Meet the Fleet – Muscle Cars: ‘69 Chevy Nova SS “Street Rat”

• BODY: Auto World
• WHEELS/TIRES: Road Race Replicas

You’re looking at the spiritual inheritor of the title of “1^st Thunderjet I ever bought” (way back in January of 2020! Seems like a different world now, eh?) My original copy, identical to this one, suffered from an unfortunate dose of “n00b enthusiasm” when I widened the rear wheel wells to fit a set of custom wheels without knowing the tricks I’ve since learned. I still have that body in my scrap pile and no doubt it will yield valuable parts when needed, but I retired it after learning the ropes and decided to replace it, because I really liked the car.

I have 3 copies of the Auto World Nova body, though only 2 are actually in my racing fleet (the 3^rd, a dull dark metallic blue one, serves a valuable role as my experimental “test mule”). The cool thing about the other 2 is the mold is slightly different between them in the area of the hood; the teal one has a flat hood with chrome inserts, while this red one has pronounced raised area, leading to the impression that the teal one is a 350 “mouse” while the red one is a 396 “rat.”

Hard to say why I like this car so much; the ’68-’72 Novas are not amongst my favorite cars (although I did once own a real one, a stock original ‘71 2-door sedan with a 307 in white with a brown vinyl top). Partially it’s because it’s painted a particularly pleasing shade of red, but there’s more to it than that: I originally had it outfitted with Torque Thrust II’s but I’ve used those wheels on more cars than any other style so I decided to change it up, and when I switched over to these chrome reverses, it gave it a menacing, business-like attitude that I really love. I realize this wheel style is more appropriate on ‘50’s cars than early ‘70’s muscle cars, but it just looks sooooo BAAAAD! I have used this wheel style of several of my muscle cars and it always seems to please me, and so there they stay. 

It’s fast, but even with low profile tires it’s not one of my better handlers; I’ve fiddled with the magnets and pickup shoes and tried 3 different styles of guide pin and gotten it about as good as its going to get. It still surprises me at times though, turning in low ET’s when it can hold onto the track at high speeds. Regardless of its performance standing, it has a special place in my collection as “Thunderjet Number 1;” that alone is enough for me to keep it in the fleet forever!