18 CHEVY HIGH PERFORMANCE II OCTOBER 2019
Retro Nova Relives its Days of Glory
engine and stripped the paint to bare
metal. Life happened and the car sat in
primer until 2014,” Dennis remembers.
His build list is impressive, “I’ve lost
track, but I have to be pushing close
to 1,000 builds by now,” Dennis said.
Through the ’80s he worked out of
a shop that he built from the ground
up. He even sold his SoCal Bug to pay
for the concrete and rebar. “I was on a
bicycle and borrowing Dad’s truck for
the first couple of years. I never really
came from money, and I never wanted
to either,” Dennis said. He now owns
Hot Rods by Dennis Taylor with his
two daughters, Megan and Alex, and
his wife, Debbie. He’s known for his
long list of trophy-winning custom
builds and wild street machines,
operating with a family that shares his
passion. After his daughter Alex (Alex
Taylor Racing) turned 16, following
in her dad’s footsteps, she received
her first hot rod: a 1968 Camaro. They
turned it from a high school daily
driver into an 8-second street car,
piloted by Alex.
After watching her track success
and Dennis winning Drag Week in
2014, the cover finally came off the
Nova after 32 years. He began building
the ultimate arrangement. He planned
to stuff as much power under the
hood as possible. He dyed the originalgreen interior black, refined much
of the work he did in his 20s, built a
custom rollcage, and fattened up the
rearend. He maintained the stock front
subframe and control arms, adding
QA1 coilovers and a custom Pinto rack-
and-pinion conversion. It went PPG
Candy Blue over black metallic with
silver lace on the roof, and the Retro
Nova was born.
Drag Week 2016. The Retro Nova
ran with a 525ci twin-turbo big-block
that laid down an impressive 2,448 hp
and 1,800 lb-ft of torque. He fought
transmission difficulties throughout the
week, but Dennis managed 8.0 passes
at 180 mph. After a complete engine