1970 Chevrolet Impala Custom Coupe

1970 was the last model year for the fourth generation Impala. Now in the middle of the full-size Chevrolet pecking order, beneath the Caprice and above the Bel Air, the Impala rode on a 119" wheelbase and could be had as a pillared sedan, a hardtop Sport Sedan, a convertible, and one of two different hardtop coupes: the Sport Coupe and the Custom Coupe.

The Custom Coupe, like the Cranberry Red example in the photos, was the plusher of the two. Unlike the Sport Coupe, which came with the 250 cubic inch inline six as the base motor, the base mill in the Custom Coupe was the 250 horsepower Turbo-Fire 350 V-8.

 

Selecting RPO L48 got the buyer a four-barrel L48 Turbo-Fire 350 making 300 ponies, and a 400 cube version of the Turbo-Fire small block rated at 265 SAE gross horsepower was available as RPO LF6.

Two Turbo-Jet big block V-8s were on the menu, too: The 345 horsepower LS4 454, and the gnarly LS5 454 rated at 390 horses.

Road Test magazine put a 1970 Impala Custom Coupe with the L48 350, F40 heavy duty suspension, and a 3.31:1 rear end through its paces. They were impressed with the front power discs, still a novelty on a Detroit family bus, that stopped the 4200 pound car in 138 feet from sixty. They reported a quarter mile time of 16.15 seconds with a trap speed of 81 miles per hour. Price as tested was $4,715, including about $1,300 in options, so about $38,600 in today's currency.

The top photo was snapped with a Hasselblad Lunar  and a Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* E 16-70mm F4 zoom lens in September of 2021, while the lower picture was taken the same month with a Fujifilm X-T2 and an XF 16-80mm f/4 R WR OIS zoom lens.