1968 Nova SS

Transmission of choice is a Tremec TKO-600, and was the 1st Tremec installed in a Nova in North America.

The Tremec TKO-600  is virtually unbreakable. They have been put behind blown Hemi's for track racing with slicks, still unbreakable. Without doubt, the best modification I ever made to the Nova was the Tremec TKO-600 tranny. As you might notice we have the shifter in the rear most location. In that location its down by my right hand with no reaching what so ever in any gear. The throw and gate are like wrist slaps gear to gear. 

 To get the height I needed, and proper distance we experimented with probabaly 6 different shifter sticks. The Tremec has the ability to change shifter location to about 8 different locations. If you wanted a pure stock location an offset shifter mechanism would need to be bolted as an add-on piece. I tried a few different manufacturers of offset shifters and decided to not use one. The issue bieng it made the shifts somewhat non direct feeling. Instead, through much experimentation I used the farthest back position, and as well turned the plate backward in position. This resullts in the shifter still in a factory location, very direct, and a very short gate/throw from the seated position.

Finally I settled on a Hurst stick that is actually made for a Corvette C6. Its 6.5" long and had a compound bend to it. Its in 3rd gear in this picture, as mentioned a wrist slap from gear to gear.

 

Gearing of the TKO-600 model #5009 is below. On the highway in 5th gear at 65 MPG I am at 2,100 RPM. Constant cruise with the air conditioning on will result in about 26 MPG.

Here are the gear ratio's 1st to 5th: 

TKO-600

5009

2.87

1.89

1.28

1.00

.64

n/a

600 ft.lbs

My car is featured on Classic Chevy 5 Speed .com's site below.

http://www.classicchevy5speed.com/Nova-1968-74-Customer-Cars.aspx

And here it is installed during a hoist oil change. You can as well see the Batwing style transmission mount, and the driveshft loop boolted to the wing.