPM for the Quadrajet, and a built QJ from Sean Murphy Induction. I even reinstalled the original smog pump and added smog tubes to the Hooker headers (the same one’s from 1969!!) for that stock look. I then painted everything back to Chevy orange and that’s the way it is to this day. I also removed the American mags and went back to the dog-dish hubcaps which I had stored all these years wrapped up in newspaper. I had some custom 15x7 rear wheels made by Stockton Wheel so I could fit 275-60-15 BFG T/A’s on the rear. My son, who was 17 now, helped me a lot. One of those “bonding” projects for sure!!

I really wanted to run the car at Pomona Raceway, before they discontinued the Street Legal program, just to say I raced Pomona. We went there on September 10, 2000, the last day for Street Legal stuff! I couldn’t get the Quadrajet to run properly and ended up running a 13.69 @ 104 mph on some old BFG Drag radials. Kinda disappointing I thought.

So I had Sean build me a Holley 750 double-pumper this time. That did the trick and we were back at the track in August of 2003. The track this time was California Speedway in Fontana, CA. It was in the heat of the summer so the air wasn’t like back in the day at Lion’s!! With some old slicks, a little tuning and some hairy starting line RPM’s (6500 at one time), I finally made it back into the 12’s with a 12.93 @ 105.69 mph. I guess the “old girl” still has something left!

I still have fun driving the car on the street and try to cruise it whenever I can. I stay away from the “full-blown” car shows, because this Nova is not really a show car. It’s just a clean “survivor” from back in the day. That it still has it’s original paint, original interior, original spare tire (which has never been used) and is still a “number’s matching car, is amazing to me. And it can still surprise a few people, especially with the 4:88’s!! I’m really glad I didn’t “letter” the car for the drags like I wanted to or install a sunroof when they were popular, and I’m super glad I didn’t add Z-28 stripes with lace inserts when lace was all the rage!!

I would really like to thank all the people who have helped me with this car over the years. To the best of my memory, which is fading fast, they are as follows:

Jim Delight - very first engine build in ‘69 and “pit crew” everytime I raced!
Bill Fields - used his garage for the second engine build and moral support.
Dave Orlaska - fellow club member (Chevies Inc.) and Chevy parts dude.
Jeff Camuglia (my son) - wrenching on the “last build-up.”
Bob McKray (Bob McKray Performance) - awesome head work and misc. parts.
Scott Howlind, Dan Miller, Jeff Laurence, Tom Ziem, Tom Chase - extra “hand” when needed.
And last, but not least, my wife Pam who has put up with this “other woman” for almost 38 years!!
If I’ve left anyone out I apologize. I appreciate all the support and encouragement that I’ve received over the years!!

Day one-On the lot at Harry Mann Chevrolet!!!











At home

[Xplantdad]

Racing!














Added different wheels




Street Machine Nationals






Helping Dad




Racing stuff








Dealer stuff

[Xplantdad]

Some more recent shots...

[Xplantdad]

The interior!


















The engine














Trunk and detail shots

[Xplantdad]

Shots from the "Taco Cruise"
















The infamous battery!



Joe himself!

[Xplantdad]

And Last but not least...Some vintage racing video for your viewing pleasure (no sound-Click picture to play the video)

[92646]

I have seen this car a bunch of times and it just does not get any better than this. Thanks Joe for keeping the car in this condition and thanks Bruce for all the work posting these pictures. This is why I enjoy this site so much. I have been saying for years that it would be a very fast car to beat a small block Nova that is dialed in properly.
Mark Sheppard

[Shankin]

Great story great car!

[KENNY_PASCOE]

AWESOME STORY AND PICS.. THANKS FOR SHARING.. KP

[m22mike]

Very neat story on your car, what a great "Members Ride".
Thanks.

Mike