1958-1965 Chevrolet Impala

Work on the 1958 Chevrolet began in earnest in mid 1955 at a time when the sales potential of the 1955 cars, themselves a radical departure in many respects from their forebears, wasn't fully apparent.

Part of the Bel Air series, the 1958 Chevrolet Impala was offered as a hardtop or convertible.

Clare MacKichan's design team, along with designers from Pontiac, started to establish basic packaging and dimensions for their shared 1958 General Motors A body in June; the first styling sketch that would directly influence the finished Chevrolet product caught the eye of General Motors Styling vice president Harley Earl in October. Seven months later, the basic design was worked out.

It was a radical change from the 1955-1957 shape that was itself a substantial move away from the conservative Chevrolets of past years. Longer, lower, and wider -- the design mantra of those days -- than its boxy predecessors, the 1958 in any of its forms was a rounded and extroverted design with plenty of visual excitement. The sharp tailfins of the 1957 gave way to deeply sculptured rear fenders. And, of course, 1958 was the first year of dual headlamps.

Underneath this new body was a new chassis. The standard perimeter-type frame was abandoned, replaced by a unit with rails laid out in the form of an elongated "X." Chevrolet claimed that the new frame offered increased torsional rigidity and allowed for a lower, yet still roomy passenger compartment. In this design, a transitional step between traditional construction and the later fully unitized body/chassis, the body structure was beefed up in a number of areas (most notably the rocker panels and firewall) to create a solid package.

Triple taillight clusters, seen here on a 1958 Impala hardtop, would become an Impala trademark.

The rear suspension was redesigned as well. Leaf springs were abandoned, replaced by coil springs. Long, stamped, trailing links located the axle on each side, supplemented by a yoke pivoting on the frame and center of the differential housing. Chevrolet counted up the pivot points and dubbed the result "four-link" suspension. Conventional upper and lower A-arms with coil springs were retained in front. The overall result was good handling and a very soft ride.

A new engine was also part of Chevrolet's program for 1958. The existing V-8, now three years old and up to 283 cid from the original 265 cubic inches, had caught the attention of performance fans from the start and was ideally suited to the light 1955-1957 sedans and Corvette, but engineers wanted something a little larger for the bigger 1958s.

Thus, an all-new engine was prepared, also a V-8, displacing 348 cubic inches. Dubbed the "W" engine, the compact 348 had wedge-type combustion chambers and was initially offered in two states of tune: The basic unit with a single four-barrel carburetor developed 250 bhp, while the "hot" variant with three two-barrel carbs was rated at 280 bhp. (A tri-carb 315-bhp version came out later.)

To follow the story of the 1958-1960 Impala, continue on to the next page.

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The 1958-1960 Chevrolet Impala survived its first three years with aplomb, making major changes after the 1958 model year in a last-minute redesign intended to keep up with the competition.

Four-doors, like this 1959 Impala hardtop, helped to more than double demand for Impalas.

As in past years, the line-topping Chevy was to be the Bel Air, but a new top-of-the-top model was added for 1958. The 1958 Chevrolet Impala arrived in convertible and two-door hardtop form as a subseries of the Bel Air line.

Most notable among the Impala's distinctions were its three taillight lenses per side (lesser models had two) and simulated air-extractor vents above the wraparound rear window and on each rear fender. The Impala hardtop had a lower rear roofline than that seen on Bel Air sport coupes.

For power, Impala buyers could select the 145-bhp "Blue-Flame" inline six, carbureted and fuel-injected versions of the 283-cid V-8, and the new 348s. Transmissions included the standard three-speed manual (with overdrive available) and a choice of automatics: two-speed Powerglide and the more ambitious, year-old, triple-turbine Turbo-glide.

In 1959, the Impala sport coupe was the only Chevrolet two-door hardtop.

Shoppers could order from a host of appearance and convenience items. One most inconvenient option was air suspension. Dubbed "Level Air," it was similar to other air-suspension systems available at the time, replacing conventional steel springs with rubber bladders kept inflated by an engine-driven pump.

Despite claims of improved ride and handling, the system simply didn't work very well. The basic design was good but the execution was poor; Level Air-equipped Chevrolets suffered from pressure leaks and a host of other maladies. After two years on the market, Level Air vanished unmourned.

But the Impala definitely did not vanish. More than 181,000 Impala hardtops and convertibles were sold in the first year, assuring a continuation of the series for 1959 and beyond.

When the 1959 Chevrolets appeared, they wore all-new exterior sheetmetal as part of a corporate design revolution. While wholesale abandonment of year-old body dies must have caused some consternation among General Motors accountants, the change raised fewer eyebrows in the late 1950s than would be the case today. It was all part of a drastically accelerated process set into motion by outside forces.

