That is a different beast.

Canadian Poncho wrote:

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Very cool. I know you have been looking for a Nova Jonno. You should buy this one.

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You are totally correct Todd.

Came very close a little while ago.

Super nice family that own this Nova. Total car people.

Would have been too much of a stretch at this point for me to purchase so had to pass it up.

 Great car though! Where are you going to find another 4 speed sleeper like this!

 And there is a lot to be said in my opinion about purchasing from the original owner.

 Part of the beauty of this car is that it has not been monkeyed with and is in pretty stock original condition.

 Plus all the performance options, F-41 suspension, 350 4 barrel, M-20 4 speed, the list goes on and on.

Jonno wrote:

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Canadian Poncho wrote:

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Very cool. I know you have been looking for a Nova Jonno. You should buy this one.

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         For 10 years I have been driving by a yellow 75-79 Nova in a open front garage in St Pauls Ont.  near Stratford  

         I had the occasion to drive by 4 times this week   I thought of you  

         Its probably rotten from sitting in dirt   I always thought it was a SS    I didn't go near the car  just took a photo.....

Good eye Carl!

I always think there should be a "National Open Garage Door Day" so we can see what is hanging around in garages!

This guy doesn't have a front door on his garage which is very kind of him!

I ordered a new 75 Nova, 350, 3 speed auto, posi, blue, tinted glass, first new car I ever owned, first car with radial tires, first car with a cat (it stunk of rotten egg gas), it had factory dual exhaust as well. One of the last automatics I ever owned, had a 73 super beetle before that. The Nova was only registered for 100 MPH, it would bury the needle, then the needle would pass through the odometer "window". It was a 2 barrel, very good on gas at normal speeds. Bought it in PEI, sold it in Nfld.

I think this car with the 4 speed would have been almost the last year for a 350 in this body style. Even though they were very low HP, they worked very good. On a pavement undulation at 60MPH with your foot in the gas hard, it would chirp the rear tires. It cost about $56-$5,700 new, this one for sale was likely $6-7,000, now worth double that.

Don

In 1990, I found a 1978 Nova, two door coupe, in North Carolina.  The car had 22,000 miles, bench seat, 4 spd, 305 V-8 and black with a black interior.  I trailer-ed this car home to Michigan and over the next winter, I installed an L-79 cam and aluminum intake with holley 4 bbl.  Next year I found a wrecked 78 Z-28 Camaro and purchased the complete rearend.  The Z-28's came stock with a 3:42 posi and the lower ratio rear gave the wide Saginaw 4 speed a better rpm range.  I bought a used set of Keystone Klassic rims, 7" in front and 8" in the rear with some 275rX15 tires on the rear.  I then added a pair of air shocks, bigger front swaybar 1 1/8" and a rear 1 " swaybar.  This car now hugged the curves and was much more responsive through the gears.  Installed a couple aftermarket guages under the dash.  The simple plain black vinyl interior with the 4 spd looked very "sleeper" to me and it was so much fun to drive.  I deep tinted the rear windows to match the black paint.  At some point, I installed new springs in the front and used big block springs as I thought at the time there would be a big block in the future.  The result was for the car to set a couple inches higher in the front and with the big tires on the rear it looked like a car that was ready to launch any second.  Everybody loved the stance. 

I gave the car to my son for his senior year of high school and first two years of college.  In 1996, I got the car back and had a friend paint it base clear black that was straight as an arrow.  With no trim on the car, the paint had to be near perfection and it was.  I drove the car to car shows for the next two summers.  In 1999, I sold the car for $9,000 USD from a car corral on a day that I had 3 buyers willing to purchase it so I got my full asking price.

Still one of my all time great cars because my son and I did all modifications except for paint.

Jonno wrote:

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According to Don Marion's great book that I just got,the M-20 Muncie was available 75 through 77. The two following yearsonly the MM4 four speed was available.

Other literature I have suggests the MM4 4 speed was only available with the 305 V-8 in 78 and 79. The 350-4 barrel's all came with the auto trans only for these last two years of Nova production.

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I do think you are right about the MM4 RPO code time frame.

I respect Doug Marion (he's The Man!) but I think we are misinterpreting this M20 thing. The Muncie was definitely out of production after

1974 but hadn't appeared in any Nova after 1970. For 1971 the big blocks & also the high compression 350 with 300 horses were gone,

and with their dissappearance also marked the Saginaw as the only 4-speed in the Nova line.

M20 is a generic code for wide-ratio 4-speeds. On the 67 Beaumonts, M20 could have been a 3.11 low Saginaw, a 2.54 low Saginaw,

or a 2.52 low Muncie. It depended on whether it was a 283, a 327 or a 396.

Incidently, the 2nd generation Z28salways came with a tougher 4-speed thanthe rest of the Camaro line. There weren't any Saginaws in

a 2nd gen Z28; the Muncie was used through 1973, then they switched to the Warner Super T-10 (2.43:1 or 2.64:1 1st gear) for 1974.

Kind of surprising, the timing of it. The Corvette used the Muncie in 1974 as didthe 454Chevelle. The Z28 went away after 74 but came

back mid-year 1977 with a Super T-10 again.

CdnGMfan wrote:

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Jonno wrote:

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According to Don Marion's great book that I just got,the M-20 Muncie was available 75 through 77. The two following yearsonly the MM4 four speed was available.

Other literature I have suggests the MM4 4 speed was only available with the 305 V-8 in 78 and 79. The 350-4 barrel's all came with the auto trans only for these last two years of Nova production.

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I do think you are right about the MM4 RPO code time frame.

I respect Doug Marion (he's The Man!) but I think we are misinterpreting this M20 thing. The Muncie was definitely out of production after

1974 but hadn't appeared in any Nova after 1970. For 1971 the big blocks & also the high compression 350 with 300 horses were gone,

and with their dissappearance also marked the Saginaw as the only 4-speed in the Nova line.

M20 is a generic code for wide-ratio 4-speeds. On the 67 Beaumonts, M20 could have been a 3.11 low Saginaw, a 2.54 low Saginaw,

or a 2.52 low Muncie. It depended on whether it was a 283, a 327 or a 396.

Incidently, the 2nd generation Z28salways came with a tougher 4-speed thanthe rest of the Camaro line. There weren't any Saginaws in

a 2nd gen Z28; the Muncie was used through 1973, then they switched to the Warner Super T-10 (2.43:1 or 2.64:1 1st gear) for 1974.

Kind of surprising, the timing of it. The Corvette used the Muncie in 1974 as didthe 454Chevelle. The Z28 went away after 74 but came

back mid-year 1977 with a Super T-10 again.

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Thanks for straightening me out on that Cameron.

I didn't know that M-20 was used as a generic name.

Now I learned something today!

In late 1969 the Chevrolet Manufacturing Plant in Saginaw, Michigan was entirely devoted to Disc Brake production. I recall at the time some of my co-workers had started working at this location in 1935 when the plant was built. During the early days of my employment there, I learned the plant was previously known as the Chevrolet Saginaw Transmission plant and was dedicated to manual transmission production. I also came to learn the production of manual transmissions had been transferred to the Muncie, Indiana and Parma Ohio plants. I never learned the exact date of production transfer but I believed that must have happened in about 1967 as I knew Chevrolet first offered the disc brakes as an option on some 1967 cars.

I thought some of you might find it interesting as I do, that these Saginaw transmissions installed in Chevrolet cars at that time, were not produced in Saginaw, Michigan but instead Parma, Ohio or Muncie, Indiana. Note that transmission production whether in Saginaw or Muncie/Parma was not limited to 4 speeds as 3 speeds were still widely used by Chevrolet.