Saturday, November 2, 2024

1966 Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe


The 1966 model year was the second one for the fourth generation of Chevrolet's Impala nameplate, and some notable exterior styling differences set it apart from the previous year's model.

The lower opening of the grille was shrink and the pattern of the grille itself was changed. Around back, the six circular taillights, which had been a hallmark of full-size Chevys for most of a decade by that point, were replaced with six rectangular ones.

The '66 Impala also had chrome side molding to protect from door dings but at some point this hardtop coupe has had that removed and the mounting holes filled.


Mechanically, full synchromesh finally trickled down to even the base three-speed column-shifted gearbox. The base motor remained the Turbo-Fire 283 small block V-8 with a two-barrel carb, rated at 195 SAE gross horsepower, with the 155 horsepower 250 cubic inch Turbo-Thrift inline six as a credit delete option. 

Optional V-8s included the 220 horsepower 4-barrel version of the 283 as well as the 275-horse Turbo-Fire 327. For real fun, the buyer could opt for big block Turbo-Jet V-8s in the form of the 396, which was rated at 325 SAE gross horsepower, or one of two flavors of the new Chevy 427: the 390-hp L36, with hydraulic lifters and a 10.25:1 compression ratio, or the raucous solid-lifter L72, rated at 425 horses.

In a period test of a 1966 Caprice hardtop with the L36 427 and a 3-speed Turbo-Hydramatic and a 2.73:1 rear end, essentially the same car with plusher trim and a different roofline, Motor Trend recorded a 7.9 second zero-to-sixty run and a best quarter mile performance of 16.3 seconds at 88 miles per hour.


The car in the photos was snapped in January of 2020 using a Sony Cyber-shot RX100 point-and-shoot camera.

2 comments:

  1. Oof...I wonder how it's fared in the nearly 5 years since you took that photo. I don't know how much road salt Indy uses, but it looks like it was serving as somebody's winter beater back then.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It looks like it was halfway through a project of some sort...possibly its second, judging by the filled in holes where the rub strips would have been.

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