Nascar Nova

This Street/’Strip Nova Sits On Used Circle-Track Parts!

Jesse Kiser

The story of this weather-worn Nova reads like a series of vintage hot rodding short stories. Fabricator Greg Turner built this Nova like the race cars of yesteryear with hard work, talent, the help of friends, and little money. It took him 15 years, working for race teams during the day and reworking their used, unwanted parts at night.

Under the factory-original patina is the heart of a NASCAR Xfinity series race car, with an 18-degree, 358ci small-block capable of 10,000 rpm. The chassis mimics that of an Xfinity car, too, but now sits on skinnies and Mickey Thompson slicks. What’s more poetic is Greg is a fabricator at Petty’s Garage, a team that once took a break from dominating NASCAR to take on drag racing in the early ’70s.

The mixing of motorsports makes perfect sense in central North Carolina, a countryside filled with racetracks—round and straight. Before Petty’s Garage, Greg worked at Bill Davis Racing, “It was pretty cool to talk hot rod stuff at the break truck with some of the best race-engine builders in the world,” Greg says. “I befriended some of the most talented fabricators, cylinder-head builders, intake-manifold guys, carburetor guys …”