More than 65,800 1959 Impala convertibles were made for the model year.

According to the late Dave Holls, then a designer at Cadillac, "We had all our clay models for 1959 finished in early 1956. ... [T]hen we saw the 1957 Chryslers. They were light and fresh in appearance; for the first time we thought Chrysler had outdone us. We started a revolution, scrapped the existing clays, broke all the rules in the place. ..."

All this was done while Harley Earl was off in Europe. "Nobody knew what Earl would think of our 1959s," Holls recalled in 1990. "We asked ourselves, 'Will he go through the roof?' We ended up in the courtyard of the General Motors Design Center with our 1959 design models and the 1957 Chryslers side by side. Earl was so shocked he didn't say anything at first. He approved our designs, but after that he felt the place had passed him by."

One byproduct of the last-minute redesign (actually completed in less than two years) was a greater degree of commonality between all General Motors bodies. Whether Cadillac or Chevrolet, the 1959s shared rooflines and front-door skins. It is a tribute to the designers that strong brand identities were maintained in the face of necessary compromises.

Aside from the new styling, the 1959s saw a 1.5-inch wheelbase extension of the cruciform chassis and beefier brakes. The same drivetrains were available (with some reshuffling of horsepower figures and the addition of an optional four-speed gearbox.)

The Impala badge was extended to a pair of four-doors, a sedan and a hardtop, and the four-door Nomad station wagon was an Impala in all but name. Sales improved dramatically, easily surpassing the quarter-million mark.

The least costly 1960 Impala was the family-friendly $2,697 four-door sedan.

The slightly more conservative 1960 Impala -- now without Level Air suspension or fuel-injected 283 V-8 engines on the options list, but again with three round taillights per side in place of the 1959's large "cat's-eye" lamps -- sold even better.

To read about the changes for the 1961 Chevrolet Impala, continue on to the next page.

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• Sports Cars

A completely new look for the 1961 Chevrolet Impala's exterior was carried out for the model year. In the course of this reshaping, the spectacular, free-flying fins gave way to a more refined, integrated appearance. To counter this, the trademark sweeping side spear was emphasized; the result was arguably the most distinctive and handsome of all Impalas.

This September 1958 clay model seems a long way from the final redesigned 1961 Chevrolet Impala.

For the same year, a two-door sedan joined the Impala family. The sedans lacked some of the sex appeal of the hardtops and convertibles, but contributed substantially to the Impala's growing sales numbers.

The big news for 1961, however, was the emergence of the legendary Super Sport package. At first glance, this might have seemed to be just another dress-up option, complete with special hubcaps and badges, a padded dashboard with passenger-side grab bar, and a large tachometer clamped to the steering column of manual-shift models.

The Super Sport (SS) was no boulevard poseur, as the order forms made clear: Anyone wanting an SS from the factory had to take a high-performance 348 engine along with it. At minimum, that gave the driver 305 bhp to play with, from which level 340- or 350-bhp variants were an easy (and relatively inexpensive) step up.

Slightly trimmer than the 1960, the 1961 Impala was notable for the Super Sport performance package.

Unless, that is, the buyer wanted to go for the strongest weapon, a new 409-cid powerhouse. At first glance, this appeared to be little more than a bored and stroked 348, which would have been a pretty nice proposition. It was, however, much more than that.

Only some 10 percent of the 348's hardware interchanged with pieces used in the 409. Right out of the box, the 409 was developing a hefty 360 bhp; by the following season, improvements to cylinder heads, camshaft, pistons, and intake manifolds raised that to 380 with a four-barrel carburetor or a whopping 409 bhp with dual quads -- one horsepower per cubic inch, the Mt. Everest for factory-stock engines of the day.

1961 Chevrolet Impala hardtop sedans adopted a more formal roof with fuller sail panels.

Chevrolet wasn't merely screwing this monster mill into your average Impala and hoping for the best. If one went for the 305-horse 348, beefed-up Powerglide was available, but all other SS buyers were required to take the four-speed manual transmission.

Likewise, power steering, heavy-duty drum brakes with sintered metallic linings, larger tires (with narrow-band whitewalls), and heavy-duty springs and shock absorbers were essential parts of the package.

Just how good was the first SS? Good enough, apparently, to attract the attention of one Dan Gurney, who thought it might be just the weapon to do battle in what the British quaintly refer to as "saloon-car" racing. This was then the province of Jaguar's potent 3.8 Mark II sedans, though Ford was soon to make a bid (ultimately successful) to unseat the Jags, first by running Lotus-Cortinas and then hulking Galaxie sedans imported from the United States.

