1964 Chevrolet Impala - Born Again

We're getting to that time of year when the tasty visual treats that pop up at the transmission shop next to my office in Youngstown, Ohio, are becoming fewer and fewer. This 1964 Chevrolet Impala was over there recently, and despite it being from the year I was born, it's never been a particular favorite of mine. Still, with the inventory at my disposal dwindling these days, I felt somewhat obliged to stop over and take a look.

This shade of purple, these rims, these tires and some of the gold trim on the car aren't my cup of antifreeze.  I'd say the paint is at least thirty-years old. 

I have no idea what's under the hood, although we can see here, she's an automatic. If it's the factory unit, it would be Chevrolet's famous two-speed Powerglide transmission, which was offered from 1950 through 1973.

My best guess is it has either the entry-level 230-cubic-inch inline six or a 283-cubic-inch V-8. You won't be going anywhere too quickly, although you'll get there smoothly. Or as smoothly as possible in 1964.

All 1961 through 1964 full-size Chevrolets were built on GM's infamous X-frame chassis, which allowed the body to sit lower within the frame. It did wonders for styling, but side-impact protection was minimal.

Best to look both ways at railroad crossings and busy four-way intersections.

Like a freshly minted, Bible-thumping, scripture-quoting born-again convert, or perhaps more accurately, an ardent ex-smoker, the 1963 and 1964 full-size Chevrolets stood in stark contrast to the styling excesses of the 1959 and 1960 models.

I thought Chevrolet really got it right in 1961 and 1962, but in an age of planned obsolescence, designs changed dramatically from year to year. There's only one place to go when you've pushed the limits as far as they'll go. You go restrained 

Frankly, if I'd been of the age and means back then, I'd have held onto my '61 or '62 Impala after seeing what the '63 and '64 models looked like. Come 1965, though, it was a different story. I think Chevrolet hit its stride once again in 1965, a stride it carried through 1970.

Contemporary road tests generally praised the smooth ride of the 1964 Impala, although many noted that the brakes left something to be desired and that the body leaned heavily in corners. The suspension could bob and float over rough roads, while the steering was often described as vague.

Rather than scoff at how floaty and crude these cars seem, as some snot-nosed, know-it-all Gen Z car vloggers and bloggers tend to do, we have to understand the era they came from.

The typical buyer of a car like this grew up with spindly Ford Model Ts and Model As, vehicles that often rode more like horse-drawn conveyances than modern automobiles. Even many cars of the 1930s and early 1940s rode more like trucks than the cloud-like dream machines these cars seemed to be, relatively speaking.

In the mid-1960s, the auto industry was still years away from producing automobiles that rode as though they were gliding on glass while also handling with precision. Back then, you generally got one or the other.

I sent some of these pictures to my 29-year-old, semi-car-crazy older son and asked him what year he thought the car was.

Bless his heart, he could have easily used AI to identify it, but he didn't.

He replied, "Gotta be something from the '50s."

Thanks for making me feel older than I am, my boy.