Attention Nova Lovers! 1979 Pontiac Phoenix

The Chevrolet Nova may have been the most cloned car within the General Motors family. Every division of GM except Cadillac would get a variant in the 1970s. At Pontiac, it was the Ventura II, then just Ventura, and finally Phoenix. The final generation of the RWD Nova ran from 1975 to 1979, so the Phoenix shared that platform and body styles. The seller has a very nice ’79 coupe, which is a restomod with a Corvette engine and a 5-speed shifter. Located in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, this sweet ride is available here on craigslist for $16,500. Who else but Tony Primo brings tips like this our way!

From 1964 to 1970, Pontiac was in a compact car drought. It had no such offering since the Tempest became a mid-size in ’64. They went the easy direction by heavily rebadging the 1971 Chevy Nova (separate front clip and rear taillights). The “new” car was the Ventura II in 1971 and 1972, since there was a full-size Ventura as recently as 1970. The “II” part was dropped in 1973, and the Ventura became the Phoenix in 1977. We owned a ’77 Phoenix and it was a good car.

The seller has owned this Pontiac since 2012, but we don’t know if any of the upgrades are before him or her. A Chevy Pontiac V8 has been superseded by an L-82 Corvette 350 cubic inch V8 from 1978, paired with a 5-speed Tremec manual transmission, which has been rebuilt. Besides sufficient bling, the car has some performance enhancements to the tune of the camshaft, heads, intake manifold, carburetor, and power front disc brakes.

This is a rust-free Poncho that was repainted in Garnet Red about 12 years ago. And we’re told it still looks great. We can’t speak to the interior as only a couple of close-up photos are provided. But a set of digital gauges are onboard to help you monitor things more efficiently. The seller says this is a fast and reliable cruiser, which we don’t debate. And the OBO price seems reasonable in today’s market.