Myth Buster
Chevrolet Impala
1 HARLEY EARL WAS ITS CHIEF DESIGNER
Harley Earl was General Motors’ head of design, noted for his fins and flamboyance. He retired in 1958 after overseeing GM’s 1959 range, so the most iconic second-gen (19591960) Impala, with its folded-over rear batwings, is regarded as one of the last cars he was responsible for. However, after the clay models had been created, Earl was in Europe when the rest of the styling team saw the new rival Chryslers and realised that the Impala needed a revamp. Earl was apparently so shocked that he approved the designs, but after that felt that the place had passed him by.
2 IT DID 300MPH WITH JET POWER
A 1967 Impala is the centre of one of the greatest automobile urban legends – about how a driver in Arizona apparently attached a JATO ( Jet-Assisted Take-Off ) rocket to one, ignited it, and then travelled 3.9 miles at speeds of between 250 and 300mph before slamming into a mountain, airborne, at a height of 125 feet. Which presumably didn’t do wonders for hi. Or the Chevy. It’s completely false. The Arizona Department of Public Safety investigated – and quashed – the rumour in 1996. US TV programme MythBusters tried to recreate the stunt; its Impala got nowhere near 300mph and didn’t take off. Two later attempts also failed.
3 IT WOULD LIFT OFF
Designed without a wind tunnel, the secondgeneration Impala’s rear bat wings allegedly made the car so aerodynamically unstable that its rear end was prone to lifting even at quite moderate speeds. In 2005, this theory was found to have no truth, having being comprehensively debunked in a GM wind tunnel.
Richard Gunn