It was the late eighties, and at long last, Chevrolet was offering a car with a double-over-head-cam engine (since the Vega Cosworth), the symbol of high performance from Nagoya to Trollhättan. Ironically, though, Chevy’s new engine came from Toyota, the worlds largest manufacturer of double-over-head-cam engines – more than two million in 1987, as a matter of fact.
The recipient of Toyota’s generosity was the Chevy Nova, manufactured in California as part of a cooperative agreement with General Motors. This version of Toyota’s fourth-generation Corolla became a vigorous seller for Chevrolet across the country, and the new sixteen-valve Twin-Cam was meant to boost its visibility further.
The fuel-injected engine came directly from the slow selling Corolla FX16 (also made at NUMMI), and delivered 110-bhp at 6600 rpm, a 47 % increase over the standard 1.6-liter engine. The engine’s performance was backed up with four-wheel disc brakes, 22 percent stiffer shocks and springs, front and rear anti-roll bars, and alloy wheels with Goodyear Eagle GT rubber.
It looked good in its mandatory black-with-red-trim uniform, and the underlying Corolla package was extremely space efficient.
The Nova continued to be a real value in small cars, and it had a well-earned reputation for reliability. But the Twin-Cam proved again that an automobile was more than a set of blueprints, especially when it comes to performance.
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