Pro Street Icon: Rick Dobbertin’s Blown Twin-Turbo 454ci LS7 1965 Chevy Nova SS Is Overkill!
We take you back to the moment in time in 1982 when one man changed the look and feel of hot rodding with a now legendary car.
The Pro-Street build style—a mashup of NHRA Pro Stock and the flamboyant street machine look of the 1970s—has been praised and cursed over the decades, but there’s no denying Pro Street’s massive shadow over the hot-rodding hobby since 1982. That’s when Rick Dobbertin’s breakout “InNOVAtion” 1965 Chevy Nova SS blew away audiences at the Car Craft Street Machine Nationals with a Grand Champion trophy, the first award of many. Although it technically wasn’t the first Pro Streeter (a nod that generally goes to Scott Sullivan’s 1967 Nova of 1979), it would later appear in every major car magazine of its day and influence generations of future car builders. Indeed, Dobbertin’s Nova still inspires new builds to this day. Dobbertin’s now iconic shoebox Nova appeared on the cover of the September 1982 issue of HOT ROD, where its “Overkill” feature was photographed and penned by staffer Gray Baskerville, a hot-rodding legend in his own right. —Johnny Hunkins
AI Quick Summary
Rick Dobbertin's 1965 Chevy Nova SS, a Pro Street icon, debuted in 1982 with a twin-turbo, blown 454ci LS7 engine. The car's innovative design, featuring a custom frame and intricate interior, influenced hot rodding significantly and remains a benchmark for builders.
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Rick Dobbertin has it made. No, he doesn’t run a liquor store, nor does his family possess a chrome shop. It’s better than those. Rick owns a speed shop. Now Rick’s go-fast goodie gulch isn’t one of those plastic palaces which deal in bolt-ons and bull shirts. Nova way. Dobbertin’s AA/Speed & Custom/Turbo Dynamics in Springfield, Virginia, is a house of heavy horsepressure that specializes in turbocharging, Roots-type blower kits, and custom-built exhaust systems. Therefore, when the bug to build a prime candidate for HOT ROD Magazine's Street Machine of the Year award bit him, he simply walked through ol’ “Double A” and removed what was either on or off the wall and fashioned what is possibly the most exotic late-model in America.
ENGINE: Although Dobbertin's 454-inch big-block Chevy has been fully detailed (and that includes 7:1 Gale Banks pistons), the real story here is Rick's two-stage induction system. Stage one includes a pair of Roto Master turbos (plus two Boost Guard wastegates) drawing through two 750-cfm Holley carburetors. Turbos blow into an Enderle “bird catcher” injector body which has been blocked off with a plate located just behind the butterflies to keep the boost inside the body when the butterfiles are opened. The second stage is comprised of a fully working, BDS-prepared 6-71 Roots-type blower.
“Since high school,” recalls the previous owner of 49 cars, “I’ve always wanted a small, but full-sized Chevrolet, powered by a blown small-block [Rick visited five states and 18 Novas before he found the right one]. After looking through HOT ROD Magazine, I decided to do everything I could to my Nova, not scrimping on anything.”
TRUNK: Trunk has been filled with such items as Marvin Miller nitrous system, polished aluminum fuel cell, a pair of Delco batteries, and two gigantic wheel tubs.
That, my friends, has got to be the understatement of the century. What Rick has wrought is one of the most complex pieces of packaging this side of Gary Kollofski’s ’36 Willys. It’s a proverbial cornucopia of motorized motion. For instance, the engine is a twin-turbo’d, Roots-blown, nitrous-injected, 454-inch rat. Overkill’s underpinnings include a full 2x3-inch rectangular tube frame featuring a fully removable front half. The front and rear suspension systems are comprised of 4-link split wishbones, a Mas-manufactured 6-inch dropped axle, ’62 Corvette spindles, home-brewed Panhard rods, ladder bars, Koni shocks, and four-wheel disc brakes using JFZ calipers and swirl-drilled rotors. Linking the twist from the monster motor is a B&M-built Turbo 400 (equipped with 11-inch B&M converter, Fairbanks shifter, and two remote trans coolers) and a Strange Engineering-prepared Dana 60 rearend.
