Watch Matt Feild’s drift Corvette gets taken down by a Drag-built '66 Chevy Nova.
In the recent episode of This vs That, Matt Field, Formula D champion, breaks out his famous Corvette drift car to put it up against a beautiful drag-built 1966 Chevy Nova. The 'Vette is equipped with an LS with RHS block, Texas Speed head, Texas Speed cams, and new titanium Borla headers. This tiny engine pales in comparison to the Nova’s 632cu big block.
However, the engines are actually putting down similar power levels with the corvette having 950 horsepower at the wheels and the Nova coming in at “just” 920 at the crank. One might expect the Corvette to win due to its considerable power advantage and the fact that the 'Vette is 3,050lbs with a driver, compared to the 3,650lb Nova, however, the Nova is actually set up for drag racing which pretty much outweighs those advantages. For instance, the Nova is running slicks and skinnies with 415/50s in the rear giving it more grip. Where the Corvette's carbon-kevlar body may lighten the car significantly the Novas extra weight may help give it more traction, not to mention the fact that the corvette is still running Falken drift tires.
In round one of the battles for the quarter-mile the Nova absolutely blew the Corvette away, winning by 3 full car lengths. Round two was slightly better for the Corvette, only losing by 1-1/2 car lengths. In the end, the Nova won this episode even going so far as to win in the bonus round in which the Nova chased and still won by almost a car length. Even though Matt jumped the line every time the purpose-built drag car still won. The funny thing about this Nova is that because it is street-legal this guy got to drive his Corvette-killer home after a triumphant win.
