Photo: cg_celestial / Instagram
Today, Chevrolet fans lament the impending departure of the sixth generation Camaro with just a range-wide Collector's Edition and 56 units of the Garage 56 special series dedicated to the ZL1. 'Tomorrow,' they will probably start treating the 'Maro like a cult classic and envision all sorts of bonkers 'classic' builds as they do now with other dearly departed nameplates like the Chevy II/Nova.
By American standards, the Chevrolet Chevy II/Nova was a small automobile (compact class from 1962 to 1979 and subcompact when NUMMI resurrected it based on the Toyota Sprinter between 1985 and 1988). Produced on the X-body platform, it was aimed at models like the Ford Falcon and even gained unwanted fame from a popular urban legend that toyed with the Spanish translation of the words 'no va,' which means "doesn't go."
Actually, the little Chevy Nova went pretty well, with General Motors succeeding in making it a proper 'pocket rocket' type of vehicle thanks to the success of the Nova SS line and the apparition of special models like the Rally Nova or Yenko Novas. To this day, thus, the small automobile has a legendary cult following that's much greater than the sum of its parts, for sure. And, as it turns out, the icon is equally revered in the real world as well as the imaginative realm of digital car content creators.
But there is no need to take our word for granted, as we have an excellent example from the latter category. Samar Vijay, a self-taught 3D automotive artist better known as cg_celestial on social media, has decided to CGI-attack a crazy drag race scenario involving a hypothetical 1967 Chevy Nova build called 'Morningstar.' He first teased the fans with a few hints that lured drag race enthusiasts to his side, and now the big orange cat is out of the bag, complete with a hypothetical scenario that would make the author the rightful owner of the car and also a significantly older man (than he really is).
It's best to read the entire story with the pixel master's words, and we are just going to focus on the automotive aspects of this design contest entry. First and foremost, 'Morningstar' is a 1967 Chevy Nova unlike any other Pro Street drag racer before it because it's entirely hypothetical. So, the virtual chassis "is actually welded to a custom tube frame, which is quite rare," features four-link suspension work at the rear plus a double wishbone setup up front, and it's CGI-mated to a "really powerful" twin-turbo 540ci V8 engine that was also digitally modeled from scratch in Blender (a free 3D modeling and animation software).
But wait, as there is more, oh so much more. In the end, 'Morningstar' is a black-and-orange "super-slammed, tubbed, street-legal" dragster featuring a 1,800-hp big-block V8 that would put to shame any ICE-powered drag-racing-oriented model like the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 'Last Call' edition. Thanks to all of its unique modifications, it would probably be able to duke it out with the latest EV hypercars, too. Alas, in the end, this was not conceived as something that was created 'five minutes' ago but rather as a hypothetical work of art that was lovingly 'built' in the 1980s and has had hundreds of quarter-mile dragstrip victories under its belt ever since. Well, we can all dream a little, right?
Actually, the little Chevy Nova went pretty well, with General Motors succeeding in making it a proper 'pocket rocket' type of vehicle thanks to the success of the Nova SS line and the apparition of special models like the Rally Nova or Yenko Novas. To this day, thus, the small automobile has a legendary cult following that's much greater than the sum of its parts, for sure. And, as it turns out, the icon is equally revered in the real world as well as the imaginative realm of digital car content creators.
But there is no need to take our word for granted, as we have an excellent example from the latter category. Samar Vijay, a self-taught 3D automotive artist better known as cg_celestial on social media, has decided to CGI-attack a crazy drag race scenario involving a hypothetical 1967 Chevy Nova build called 'Morningstar.' He first teased the fans with a few hints that lured drag race enthusiasts to his side, and now the big orange cat is out of the bag, complete with a hypothetical scenario that would make the author the rightful owner of the car and also a significantly older man (than he really is).
It's best to read the entire story with the pixel master's words, and we are just going to focus on the automotive aspects of this design contest entry. First and foremost, 'Morningstar' is a 1967 Chevy Nova unlike any other Pro Street drag racer before it because it's entirely hypothetical. So, the virtual chassis "is actually welded to a custom tube frame, which is quite rare," features four-link suspension work at the rear plus a double wishbone setup up front, and it's CGI-mated to a "really powerful" twin-turbo 540ci V8 engine that was also digitally modeled from scratch in Blender (a free 3D modeling and animation software).
But wait, as there is more, oh so much more. In the end, 'Morningstar' is a black-and-orange "super-slammed, tubbed, street-legal" dragster featuring a 1,800-hp big-block V8 that would put to shame any ICE-powered drag-racing-oriented model like the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 'Last Call' edition. Thanks to all of its unique modifications, it would probably be able to duke it out with the latest EV hypercars, too. Alas, in the end, this was not conceived as something that was created 'five minutes' ago but rather as a hypothetical work of art that was lovingly 'built' in the 1980s and has had hundreds of quarter-mile dragstrip victories under its belt ever since. Well, we can all dream a little, right?
Google News