1965 Chevrolet Nova Looks Clean and Mean, Flexes Turbo V8 at the Drag Strip

Originally called the Chevy II, the Nova became a muscle car in 1965 thanks to the 300-horsepower SS trim. It wasn't exactly a popular quarter-mile racer back in the day, but some seem to favor it nowadays. That's probably because the first-gen Nova is a cheap classic and a lightweight compact with tremendous potential.

We already know you can turn a third-gen Nova (1968-1974) into a mean drag machine, so here's something a little bit different: a 1965 coupe riding on drag wheel and flexing a bulged hood.

The first-gen Nova isn't the best looking Chevy out there, but this 1965 two-door looks surprisingly cool on skinny front wheels and meaty rear tires. And check out the Alfa Romeo-style rims. That's something you don't see very often on a drag racer.

The quick-release, bulged hood is also a nice touch that looks surprisingly well on a compact, boxy Nova, but the exterior upgrades stop here. Apart from the wheels and the hood, this Nova (or Chevy II if you want) looks as stock as they get. The metallic blue paint is an aftermarket coating too, of course.

But arguably the coolest thing about this car is the mill under the hood. There's not a lot of info to run by, but we do know it's a turbocharged V8 with more than 500 horsepower. And based on the red exhaust smoke coming out of the rear end, it could be running on C16 racing fuel.

There's no proper timing and we can't see the car complete a full quarter-mile run, but its off-the-line snaps are darn impressive. This thing should run the quarter-mile in less than 10 seconds and hopefully we'll see it do just that soon.