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📘 Think you know your car? Check the VIN first. Full decoding guide for Classic Cars → https://classiccarshistory.com/ The Corvette Engine Chevy Put Inside the Plain Chevy II In 1966, the Chevrolet Chevy II was the most sensible car in the showroom. It was a no-frills compact Chevrolet rushed into production to fight the Ford Falcon. But one box on the 1966 order sheet changed everything. Tick the L79 option, and under that plain hood went a 350-horsepower 327 V8, the same engine Chevrolet offered as an option in the Corvette. Apart from its milder hydraulic camshaft, it was essentially a twin of the Corvette-only L76. This documentary covers how a Corvette-derived small-block ended up in Chevrolet’s plainest compact, and what happened when it reached the drag strip. We follow the Chevy II from its 1962 launch to the very first Corvette-powered Chevy II prototype. We cover the 1965 birth of the L79 in the Corvette and Chevelle, and the 1966 decision that moved the engine onto the Chevy II order sheet. We also look at period road tests that put the little Nova alongside the Pontiac GTO and the Chevelle SS 396. Then comes the rivalry. In 1966 NHRA A/Stock racing, Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins took a Regal Red L79 Chevy II up against Jere Stahl’s 426 Street Hemi Plymouth Belvedere. The two cars ran high 11-second times at close to 120 mph and shared the national record. Their season ran from Pomona to Bristol, Indianapolis and Tulsa. Along the way came a red light in the U.S. Nationals final, an engine swap the night before, a rival who let the air out of Jenkins’ tires to teach him to launch, and a race car wrecked on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. We also cover the six mysterious 1967 L79 Novas, the real 1966 production total, and the myths that still surround these cars. We look at what L79 Chevy IIs are worth to collectors today, and how the plain-car, big-engine formula carried on into later Novas and the Yenko Deuce. Did someone in your family own a sleeper like this? Tell us in the comments, along with which classic car you want us to cover next and where you are watching from. Next watch: The Engine Chevy Buried Inside the 1958 Impala #ChevyII #ChevyNova #L79 #Chevrolet #Corvette #327 #NovaSS #MuscleCars #ClassicCars #DragRacing #NHRA #Hemi #PlymouthBelvedere #GrumpyJenkins #SleeperCar #SmallBlockChevy #AmericanMuscle #CarHistory #1966Nova #ClassicChevy Sources Mac’s Motor City Garage, “Chevy’s Giant Killer: The 1966 Chevy II L79” CarTech Books, “Grumpy’s Toys: The Authorized History of Grumpy Jenkins’ Cars” NovaResource Chevy II and Nova registry and production records Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for ‘fair use’ for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. I do not own some or all of the video materials used in this video. In the case of copyright issues, please contact me at historymediachannel1@gmail.com for credit or removal.