So maybe we’re suckers for orange paint schemes, but truth be told, that’s just the icing on the cake with Washington native Eddy Whipple’s incredibly sharp new 1963 Chevrolet Nova. 

Built by Whipple and his Whipple Motorsports Speed & Custom operation, this gorgeous machine has been designed with radial tire racing in mind, but has been constructed as such that it can be easily driven on the street. Of course, with a 432 cubic inch small block Chevrolet with a pair of 72mm turbochargers, it’s sure to grab attention no matter where Whipple decides to take it.

Whipple (no relation to the Whipple Industries that manufactures superchargers) operates Whipple Motorsports Speed & Custom that specializes in the design, fabrication, and construction of custom street rods, muscle cars, hot rods, and race cars, and as he shared with us, this car is built with heavy consideration for the design, detail, and craftsmanship that they put into all of their projects.

“Since we build Hot Rods and Muscle cars at Whipple Motorsports for a living, it’s only fitting that we put the same effort in our car as we do our customers cars. The local talent pool and services along with some industry mainstays have proved a great asset to the product which is a representation of what we and our business associates are capable of.”

The Nova is built atop a 25.3 spec chassis that utilizes Smith Racecraft chromoly strut front end and rear suspension components, with a fabricated Moser rear end housing transferring the power to the axles and the sharp Weld Racing headlock wheels. 

According to Whipple, in order to get the 25.3 bars in the upper portion of the roll cage with a quality fit and finish, the roof had to be cut from the car. Once the cage was fabricated, the entire assembly, sans the roof and quarter panels, were powdercoated by Powder Tech on a rotisserie — much the way high-end custom cars are handled — with the cage, floor, undercarriage, wheel tubs, inner trunk, and dash all in the car.

The OEM steel Nova body was used from the firewall back, with the exception of the deck lid and the bumpers. Even the doors are steel, although Whipple and his team converted them to lift-off style doors. Gortesma Customs applied the stunning orange and black two-tone paint job using PPG paints. The front end is a lightweight fiberglass piece, which has had the OEM headlights and grille integrated in. The original front and rear bumper and headlight bezels were spray chromed for a spectacular look by Watson AutoBody.

Inside, the stock headliner, door panels, dash, floors, and firewall, along with the steering column, have all been retained, and the entire interior has been freshly carpeted by C&B Upholstery for a look as sharp on the inside as on the outside.

The attention to detail and ultimately, the appearance and build quality carried out on this build, as you can see, is above and beyond what many true race cars exude, making this one of more impressive builds we’ve seen in quite some time. We’ve witnessed some show-quality race cars, and this is right up there with them.

“The car should be rather streetable; its licensed, registered, insured and muffled with DOT-approved tires,” said Whipple. “I’m hoping to drive it quite often and plan on attending a few PSCA races, some WCHRA races and other local events. There are still a few loose ends to tie up before the car gets fired for the first time.”

The 432-inch bullet, built by Cassell Performance, is expected to deliver in the neighborhood of 1,800 horsepower, made possible by the inclusion of Dart 18-degree cylinder heads modified by HRD, feeding into a short block composed of 10:1 CP Pistons, a Callies crankshaft, billet Oliver Connecting Rods, and a Lil’ Johns camshaft. Whipple designed, fabricated, and tig-welded the stainless steel exhaust in-house. 

The engine features a Holley Dominator EFI system with an Accufab throttle body utilizing MSD PowerGrid components supplied by The EFI Store, which is all fed by the Comp turbos that are controlled by Turbosmart blowoff valves and wastegates. Whipple has plumbed a Chiseled Performance air-to-water intercooler into the car that helps to deliver the cool air to the throttle body. A transmission cooler and fuel cell from Chiseled are also present. A Magnafuel fuel system feeds the Billet Atomizer fuel injectors.

Once on the track, Whipple is planning to try his hand at 275 and 315 drag radial racing with the aforementioned PSCA and WCHRA on the west coast, and while the performance on the track remains to be known, there’s no question that this beauty has a few ‘Best Appearing’ awards in the bag.