I think they were outclassing themselves a bit by comparing a Maverick to a Nova... Even the Demon/Duster are on a different level altogether! I like the Mav, but it is 10" shorter and 3" narrower than the Nova. And the Mav was never offered with a big block like the other, larger cars here. I might get banned for saying this, but I'd love to have a 402 (396) Nova! Even if I had to drop my Sprint to get it... This is the first paper that I have seen this comparison. Usually it's Vega, Gremlin, and maybe S6 Scamp/Valiant that are compared to Maverick/Comet in that old lit... They were balsy taking on 340, 383, 440, 360/350 LT1, 375/396 (402) L78... And while some dealers were making Bearcats for FoMoCo, you could get L88/L89 427 Novas from dealers like Yenko and Baldwin. They had a little more kick than the sidepipes and fog lights of the Bearcat.
yea, the early 70's novas did seem slightly more upscale then the maverick but i think '73 was the drop off year for novas where they started to get smaller and probably a little closer to what the maverick was. my grandfather has a mid 70's 4dr straight 6 nova rusting away behind his house and just based on the size and options of this car i'd imagine it would be priced pretty close to what a simular maverick would be and both would have appealed to the same customers. where alot of us today value these cars as potential hot rod muscle cars i dont think that's something most of the original buyers of these cars were really after. most every car on that list is a low buck econo car by the standards of 30 year ago
When I had my old 302/C4 Maverick I used to eat those 305 Novas all day and night and took a couple of the stock 350 Novas as well... They could beef those 305's up all day in those Nova's but they couldn't touch that 302 Maverick and Liek I said the 350 Nova's had a hard time keeping up unless they were nicely modded engines. above the 350 all I could do was try to keep up. But base model V8 against base model V8 I'd take the Maverick any day.
i dont think the 305 came out untill 77 or 78. before that the 307 sbc was the tiny chevy v8 305's are a horrible motor. they make no power and get horrible gas milage.
Dont forget the 302 chevy either. Good freind of mine had one in the sixties that was a half a tenth short of the national record then, D/Gas 55 chevy.