The only thing sedate about the sedan is its relatively stock sheetmetal. We say relatively because the rear wheel openings have been enlarged 7 inches and fitted with ’81 LTD wheelwell trim. However, the paint scheme is based on four shades of blue augmented by a silver base.
OVERALL: All-steel body has had the rear wheel openings enlarged 7 inches, while all trim (all 294 parts) is new or replated.
The “inNovative” interior is incredible. I mean, there you sit in a Moroso shell-type bucket seat covered with vinyl and velvet, surrounded by a 20-point roll cage, while being confronted by some 17 Autometer gauges, two pro lights, and a full wiring panel which sits behind the glove box door. The space shuttle has nothing on Dobbertin.
INTERIOR: Seventeen Autometer gauges—speedo, fuel pressure (left and right), oil pressure (front and rear), vacuum (left and right), turbo (left and right), blower boost, water and oil temp, ammeter, water injector volts, trans and rearend temp, and tach—make imposing array. And don’t miss the two pro lights.
We had a chance to do a few burnouts in Rick’s slick trick. And while the nitrous wasn’t hooked up, neither were the tires. The power, even at partial throttle, was frightening, and the noise generated by the combined turbos and Roots blower was beyond belief.
FRONT: super clean outside only hints at what lives under that hood. Despite massive engine size, only the bug catcher is above the hood line.
As its name implies, this Nova has it all—and then some. But unlike many a heavy-handed chrome artist, Dobbertin knows the difference between Overkill and overdone.
FRONT SUSPENSION: Front subframe is removable and carries 6-inch dropped axle which swings from a four-joint suspension. Top drawer features JFZ rotors.
1965 Chevrolet Nova SS Specifications
- Owner: Rick Dobbertin / Springfield, Virginia
ENGINE
- Engine Type: 1980 Chevrolet V8
- Displacement: 454 cubic inches
DRIVELINE
- Transmission: 1980 Turbo 400 prepared by B&M and equipped with 11-inch race-type converter, Fairbanks shifter, Hurst “roll control,” and two remote coolers
- Rearend: 1980 Dana 60 prepared by Strange Engineering and equipped with 4.56 gears and narrowed to 34½ inches
CHASSIS
- Frame: Made from 2x3-inch, drawn over mandrel, rectangular tubing, featuring a 20-point roll cage (made out of 17-inch, .120-inch wall, mild steel tubing) and a fully removable front frame which is held onto the rear portion by 16½-inch, grade-8 bolts
- Front Suspension: Four link-type featuring a Mas-built 6-inch dropped axle, ’62 Corvette spindles, Koni coil-over shocks, and ¾-inch o.d. Panhard rod fitted with Teflon-bushed spherical rod ends
- Rear Suspension: Drag-style featuring 1 1/8-inch (.219-inch wall) drawn over mandrel mild-steel ladder bars, Competition Engineering wheelie bars with home-built mounts, Panhard rod fashioned from 3/4-inch mild steel tubing fitted with Teflon-bushed spherical rod ends, and Koni coil-over shocks
- Spindles: 1962 Corvette
- Springs: Koni
- Shocks: Koni adjustable
- Brakes: JFZ calipers and swirl-drilled rotors (front and rear)
- Steering: 1965 Nova
- Wheels: Front, Center Line, 15x3.5; rear, Center Line, 15x15
- Tires: Front, Moroso, 5.50-15; rear, McCreary, 45/33-15 (front, 25 inches tall; rear, 33 inches tall)
MEASUREMENTS
- Overall Length: 15 feet, 2 inches
- Overall Width: 5 feet, 9 inches
- Overall Height: 4 feet, 7½ inches
- Wheelbase: 9 feet, ½ inch
- Track: Front, 5 feet; rear, 3 feet, 11 inches (27 inches between rear tires)
- Color: Five-color combination based on ’76 Cad crystal blue Firemist acrylic lacquer augmented with four different shades of blue, plus silver and clear. Underside is Ditzler Durathane black
- Gauges: Autometer
- Performance: NA
- Cost: $38,000 plus 3,122 hours of labor