Words & Photos: Gary Rosier
Mark and Debbie Varner of Fountaintown, Indiana live part-time in Daytona Beach, Florida. Mark retired from Marathon Oil after 28 years and owns his own company – which provides emergency response team training and consulting in the oil industry – while trying hard to stay retired!
Mark has owned dirt race cars for over 30 years, including late models, modifieds and midgets. His cars saw competition at race tracks all over the Midwest. Besides being an owner, Mark spent some time behind the wheel, but most of the time his son served as the team’s primary driver. They together acquired many feature wins through the years.
He’s always been a car guy: He has owned everything from a ’56 Chevy Wagon, which was his hand-me down, to various Firebirds and more. He even got into the Custom Van craze in the late 70’s, and as hard as he tried to NOT build and sell them, they just seemed to always find a way into his busy schedule. Sometimes he would buy 4 new vans at a time and customize them with a couple of good buddies. Over a three year period, he had a hand in the customization of over 30 vans, some of which are still on the nostalgic show circuit today.
Being the car guy that he is, he retired to Florida and was always looking through the for-sale listings, Craigslist, E-Bay etc., as any pure car-blooded hot rodder does, he says with a laugh! One day several months ago, he noticed a car for sale on a dealer’s Facebook page: this ’63 Nova that caught his eye. An interesting car it was too! It was in their showroom not far away and looked nice enough, but a six cylinder was its powerplant. ANY good ‘Ol Hot Rodder would normally pass on such a powerplant – after all, he was used to BIG horsepower, the kind that’s loud, kicks up dirt and goes faster sideways than most do straight!
His wife Debbie encouraged him to check it out, so he did. Upon closer inspection he noticed that the firewall had definitely been “ball-peened” for some distributor clearance at some point in its life. Also it had a Turbo 400 for a transmission, and a 12 bolt rear end. Chevy NEVER made a V-8 ’63 Nova, not even a “dealer installed” one until 1964, and certainly NONE with a Turbo 400, 12 bolt rear!
The paint and fit/finish was beautiful, the interior had been completely updated to include a custom center console, custom trunk, Ididit Steering column with a Grant steering wheel, custom gauges, upgraded 5 bolt wheels with front disc brakes, dynamat insulation along with the new custom interior – the list goes on and on! Yet… There was that Blue-Flame 250 cu in. 6 cylinder with Clifford Aluminum intake, headers, dual 2 inch stainless exhausts… What the heck was going on? He sure wanted to know more!
I’m sure you all know how dealers are and he wasn’t getting ANY information from them about the previous owner, not even after purchasing the car. Thus, he knows nothing about the previous owner and gives them full credit for the car, or would like to!
He has certainly built, owned and raced some pretty cool stuff, but this little Blue Fame powered Nova (which was originally Blue according to the de-code, and a Nova 6 cylinder, three-on the-tree), really stumps him. It’s perfect for all the cruise-ins, dependable and gets many questions about its origin/background.
Mark states that he could sure use some help in identifying the previous owner, or history perhaps, of this cool car!
Blue Flame Six, sure Mark… We understand… We’re blue with envy, no matter what its past may hold!
