Dance at your Own Risk

Dave Terry and friends prosecute his umpteenth L79 Nova.

- Ro McGonegal

MY OLDER BROTHER LOVED CARS. When I realized that I wasn’t going to be a professional baseball or football player … I had to have something to do.” So began Dave Terry’s long association with the internal combustion engine and the sheetmetal it adheres to. In those 50 years, he’d built numbers-matching 1966 L79 Novas. He was beyond burnout with that fussy discipline.

“After selling my Nova parts and getting into early Corvettes, a friend brought over a ’66 sedan he’d just bought. It had a MagnaCharger supercharged LS motor in it. I drove it and that was it! It was a rocket—an L79 Nova on steroids,” said Dave, as balls of sweat rolled down his flanks. “Luckily, I’d held onto a sedan. So I got started, tore my car apart and after getting into it, I realized that it needed everything! I’d found it on eBay. It was a lot rustier than advertised.

“Knowing it wasn’t worth squat torn apart, we decided to go ahead and build it. As such, the philosophy morphed on a familiar sentiment. The goal was to build a ’60’s-style hot rod—something that I would have driven when I was a kid, but with a modern kick.” The “we” Dave refers to includes old friends with expertise in the key realms; each of them putting their own signature to it. Those who prosecuted the Nova with Dave were Tom Thomason, Larry Blalock, Fred Maddox, Mike Lloyd, and Dave’s son J.D.