The Sharpend

Rick Plush turned his genuine 118 Nova inside out

- Ro McGonegal

Photos: Grant Cox

As we grow, our experiences inevitably become a part of us, inextricable. Hopefully they have had a mostly positive bearing. The ones that do are something we think about, if only for a few seconds nearly every day, and are soothed by the remembrance, like a warm stone in your pocket on a cold day. This writer often finds himself in the living room of his childhood house when he was no more than 4 years old. He cannot explain the attraction for that. It’s just there.

Rick Plush was guided by a similar attraction: “My dad bought a new 1970 Chevelle SS 396 when I was 5. He would drive and step on the gas and I would watch the cowl induction open as we accelerated. That would excite me. From that point on I was hooked. Over the years, I’ve had Montes, Novas, and even a red and black-stripe SS Chevelle.”

A few years ago he quit that Chevelle and built a 1969 Camaro RS. Then he corrected his tack. He envisioned a car that he could drag race locally, driving it to the track whenever the mood took him. He always liked the looks of the 1966-’67 Nova—thought they looked good as race cars. Wonder if the seminal Novas that Kelly Chadwick, Dick Harrell, or Bill Jenkins thrashed had anything to do with this fetish? So he scoured, he looked for a student that was complete or nearly so. There was one in Ohio. It surfaced on eBay.