Meet the Fleet – Muscle Cars: ’68 Chevy Nova SS

• BODY: Johnny Lightning
• WHEELS & TIRES: Road Race Replicas

A hard-to-find installment from the pre-Auto World Johnny Lightning days, this metallic teal Nova SS is not only a gorgeous color, but also has a historically correct hood featuring the dual aluminum and black painted inserts exactly like the real car. Though not functional in any way, this little SS styling queue really helped dress up what could-in base form-be a very dull car.

Race day! “Brute Force” arrives at the track, heading down Bear Valley Road and into the spectator parking lot before making its way to the paddock gates for inspection

As I mentioned in a previous post about another version of this body in my collection, I briefly owned a ’72 Nova, the last year of this body style, though it was a plain-jane model and not an SS; mine was white with brown bench seat interior and a brown vinyl top and had a 305 2-barrel under the hood. I like this body style well enough, but its never been one my favorite cars of the muscle era. And yet, for some reason, the Johnny Lightning/Auto World model of this car is one of my favorites of the new generation bodies; it’s accuracy and correct proportions are hard to resist. The very first T-jet I ever bought in early January of 2020 was a red version of this car with the raised big block hood, and over the last 2.5 years I have acquired 4 of them. While the red one will always hold that special place in my heart due to being the first, this beauty is my favorite of them due to the colors; the deep glow of its finish and the black stripes are just awesome, and the RRR “Stones” wheels I added may not be the first style that might occur to you for a car like this, but do they ever look great!

I’ve raced this car very hard and its been beat up pretty bad. The front bumper often comes loose and has to be helped back into place, and the rear one has fallen off completely and had to be super-glued back on. But even with all the hard mileage, it still looks good, and with the low profile silicone tires it’s a hot performer. It was a frequent winner at DC Mk.II; it hasn’t done as well on the much longer Mk. IV track, but it still holds it own.

A walk through the paddock at Drag City before a muscle car race will show you plenty of “well used” cars, bearing some battle scars from competition. Its uncommon, however, to see anything approaching a “beater” at the track. Uncommon, but not unheard of; while today’s featured car isn’t quite a beater, it is definitely one of the rougher cars that competes in the muscle car tournaments on a daily basis. “Brute Force” is an original 1968 SS powered by a ¾ race 350. Owner Kyle Kelly, who earned the nickname “Kamikaze Kelly” due to his aggressive style on the track, built the engine himself, while the wide ratio 4-speed and 12 bolt rear axle with 3.73 gears was built by The Outlaw Garage, a Wardglenn institution located right next to Drag City Raceway. Kelly has owned the car for 6 years, he did all the body and paint work himself as well, and he always drives the car to the track and-usually, anyway-home from it. He has quite a fan base as one of the few successful drivers campaigning a “home built hot rod.” Kelly has a good number of race wins to his name and a reputation as a highly competitive driver, so while “Brute Force” has yet to take home a tournament win, there’s plenty of chances to do so ahead!