Fast Gasser is a “Glasser”
By noderel:
The finished Nova debuted Feb. 21 at Race and Performance Expo.
Photos: John Gunnell
For the past few years, Dave Glass of D&M Corvette Specialties has been turning out cool gasser style hot rods from his city-block-long shop in Downers Grove, Ill. He’s even gone to numbering them like his “Glasses Gasser II” Corvette and his “Glasses Gasser VI” Corvette. But his latest trick is turning out a speed-record-challenging gasser in record time. The ’66 Nova gasser he debuted at the Race & Performance Expo in February was built in about four months!
Back in October, we went to D&M Corvette to photograph a ’66 Pontiac Catalina 2+2. When we walked inside there was a black Nova mounted on a rotisserie. We asked what was going on with that project and the answer was amazing. “We’re working 24/7 on this one to get it ready for the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in three weeks!”
The restorers at the shop said the owner of the car was committed to that goal, damn the cost. They didn’t mention that Dave Glass was the owner. As you can see, the car made it to the November show in Rosemont, Illinois in not-quite-completed-but-almost-done condition. Less than a month later it was finished and getting waxed for its bow at the racing and performance trade show.
The period-correct Nova has a 427-cid Chevy V-8, a 4-speed gearbox, a narrowed Olds/Pontiac rear with 5.13:1 gears, Hilborn fuel injection, a Nickey front sub frame, a straight axle front suspension, a light-weight one-piece fiberglass front end, fiberglass front and rear bumpers and a fiberglass trunk lid. The rear wheels are relocated eight inches forward of their normal position and the car has a 10 percent engine/driver setback.
This is how Nova looked the day before Halloween in D&M Corvette shop.
When the shop said it would be done in less than a month we rolled our eyes.
Picture of a picture of the Nova at the MCACN before Thanksgiving.