Gurney chose an Impala SS, and had it prepared by California Chevrolet mavens Bill Fowler and Bill Thomas. The two Bills were working under a handicap, as Gurney specified that the Chevrolet must remain roadworthy so that he might use it for between-race travel as well as full-out competition.

The performance star for the 1961 Impala was the rarely seen 409-cid V-8 in this Super Sport hardtop.

As a result, it retained all stock amenities, and was modified only slightly. The 360-horse, 409-cube engine was torn down, inspected, and carefully reassembled, and certain options available to any customer were included in the original order.

Foremost among these was the so-called "taxicab & police suspension," which stiffened things up considerably and added even larger wheels and tires. Power steering was dispensed with, flexible hoses were installed to aid brake cooling, and the rear antiroll bar was adapted from a Corvette.

In short, Dan's 409 SS was remarkably stock. Yet in early testing, it lapped California's Riverside Raceway eight-tenths of a second faster than the record for race-prepared Corvettes! Granted, Gurney himself was at the wheel, but that was still no mean feat. And the driver holding the record Gurney beat was Dave MacDonald, as talented and fearless a Corvette racer as ever wrapped himself in Chevrolet fiberglass.

For whatever reason, the Gurney Impala didn't set the U.K. saloon-racing contingent on its head, but the potential was certainly there -- and not just on a road course. A similar 409 SS was a standout at the dragstrip, covering the quarter-mile in 13.2 seconds with a terminal speed of just under 110 mph.

As a mid-year addition to the line, the 1961 SS was produced in limited numbers; fewer than 500 reached customer hands, of which a mere 142 were 409s. Public response to the SS grew quickly in the years that followed; in the peak year of 1965, sales of the SS grew to nearly 250,000 cars.

To see the growth of the Chevrolet Impala from 1962-1965, continue on to the next page.

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• Muscle Cars
• Sports Cars

Regular 1962-1965 Chevrolet Impalas sold well too, in part because Chevrolet had gone to some lengths to broaden the line's appeal.

The 1962 Impala face-lift lent this two-door hardtop a squarer, more august appearance.

The two-door sedan didn't return for 1962, but Impala script supplanted the Nomad name atop the wagon roster. Two-door hardtops gained a new roof with the crisp appearance of a raised convertible top, a look that would last through 1964.

No less than six engines were available to power the sedans, coupes, convertibles, and wagons that carried the Impala badge, ranging from the trusty inline-six, to three versions of the small-block V-8 (two of which were a new 327-cid job), to a pair of fire-breathing 409s that, as before, triggered some mandatory chassis beef-ups when ordered.

What was Impala's magic formula? Style was paramount, of course.

Throughout the early 1960s, Chevrolet's basic body designs became increasingly subtle, while the bright trim that was part of the Impala package added more than a touch of luxury to the look. The same pattern was followed in the interiors, where the best materials and equipment Chevrolet had to offer were displayed. In short, the Impala was on its way to becoming a kind of junior-grade Cadillac, which, for both the company and its customers, was just fine.

This 1962 Impala SS ragtop has the 327-cid small-block V-8 that bowed for that year.

But even those buyers who prized Impalas for their increasing comfort and opulence were well aware of the line's performance heritage. The 409 remained available through the start of 1965 model-year production (it came in three horsepower levels in 1963-1964), the SS package was still a popular choice, and the crafty folks at the factory had at least one additional ace up their sleeves.

Said ace appeared at the 1963 running of the Daytona 500. Factory representatives were reluctant to talk about what was under the hood of a select few Chevrolets that came to race in Florida that spring, but NASCAR's requirement that engine size be spelled out on the cars' hoods gave the secret away: Whatever was installed in these Impalas displaced 427 cubic inches.

Variously called the "Porcupine Head" engine (for its angled valves) or simply the "Mystery Motor," it was obviously something special. Officially, the engine -- called Z-11 for ordering purposes -- was rated at 430 bhp, but this was considered by many to be a 70-bhp understatement. Not many people found out; fewer than 60 Z-11 Impalas were built before General Motors brass reminded Chevrolet management of the corporate no-racing policy and shut things down. But it would be back.

A revised grille, straightened A-pillars, and horizontal body creases defined the 1963 Impala.

As it had in 1961, the Impala reached another peak in 1965. Once again, it was a combination of speed and style that brought the fans flocking to dealerships.

Under General Motors design chief Bill Mitchell, Earl's successor, Chevrolet stylists produced an exciting shape for the 1965s; long, flowing, simple, and beautifully proportioned. This disciplined design proved to be equally satisfactory to customers looking for either a luxury or performance car; more than 1 million Impala and SS buyers confirmed that.

