When the Nova was introduced in the fall of 1961 as a ’62 model, it was brought about in order to keep up with the rear wheel drive compact market of the time. The Corvair had already become Chevy’s air-cooled, compact fighter, but a car was still needed to compete against Ford’s Falcon and Chrysler’s Dart/Comet.

The compact Nova was definitely not one of GM’s performance milestones when it was first introduced in the early ’60s, during a time when the 409 cubic-inch variant of Chevy’s very first big-block was dominating the race scene. However, it was a ground breaking car in terms of efficiency and ease of repair.

All Novas featured bodies by Fisher, and from ’62-67, the Nova series used a unibody design with a completely detachable front end. This light and compact design made for easy repair or replacement of front fenders and other body panels. It was not until the 1968 model year that a Nova would be built on a subframe platform similar to that of the First Gen Camaro.

The car really was Chevy’s first true conventional compact besides the Corvair, because until ’64 it had been offered with only a 153 cubic-inch straight-4 or a 194 cube straight-6. The first stream of Novas came out of Willow Run, Michigan, but plants in Oakland, California, Norwood, Ohio and Framingham, Massachusetts began to produce the unibodied sedans.

Today’s featured video is a vintage piece from 1968, when the first subframed Nova was sold to the public. The new coupe like body that was also introduced during the sales year stuck with the automaker for 11 years, and from ’68 on the car was known as the “Chevy Nova.”

The L79 option that allowed the small Nova to be ordered with a 327ci. small-block with up to 350hp was dropped in ’67 in order to not draw sales away from the then new Camaro. A 396, even a 350, option would not become a reality for Chevy’s compact until the 1969 sales year.

It was the ’68 bodystyle, however, that established the Nova’s transition from boxy sedan to streamlined coupe, turning it more into the contemporary “Nova” that we all know and love from the ’70s.

The ’68 Nova four door that’s featured in our classic commercial is not the bitchin’ “SS396” that most of us would have hoped would have been on TV back in the late ’60s and early ’70s. But as the commercial itself proclaims, the Nova was a “cheap” car that looked “expensive.”