CHEVROLET IMPALA

LOTS OF CHOICE BETWEEN LOCALLY-ASSEMBLED AND IMPORTED MODELS. NOT DIFFICULT TO FIND, BUT ARE BECOMING MORE COSTLY.

The year of 1961 brought an entirely new shape and purpose to General Motors’ biggest brand. Billed as the ‘Jet Smooth Chevrolet’, GM’s market leader pushed the attributes of abundant space and aircraft-inspired performance.

Heading Chevrolet’s range for ‘61 was the stylish and fairly plush Impala SS. Impalas came with two or four doors, as a hardtop or convertible, and a range of V8 engines including the ferocious 409 cubic inch race motor. Styling was fresh and distinctive too, with a slimline ‘bubble top’ roofline characterising two-door versions.

With impossibly thin pillars front and rear, Impala Hardtops appeared from a distance to have a canopy that was nothing more than a glass bubble. It was a contrivance very obviously inspired by General Motors’ glass-topped Motorama show cars from the 1950s.

All didn’t go well in the showroom however. Chevrolet had been dominant during 1960, outselling Ford by 220,000 cars, so the 1961 results must have come as a shock when it lost out by the slimmest of margins.

Come 1962 and the Impala took on a more formal look, with heavier, Thunderbird-style rear pillars. Bubble top buyers could still enjoy the glasshouse but they had to do it from behind the wheel of a lower-spec Bel-Air.

Australian assembled Chevrolets from this era were all four-door Bel-Air sedans that came to us in RHD kits from Canada. We saw as well and in considerable numbers, two-door and four-door pillarless Impalas that arrived directly from US manufacturing plants and ready for RHD conversion.

These export cars almost always came with 4.6-litre ‘283’ V8s, or after its 1962 introduction, the new ‘327’. Even in the USA, big-block cars were scarce and during 1961 just 142 of the long-stroke, 409 cubic inch engines were fitted to Impalas.

Chevrolet’s shape for 1963-64 did change but not to any radical extent. If anything, the styling became more conservative, leaving the flashy stuff to Pontiac.

As a reward for judicious sheet metal changes, the inevitable trim alterations and sharp pricing, Chevrolet during 1964 was rewarded with a new US sales record and 800,000-unit lead for the year over Ford.

With 400,000 SS Impalas sold during a four year period, the task of finding one in Australia isn’t especially difficult and unsurprisingly easy in the USA. However, it is becoming more costly.

Look back a decade to the depths of the Global Financial Crisis and a typical SS two-door (LHD, 283 V8, automatic) was selling in the region of $40,000, with 1958-60 versions $10,000 more. Delve today into the classifieds and you’re more likely to find ‘wanted’ ads than multiple cars for sale. When you do find one, it may have at least some modification and be priced at more than $60,000.

Given their scarcity, SS convertibles with big-block engines will attract significant money and exceptional cars can reach US$100,000. Impalas like these are virtually never seen in Australia but considering they now cost about the same as a 350-engined Monaro, importing one looks viable.