Pontiac Nova

IDENTITY CRISIS

On one of the hottest days of the year I decided to walk to Coney Island with a friend from Park Slope. As idiotic as it was to walk 7 miles in 95 degree humid heat I did encounter a few rides along the way. Here is one of them:

This is a Chevy Nova. However it's not a Chevy Nova because it's actually a 1971-1972 Pontiac Ventura in some aftermarket silver (there was a silver paint option in '72 but it didn't look anything like this).

This car hails from the era of General Motors repeating the same cars along all of their divisions with only minor front and rear exterior differences. If you really liked the overall Nova shape and wanted just a touch higher trim you selected the Ventura. You also got this cool 4 opening split grill.
*That headlight is definitely pointing towards the sidewalk.

If you wanted even more luxury in the same ride you could have chosen the Olds Omega or the Buick  Apollo. The Ventura is my favorite of the 4 since I've always loved Pontiac styling.

This beast is still in regular use decades after it was built so we can forgive the different wheels, paint job, and lack of emblems. Just about anything could be under the hood but with that tough stance I would hope it would be at least a 350 V8. The base drivetrain for this ride when new would've been an inline-6 cylinder with a 3-on-the-tree manual trans.

The rear is absolutely identical to the Nova with the exception of the taillights.

Incidentally the taillights are the only way I know to round down the vintage to '71-'72. In 1973 they became quad taillights much like the openings of the grill.

Well there you have it; a post I started back in September and only got back to today. I have well over 1,000 pics waiting for me to sit down and post so stay tuned.