Sleeper: Stock-Looking 1968 Nova Runs 10s

Hard-running ‘Sweet Pea’ four-door hides a turbo LS swap with a gigantic homebuilt intercooler.

It’s only fitting that a car called “Sweet Pea” features garden edging as an aerodynamic element. Its owner isn’t growing crops on this patina’d four-door ‘68 Nova, though. Instead, he’s harvesting some hurt feelings with one of the most convincing sleepers we’ve ever seen.

YouTuber BigKleib34 caught up with the car and its owner at Holley LS Fest to nab the details. Every single detail about the car covers for the 4.8-liter truck engine under the hood that slurps up 10 pounds of boost from an 80-millimeter turbo.

The liquid-cooled intercooler comes across as properly brilliant. With an old-school Coleman cooler in the back, the owner says he can make at least a half-dozen passes before the 40 pounds of ice melt. That means perfectly chilled air that sees the smallest Vortec V8 pushing out 540 horsepower on the dyno.

When it launches, the crew-cab Nova hangs the front wheels just a bit on the way to runs in the high 10s. The trap speeds are way low, either from computer issues (as BigKleib writes) or to keep from pissing off NHRA officials by outrunning safety tech.

Of course, the lack of rollbar sells the total sleeper appearance. Nobody ever suspects a four-door car. The owner went so far as to cover the bench seats with blankets. The racing gauges fold away and you can even find a bible affixed to the dash. Who would ever suspect a sleeper with a bible?

All of that complements the perfectly suburban-mom green Nova with some wonderfully genuine patina. Dented or missing dog-dish hubcaps to complete the look. You’d hardly bat an eye at something like this in Southern California and it sure looks like a basic survivor. At least until your only view of it is the rear bumper disappearing into the distance.

Want another look under the hood? Here’s a video of the turbo 4.8 setup running early last year.