My next project will be of the 60s/70s era. Both of these cars are relatively cheap and less sought after by the “imma buy me a mustang/camaro/corvette” crowd.
I know the Cougar is basically a long mustang but I don’t know much more. The nova is your standard Chevy product so I’d imagine the aftermarket is strong.
This will be a driver and not an autocross or drag car.
Go!!!
Yes the Cougar Is a 67 mustang, sorta, but oh so much better so Not.I fell in love with them after watching the First "Paul Revere 250" race at Midnight July 4th in Daytona beach 1967, Won by Parnell Jones.
If I could find a nice one I could afford it would be Outside. A couple in 67 had 427's and 68 a Few Had 428's.
The 75 up X-body was shared Between the BOP C and Chevy and I am Keying here on thc C, As My 76 Buick Skylark had all Caddy Sevelle front frame to get the 12" rotors and Disk Brake rear end. the 75 Sevelle was the Same as the others with 10 " disc up front and Drums in the rear/Also the 75 has the 4.75 Bolt pattern.and the 76 up had 5x5 . I also used all the Trans am Sway bars Springs and rear leafs And W steering Box(Quick) and rear sway bar. then put in a 455 engine (Buick) and a 200r4 trans W/355 posi. I did this on the Cheap and would have been my Challenge car in 2002 But some Mis Communication with a GRM staffer Prevented it. It ran 12.9 in the qtr. hit 155 T.E./Open road, And was a Monster in the Mountains. Paint it a Light color as the darker colors make it Common Looking.
I truly enjoyed Mine.
Those cougars are very pretty cars.
The Nova kicks over into a front suspension that was designed after radial tires came along, so it will drive and handle one generation better than rhe Cougar. The Cougar is probably a cooler car, though.
68-69 cougar is my favorite muscle car after the '67 GTO. To me, the mid 70s Novas are cool, but I don't have the same visceral connection to them.
I love the looks of the cougars. The disco nova's dont have near the visual appeal to me but they seem to be cheap and parts are cheap.
I'd probably go mazdaspeed 6. In all seriousness though, cougar over that era nova every day of the year
I’ll look into the Buick variants as well.
The Nova may have sentimental value seeing as Dad campaigned 2 for dirt track purposes in the early 90s. That’s me holding the helmet.
Cougar! It's a Mustang underneath, so sure the Nova has better front suspension out of the box, but with the Mustang love from the aftermarket, it's just a phonecall away to get all that fixed.
I like the Looks of the Buick, but it's all Caddy with Trans Am Parts(F body) that make it work. A Seville is an X body with a Longer rear Floor pan. Any of the X body Cars will work 76 up.
My vote goes to the Cougar though I'm perhaps a bit biased 
The Cougar is way cooler, to me. The Novas seem like economy cars and there are a billion of them out there still, but the Cougars are really cool. Obviously that's my opinion! The family racing history, though, ticks it over into pretty dang cool category.
You can include the '67 Cougar, too. The only difference between '67 and '68 was the addition of side marker lights and possibly head rest seats. Otherwise, they're the same.
Pop's first new car was a '67. Cinnamon Frost with black roof, 289, 3 speed. Cut my teeth on automotive repair, with that car.
I'm as pro GM as they come and love the X body. I would take the cougar every time however. They just absolutely nailed the styling.
I owned a ‘69 XR-7. 351. Talk about a burnout machine (so I’ve heard)!
Check out David Freiburger and/or Steve Dulcich’s Cougar On Roadkill and Roadkill Garage. The older episodes can be found on YouTube.
just perfect.
Only one answer:
If you do a paint job like that helmet, swap in a supercharged jaguar drivetrain, only ever play John cougar mellencamp on the radio, and get a grm sticker that says "CougarDork", then you will win everything.
The Cougar is prettier and probably has the better rear end of the two, but my taste is highly generational dependent. When I see a third generation Nova I think
When I think fourth generation Nova, I think
Cougar for sure. They've got that classic muscle car look to them and they can still be found for reasonable money since they're not a Camaro/Mustang/Challenger.
In college I had a '67 Cougar XR7 GT with a big block 390 4 speed. I loved that car and should be kicked in the groin for selling it. Of course 8mpg for a college kid was a bit much to take, but it was delightfully good at turning tires into moulton rubber. It had previously had some engine work and the carb was larger than stock, but I can't remember now what had been done, but it sounded awesome and seriously quick.
This was in the early '80's and I remember another kid had a beautiful Shelby GT350. He kept begging me to race him, it wasn't even close.
It was a dark green with black roof and tan leather inside. The steering wheel would tilt up when you opened the door, and it had an AM 8-Track with some of the adjustment knobs on the kick panel. Very strange. I've never seen another like it in real life, but have found some similar on the internet. I'd buy it back in a heartbeat. I sold it and bought a MG due to the gas mileage, but I miss my Cougar, the MG not so much.
Something like this...
Cougar
Cougar all the way.
First off this is the best what car thread in ages.
Second, even though I work for the Blue Oval I may be the dissenting voice here. IMHO (and you know what they say about opinions) those Cougars aren't the prettiest looking car made. I definitely appear to be in the minority here on that one, but hte front end has never sat well with me.
Having said that, being an import my self I'm not that up on 70's cars so I had to Googlymoogly a 75 up Nova, it's not what I thought. If you were talking 3rd gen not 4th gen Nova I'd say chevy all the way, but as you're talking 4th gen I call looks a tie. I have to admit though that old Chevy stuff is so ubiquitous that it would be hard to argue against building any 70's Chevy.
I’m a gm guy but I’ve always liked how the first gen cougars look a great mean looking design in my opinion. Or a nicer mustang lol.
the 75 to 79 novas were pretty much built as a longer wheelbase version of the second gen f body. That is ironic as the first gen was nova based when they redid the nova for 75 they pretty much based it on the second gen f body that was introduced in 1970. They are popular in stock car racing both in street stock racing aswell as in stock clip late model and super stock type racing. This is because like the f body it has good front end geometry plus being a subframe they can be removed from the main unibody.
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