Success is wholesome only when it can be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. The success of the Chevrolet Impala, which is now completing 60 years, can be easily quantified. A few sets of numbers prove this — which will be presented later. Beyond the numbers, what really makes the Impala story exciting is the experience it has offered, especially in the 1960s. It has provided some grand moments that are now part of a timeless cultural clock ticking across the world, which includes the landmass between the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean.
In the 1960s, a meteor streaked through the rock world. It was called hot-rod rock, a sub-genre of rock music said to have been sparked off by the Chevrolet Impala. In 1962, The Beach Boys produced a rock ballad extolling the features of the Chevrolet Impala. Called ‘409’, the song drew attention to one of the variants of the Impala that combined muscle with style. Introduced in 1962, it was an Impala that had an impressive power pack. With a displacement of 409 cubic inches, the V8 engine in this Impala put out 409 bhp.
Through the 1960s, greater power packs would come the Impala’s way, but none of them seemed to match the attraction this engine held for those looking for a machine that could flex some muscle. Impala owners were also carrying out modifications to soup up the engines in their machines. Chevrolet also offered performance-enhancing ‘Impala Super Sport packages’ that owners of Impalas could buy and fit in their cars. Through most part of the 1960s, there was a vibrant muscle car culture in the West and the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Impala were among the cars that played a significant hand in promoting it. The craze for muscle cars spilled over into music, and the Impala with its 409 started it all.
- Launched during the corresponding period in 1958, first as a luxury model, Chevrolet Impala completes 60 years and is still in production.
- Between 1926 and 1996, across its Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Pontiac divisions, General Motors (GM) built nearly 13 million machines on its full-size B-body platform, characterised by a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive layout. Manufactured by GM’s Chevrolet Division, the Impala was among the sub-brands that largely helped this platform rack up that impressive figure.
- From 1988, GM started offering mid-size as well as full-size cars with front-wheel-drive on its new W-body platform. When the Impala was migrated to this platform in the year 2000 and offered as an affordable four-door sedan, it was once again a factor behind encouraging production numbers.
- The tenth-generation Impala sedan with increased dimensions, made possible by the new Epsilon II platform, is being offered in North America as a classic full-size sedan from 2014. In recent years, the sales figures of full-size sedans are nothing much to write home about. With this reality forming the backdrop, GM shouldn’t be having any complaints about the Impala’s performance in the marketplace.
Through the 1960s, General Motors was faced with the challenge of meeting a growing demand for the Impala from export markets. Impalas from the 1960s are still in circulation in India, showing up regularly at vintage car rallies. A left-hand-drive 1958 Impala with the number plate MRZ 2233 from Madras continues to enjoy star billing in films, especially those down south. Owned by a family from north Chennai that has been in the business of mending regular cars as well as lending rare cars to the film industry, for three generations, this Impala appeared in the Hindi blockbuster from 1971, Haathi Mere Saathi, and the next year, in its Tamil remake Nalla Neram.
The Impala has also rubbed bumpers with the counterculture of the 1960s. The message of the epochal counterculture-comedy American Graffiti, that sought to present the socio-psychological churn of the early 1960s, was spelt out as much through exhaust notes as through words. It was essentially a car film, with a 1955 Chevrolet 150, a 1956 Ford Thunderbird, a souped-up 1932 Ford Deuce and a 1958 Chevrolet Impala in the cast. Donning the weightiest role among the cars, the Impala is most remembered from the film, and has gained a cult following among collectors.