1971 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 - The Road Less Traveled

At 54, I missed the launch hay day of the muscle car era by a good ten to fifteen years. By the time I came of age, two gas crisis', a double dip recession, and EPA and insurance regulations had pushed any car with a modicum of actual performance capability to discount rack status; many of them met the crusher like any other car. Many who appreciated them doing a well-intentioned albeit many a time half assed job restoring those that remained. I mean, seriously, if this was a real 1971 SS 454, why would anyone paint it purple? I found this when I took a different route home from the office one day last week. Something tells me I should take the road less traveled more often if it means running into things like this. Grab some roller meat and live a little, y'know?

For a split second I thought I'd have to rush home to get my checkbook since, with an asking price of $7,000, this would be quite the deal. Despite the purple paint, it sitting on grass for quite a while - the grass under the car was dead, and some confusing details on the sales sheet here like a turbo 350 in a car supposedly a SS 454? Then I realized the dollar sign there was a "1" and the asking price was $17,000 marked down from $19,000. Ah, just as well.

I mean, at the very least, this could be a real "SS" since for 1971, in an attempt to cash in on the cache that the "SS" moniker had garnered since it first appeared on a Chevrolet a decade earlier, buyers could get a Chevelle SS with just a "350" engine; the 350 an attempt to circumvent insurance company surcharges. Save for 1964 when you could get a Chevelle SS with a six, in prior years a Chevelle SS came only with Chevrolet's 396 or 454 cubic inch V-8. Can't blame GM for trying to squeeze every ounce of blood out of a stone they could. When Chevrolet launched the "colonnade" Chevelle in 1973, the SS model was replaced by the Laguna S-3; "S-3" another crafty attempt to beat the insurance companies at their own money-grubbing games. I've always believed that an automobile that performed at a high level was safer to drive than lesser ones. 

Not being a fan of "clones", it baffles me why someone would go through the trouble of badging this a 454 when it might at best be just a plain "SS" or stripper Chevelle. It's a mystery I will never solve since no sooner did I think to go back to the place I found this car to take a picture of it's VIN number, it was gone.