Ten Cars from the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational - Ultimate Street Warriors!

1972 Nova ResurreXion
What happens to magazine project cars when the build is wrapped up, or even worse, aborted due to unforeseen circumstances? Oftentimes they quietly relocate elsewhere, never to be seen or heard from again, but occasionally a few lucky ones go on to bigger and better lives after the glitz of print. In its previous life this gorgeous '72 Nova was a project for Super Chevy magazine known as the No-Bull Nova. [We also featured it in last month's Under Construction column.-ed.] The goal was to build a no-nonsense track car that eschews creature comforts in pursuit of speed. For reasons unknown, the build sputtered out somewhere after the Speed Tech suspension was installed, but rather than remove the parts, a deal was struck and the No-Bull Nova became project ResurreXion-so named because Speed Tech decided to strip the car and start from scratch to create a rolling testbed for the company, and the "X" as a nod to the Nova's body designation.

Though it had to be show car perfect to represent the company and its products well, Blake Foster of Speed Tech loved the original ethos of the build, and decided that he'd stay true to it. After all, streetable, but fully track ready, is in line with the type of cars Speed Tech likes to build anyway. The optimal place to reveal the finished car and show its worth was, of course, the OUSCI.

Foster had a clear vision of what he wanted and the Nova came together fast-but, of course, the good luck couldn't last. While out testing the car three weeks prior to SEMA, the original motor went kablooey. The 11th-hour call went out to Richmond Engines to slam together a new 6.0L LS motor that was up to the task of competing at Optima in just two weeks. Richmond Engines really came to the party to help out, even working a couple Saturdays to get this finished in time. The new LS was broken-in on the dyno with a carb to save time, thrown into ResurreXion with EFI, and after a trip around the block, it went into the trailer and straight to Las Vegas for SEMA, followed by the Optima Challenge. All that hard work was worth it, though; Speed Tech finished with Fifth Place overall. To date, ResurreXion has only racked up around 1,000 miles, but roughly 70 percent of that has been on the road course.