The 1965 Chevrolet was more than a reskinning job. A new full-length perimeter frame with four cross-members replaced the X-type unit, and both front and rear suspensions were revised to improve ride and handling. A wider track front and rear aided stability as well.

The loftiest four-door in the 1964 Impala series was the hardtop sedan, which started at about $2,800.

Initially, engine choices were similar to those offered in previous years, though power output for the hottest 409 (no longer available with dual quads) was a comparatively mild 400 bhp before being dropped altogether in mid-year.

Few mourned the 409's demise for the simple reason that a new engine took its place. This 396-cid V-8 was derived from the 1963 "Mystery Motor" and was available in two states of tune.

The more common version, rated at 325 bhp, was available with either a four-speed manual transmission or a new three-speed Turbo Hydra-Matic. Its more powerful brother developed a full 100 bhp more, and was essentially a racing engine tamed slightly for the street, having a forged crankshaft, solid valve lifters, a larger four-barrel carburetor, and higher compression ratio.

Even the six got a shakeup. At mid-year, a 250-cid inline unit was introduced as an upgrade from the 230-cube six installed since 1963.

By now, every body style Chevrolet offered in its full-size lineup could be had as an Impala, save for the two-door sedan. Those desiring an SS still had to be satisfied with a hardtop coupe or convertible. But there was a new trim package for Impala four-door hardtops, one that hinted at the future: It was called Caprice.

At $3,212 to start, a V-8 Impala SS convertible was the priciest car to wear the Impala badge.

After 1965, Impala sales began to soften. For 1966, Chevrolet made the Caprice a three-car series rather than a version of one Impala, and this became the division's luxury leader.

On the performance front, the smaller and lighter Chevelle was grabbing the headlines, all the more so after the factory began stuffing the 396 into it. With demand decreasing, Chevrolet naturally cut down the number of powerplant choices for the Impala SS; in the end, the 1969 SS was available only with a 427-cid V-8, an enlargement of the 396 introduced in 1966.

The Impala name did continue on, but the magic had gone. Yes, there was a big engine available for a number of years after 1969, by now a 454-cid V-8, but increasingly stringent emission-control regulations gradually sapped its strength and many buyers were abandoning full-size rear-wheel-drive cars anyway.

The name finally vanished in 1985. A revival of sorts came in 1994, when Chevrolet produced a four-door Caprice with vastly improved suspension, a 260-bhp V-8, and distinctive exterior trim. Logically, this big, fast, stylish, and reasonably priced hot rod for the 1990s was called the Impala SS. Sadly, the new SS lasted only until 1996, when Chevrolet abandoned production of large rear-drive cars altogether.

Regardless of how good the latest front-drive car to wear Impala badges may be in terms of safety and value, the 1996 SS was the end of the "real" Impala story, a final blip on a radar screen that had displayed its last strong images of rowdy V-8 performance and extroverted styling some 27 years before.

For models, prices, and production numbers for the 1958-1965 Chevrolet Impala, continue on to the next page.

For more information on cars, see:

• Muscle Cars
• Sports Cars

Chevrolet first adopted the name of a fast, agile African antelope for a mid-1950s show car. When the same label was later applied to a production car, it proved to be prophetic: The Impala soon bounded to the top of the sales charts. Here are the specifications for the 1958-1965 Chevrolet Impala:

This 327-powered convertible is one of 153,271 1963 Impalas ordered with the SS option.

1958 Chevrolet Impala Models, Prices, Production

1959 Chevrolet Impala Models, Prices, Production

¹Rounded to nearest 100. Excludes unknown number of Nomad wagons.
²Rounded to nearest 100. Includes 453 with factory-supplied Super Sport equipment. Excludes unknown number of Nomad wagons.
³Rounded to nearest 100. Includes 99,311 hardtop coupes and convertibles with Super Sport equipment. Excludes station wagons.
⁴Rounded to nearest 100. Includes 153,271 hardtop coupes and convertibles with Super Sport equipment. Excludes station wagons.
⁵Rounded to nearest 100. Excludes station wagons.
⁶Rounded to nearest 100.
⁷Rounded to nearest 100. Includes 40,393 V-8 hardtop sedans with Caprice equipment, 343,187 hardtop coupes, and 44,918 convertibles. Excludes station wagons.

Sources: Encyclopedia of American Cars, by the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide, Publications International, Ltd., 1996; Chevrolet SS Muscle Car Red Book, by Peter C. Sessler, Motorbooks International, 1991; Standard Catalog of Chevrolet 1912-1976, by Terry V. Boyce, Motorbooks International, 1981.

For more information on cars, see:

• Muscle Cars
• Sports Cars