This “396” Nova SS Barn Find Isn’t What It Claims to Be, And The Buyer Paid Full Price Anyway
This Tuxedo Black 1970 Chevrolet Nova SS wears 396 badges on its fenders, but the factory paperwork hidden under its seats tells a different story. It belonged to Val, a Chicago police officer who drag raced it on weekends, and his widow, Christine, now sold it from Yellville, Arkansas.
Parker from Backyard Barn Finds made the trip to see whether this barn find is a genuine big-block car, because that one detail can swing its value dramatically. What he found did change the price, just not the way you’d expect.
Why a Real 1970 Nova SS 396 Is Such a Big Deal
1970 was the last year Chevrolet offered the 396 big-block in the Nova. The name was a bit of a fib by then, since Chevy bored the engine out to 402 cubic inches but kept the 396 badge because buyers already knew and loved it.
Most of the 19,558 Nova SS models built for 1970 left the factory with the standard 300-hp 350 small-block. The big-blocks were special-order options, with 3,765 cars getting the 375-hp L78 and just 1,864 getting the 350-hp L34.
That rarity shows up in the price. Collector Car Market values a 396/375 car about 70% higher than an SS 350, while the 396/350 adds around 35%.
Inside the Drag-Racing 1970 Nova SS Barn Find
Val bought the Nova at 18 with $3,000 he had saved working as a grocery bagger in Chicago. He raced it on weekends at the US 30 Dragstrip in Hobart, Indiana, a famous strip that closed in 1984, and won two trophies, including a 1970 champion trophy.
The car still wears its original, never-repainted Tuxedo Black paint (code 19), and Parker found only one small rust hole on the body. Val ran it exclusively on racing fuel and even started cutting the hood for a tunnel ram, though he never finished the job.
Christine found the broadcast sheets tucked under the front and rear seats, and they confirm the black paint, a Muncie M20 four-speed, not the rarer M22 Rock Crusher, and the ZL3 SS package. A dual-exhaust doubler plate and a 3.31 Posi rear also point to a genuine SS. The trouble is under the hood, where Parker found a 454 service-replacement block, a non-original Muncie, and a small-block heater box that a factory big-block car shouldn’t have.
Why He Paid Full Price For A Nova SS With A Different Engine
After checking the heater core and the fender emblems, Parker believes the car most likely started life as a 350 small-block SS. He thinks someone later added big-block parts and swapped the emblems to 396. Since 1970 Nova body sheets don’t list the engine code, there’s no way to prove it either way.
Even so, Parker paid Christine’s full asking price, because a documented black four-speed Nova SS is rare on its own. Christine admitted the car would never have left if Val were still alive, and she hopes Parker keeps it for good.
It will soon sit next to Parker’s 1968 Camaro, and he has already floated the idea of racing the two. After years tucked away in a garage, Val’s drag-strip champion is finally heading back to the road.
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